I now very briefly, and 'under all reserves,' allude to the only modern
parallel in our country with which I am acquainted. We have seen that
Iamblichus includes insensibility to fire among the privileges of Graeco-
Egyptian 'mediums.' {172} The same gift was claimed by Daniel Dunglas
Home, the notorious American spiritualist. I am well aware that as
Eusapia Paladino was detected in giving a false impression that her hands
were held by her neighbours in the dark, therefore, when Mr. Crookes
asserts that he saw Home handle fire in the light, his testimony on this
point can have no weight with a logical public. Consequently it is not
as evidence to the _fact_ that I cite Mr. Crookes, but for another
purpose. Mr. Crookes's remarks I heard, and I can produce plenty of
living witnesses to the same experiences with D. D. Home:
'I several times saw the fire test, both at my own and at other
houses. On one occasion he called me to him when he went to the fire,
and told me to watch carefully. He certainly put his hand in the
grate and handled the red-hot coals in a manner which would have been
impossible for me to have imitated without being severely burnt. I
once saw him go to a bright wood fire, and, taking a large piece of
red-hot charcoal, put it in the hollow of one hand, and, covering it
with the other, blow into the extempore furnace till the coal was
white hot, and the flames licked round his fingers. No sign of
burning could be seen then or afterwards on his hands.'
On these occasions Home was, or was understood to be, 'entranced,' like
the Bulgarian Nistinares. Among other phenomena, the white handkerchief
on which Home laid a red-hot coal was not scorched, nor, on analysis, did
it show any signs of chemical preparation. Home could also (like the
Fijians) communicate his alleged immunity to others present; for example,
to Mr. S. C. Hall. But it burned and marked a man I know. Home,
entranced, and handling a red-hot coal, passed it to a gentleman of my
acquaintance, whose hand still bears the scar of the scorching endured in
1867. Immunity was not _always_ secured by experimenters.
I only mention these circumstances because Mr. Crookes has stated that he
knows no chemical preparation which would avert the ordinary action of
heat. Mr. Clodd (on the authority of Sir B. W. Richardson) has suggested
diluted sulphuric acid (so familiar to Klings, Hirpi, Tongans, and
Fijians). But Mr. Clodd produced no examples of successful or
unsuccessful experiment. {173} The nescience of Mr. Crookes may be taken
to cover these valuable properties of diluted sulphuric acid, unless Mr.
Clodd succeeds in an experiment which, if made on his own person, I would
very willingly witness.
Merely for completeness, I mention Dr. Dozous's statement, {174} that he
timed by his watch Bernadette, the seer of Lourdes, while, for fifteen
minutes, she, in an ecstatic condition, held her hands in the flame of a
candle. He then examined her hands, which were not scorched or in any
way affected by the fire. This is called, at Lourdes, the Miracle du
Cierge.
Here ends my list of examples, in modern and ancient times, of a rite
which deserves, though it probably will not receive, the attention of
science. The widely diffused religious character of the performance
will, perhaps, be admitted as demonstrated. As to the method by which
the results are attained, whether by a chemical preparation, or by the
influence of a certain mental condition, or by thickness of skin, or
whether all the witnesses fable with a singular unanimity (shared by
photographic cameras), I am unable even to guess. On May 21, in
Bulgaria, a scientific observer might come to a conclusion. At present I
think it possible that the Jewish 'Passing through the Fire' may have
been a harmless rite.