CHEMICAL SCIENCE. 197 



pccted that this would account for many of the wonderful feats de- 

 scribed, such as walking barefooted across liquid metal, plunging the 

 hand into molten lead, &c. His object, then, was to find out some 

 one who had seen or performed these or similar feats, and after some 

 trouble he finally learned from M. Michel, who lives in a district of 

 France where there are many forges, that he had not only seen a 

 workman pass his fingers through an incandescent jet of fluid metal, 

 but had himself performed the experiment. 



Encouraged by this announcement, he proceeded to make some 

 experiments himself. He says, " I divided or cut with my hand 

 a jet of melted metal of five centimetres, which escaped by the tap. 

 1 immediately plunged the other hand into a pot filled with incandes- 

 cent metal, which was truly fearful to look at. I involuntarily shud- 

 dered, but both hands came out of the ordeal victorious." After 

 some further unimportant remarks, he observes, " I shall of course 

 be asked what are the precautions necessary to prevent the disorgan- 

 izing action of the incandescent mass ? I answer, none. Have no 

 fear, make the experiment with confidence, pass the hand rapidly, 

 but not too much so, in the metal in full fusion. If the experiment 

 were performed with fear, or with too great rapidity, the repulsive 

 force which exists in incandescent bodies might be overcome, and 

 thus the contact with the skin be effected, so that harm and pain 

 would result. To form a conception of the danger and pain there 

 would be in thus passing the hand too rapidly into the metal infusion, 

 it will suffice to recollect that the resistance is proportionate to the 

 square of the velocity, and in so compact a fluid as liquid iron, this 

 resistance increases, certainly, in a higher ratio. The experiment 

 succeeds especially when the skin is humid; and the involuntary 

 dread which one feels at facing these masses of fire almost always 

 puts the body into that state of moisture so necessary for success ; 

 but by taking some precautions, one becomes veritably invulnerable. 

 The following is what has succeeded best with me ; I rub my hands 

 with soap, so as to give them a polished surface; then, at the mo- 

 ment of making the experiment, I dip my hand into a cold solution 

 of sal-ammoniac saturated with sulphuric acid, or simply into water 

 containing some sal-ammoniac, and in default of that, into fresh 

 water." 



In explaining the theory of these extraordinary results, M. Bou- 

 tigny says, "I think that I have established, a long time ago, the 

 fact that water in the spheroidal state has the property of reflecting 

 radiating heat, and that its temperature never attains that of its ebul- 

 lition ; whence it follows, that the finger or the hand, being humid, 

 cannot rise to the temperature of 100 Centigrade, the experiment 

 not continuing long enough to permit the humidity to evaporate en- 

 tirely. Indeed, there is no contact between the hand and the metal ; 

 this, in my estimation, is a fact positively established. If there is 

 no contact, the heating can only take place by radiation ; this is enor- 

 mous, it must be acknowleged, but if the radiation is annulled by 

 reflection, and it is so, it is as if it did not exist. To recapitulate 



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