FORCE OF MUSCULAR CONTRACTION. 413 



increase of force is attended with a nearly uniform increase in the 

 length of the muscle. The explanation of this by Dr. Carpenter 1 is 

 probably correct ; that, as the observations of Mr. Bowman have 

 clearly shown, there must be a considerable displacement of the con- 

 stituents of every fibre during contraction, it is easy to understand, 

 that the greater the contraction the more difficult must any farther 

 contraction become. "If, between a magnet and a piece of iron 

 attracted by it, there were interposed a spongy elastic tissue, the iron 

 would cease to approach the magnet at a point, at which the attraction 

 of the magnet would be balanced by the force needed to compress still 

 farther the intermediate substance." 



We have a number of feats of surprising strength on record, several 

 of which have been collected by Sir David Brewster. 2 Of these, the 

 cases of John Charles Van Eckeberg, who travelled through Europe 

 under the appellation of Samson, and of Thomas Topham, are the 

 most authentic and extraordinary. Dr. Desaguliers saw Topham, by 

 the strength of his fingers, roll up a very strong and large pewter dish. 

 He broke seven or eight short and strong pieces of tobacco-pipe with 

 the force of his middle finger, having laid them on his first and third 

 fingers. Having thrust under his garter the bowl of a strong tobacco- 

 pipe, his leg being bent, he broke it to pieces by the tendons of his 

 hams without altering the flexure of his knee. He broke another such 

 bowl between his first and second fingers, by pressing his fingers to- 

 gether sideways. He lifted a table six feet long which had half a 

 hundred weight hanging at the end of it with his teeth, and held it 

 in a horizontal position for a considerable time, the feet of the table 

 resting against his knees. He took an iron kitchen poker, about a 

 yard long, and three inches in circumference, and, holding it in his 

 right hand, he struck upon his bare left arm, between the elbow and 

 wrist, till he bent the poker nearly to a right angle. He took such 

 another poker, and holding the ends of it in his hands, and the middle 

 against the back of his neck, he brought both ends of it together before 

 him ; and afterwards pulled it nearly straight again. He broke a rope 

 about two inches in circumference, which was in part wound about a 

 cylinder of four inches in diameter, having fastened the other end of 

 it to straps that went over his shoulders. Lastly, he lifted a rolling- 

 stone, eight hundred pounds in weight, with his hands only, standing 

 in a frame above it, and taking hold of a chain that was fastened to it. 



An equally remarkable example is given by a recent well-known 

 traveller 3 as having been witnessed by him in Paris. In the Place du 

 Carrousel, a large coarse French woman made the following exhibition 

 in the presence of a great crowd of spectators. A rough block of 

 stone, weighing more than three hundred pounds, and which two men 

 could barely lift from the ground, was fastened round with several turns 

 of rope. The long black hair of the woman, which was divided into 

 seven traces, tightly platted and fastened at the end, was then brought 



Human Physiology, 394, Lond., 1842. 



2 Letters on Natural Magic, Amer. edit., p. 222, New York, 1832. 



a J. S. Buckingham, Travels in France, Piedmont, &c., ii. 63, Lond., 1849 



