Sir David Brewster assumes that the power of walking upon coals and hot
iron unharmed depends partly upon a certain horny hardness of the
cuticle, and partly upon the action of some chemical substance with
which the cuticle has been smeared. The conjuror Richardson made himself
famous in England by chewing burning coals, pouring melted lead upon his
tongue, and swallowing melted glass. Sir David Brewster considers these
feats to have been in part real, and in part a deception.
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