648 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



his hand up to his wrist, and took out some of the pitch as he would 

 have done with a spoon* ; the pitch, which was in actual contact with 

 his skin, he wiped off with tow. To assure himself that there was no 

 trickery, Dr. Davenport put his whole forefinger into the boiling pitch, 

 and was able to move it about for some time before the heat became 

 uncomfortable. The workman affirmed that, if any one put his hand 

 when covered with a glove into the boiling liquid, he would be burned 

 very badly. A fact related by Dr. Beckman, another physician, is 

 referable to both the first and the second of the causes we have men- 

 tioned. A workman in the foundry at Auerstadt, in 1765, for a small 

 gift, took some melted copper in the hollow of his hand, showed it to 

 the spectators, and then threw it against the wall. Then he rubbed 

 the fingers of his calloused hand briskly together, put them under his 

 armpits for a few instants, to make them sweat, as he said, passed 

 them over a dish of melted copper as if he would skim it, and finished 

 by moving his hand rapidly backward and forward in the liquid mass. 

 Dr. Beckman perceived a strong smell of burned horn while this was 

 going on, but the man's hand did not seem to be hurt. 



In 1809 a Spaniard named Lionetto went through Europe per- 

 forming still more wonderful feats. While he was at Naples he ex- 

 cited the curiosity of Professor Sementini, who made a study of him, 

 and, having performed numerous experiments upon himself, has left us 

 the most positive documents that we possess on the subject. Lionetto 

 put a plate of red-hot iron on his hair, and a thick fume was imme- 

 diately seen to rise from it. He struck his toes with another red-hot 

 iron, and this likewise produced a thick and offensive vapor. He put 

 an iron nearly red-hot between his teeth. He drank about a third of 

 a spoonful of boiling oil. He quickly plunged the ends of his fingers 

 into melted lead, and put a little of the liquid metal on his tongue ; 

 and afterward he bore a red-hot iron upon that organ, which was cov- 

 ered with a grayish coating. Professor Sementini discovered : 1. That 

 rubbings with sulphuric acid leave the skin insensible to red-hot iron. 

 2. That a more complete result is reached by rubbing with a solution 

 of alum evaporated till it becomes spongy. 3. That the insensibility 

 obtained by either of these processes is made considerably more per- 

 fect by a series of rubbings with hard soap, each rubbing, except the 

 last one, being followed by washing with water. 4. That the tongue 

 may be made insensible by covering it with a salve composed of a 

 solution of alum saturated at the boiling-point. Boiling oil put on a 

 tongue thus prepared did not burn it ; a hissing was produced, like 

 that of hot iron when put into water ; the heated oil cooled in contact 

 with the solution, and could then be swallowed without danger. 



Professor Sementini remarks that Lionetto, to satisfy the specta- 

 tors that the oil was really hot, threw lead into it, which melted, but 

 that the lead, in melting, absorbed a part of the heat from the oil. It 

 is very possible, also, that the jugglers, instead of melted lead, used 



