128 



♦ KNOV\rLEDGE ♦ 



[April 2, 1888. 



the lift lasts. Strength may be tested either by the weight 

 of the chair lifted, or by the time during which the 

 chair is held out. 



It is noteworthy that often the man who can lift the 

 heaviest chair at arm.s' length in some particular way, may 

 be surpassed by another when the mode of lifting is altered. 

 And, again, those who lift the heaviest weights in these 

 ways are not always tho.^e who can maintain their hold 

 longest. R°solution comes in as a factor in the last-named 

 test. One will often see a great and strong but easy-going 

 man lift out at arms' length a weight which another cannot 

 bring for a moment to that position, who yet will not 

 hold out half that weight for half the time at which it will 

 be held out by the weaker, whose resolute will enables him 

 to sustain his hold to the very last. 



In all these forms of lifting the arms are chiefly con- 

 sidered. Yet in reality the lower limbs have their work to 

 do, not only in sustaining the extra weight, but in sustain- 

 ing also the weight of the body. It is only in exercises 

 which require the body to be lifted from the ground that the 

 legs get no woi-k. Such exercises are among the severest 

 tests of strength, bacause they reverse the usual order of 

 things. To a sloth, accustomed always to have its weight 

 suspended, such exercises would come naturally : to men 

 they involve always a certain extra amount of ditiiculty as 

 compared with exercises in which the sustaining power of 

 the legs is called into action. 



I need not touch on feats in which the body is merely 

 raised from the ground a certain number of times by the 

 action of both arms or of one arm only, or from a single 

 finger — as can readily be done after sufficient practice. I 

 do not, indeed, know what is actually the "record " for feats 

 of this sort. But for the actual lifting power of the arms, 

 I know of no feat ever accomplished wliich has surpassed 

 one which Nathalie, the lady mentioned above, was in the 

 constant habit of performing. She could extend her body 

 from the horizontal bar, supported only by one hand grasp- 

 ing the bar, knuckles downward ; then (for so far the feat 

 was not uncommon) she could put the other hand behind 

 her and take the bar with it, holding the body horizontally 

 by that hand. Farini told Charles Ileade that be had never 

 met with a male athlete who could do this ; j'et, added 

 Reade, "it was not knack: it was complete eithcr-handed- 

 ne.ss, coupled with gigantic strength." 



Speaking of lifting the weight of the human body, I may 

 touch here on a somewhat absurd fancy many entertain 

 about an experiment in which four per.sons lift a fifth on 

 the tips of their fingers. I have repeatedly heard this ex- 

 periment spoken of as something very marvellous. The 

 person to be lifted draws in his breath and stiffens himself 

 generally ; the four who are to lift him also draw in full 

 breaths, " and then," the story goes on, " he is lifted with- 

 out any apparent effort " — meaning, of course, that he is 

 lifted quite easily. As, indeed, why should he not be 1 Tlie 

 person lifted usually weighs about 120 lbs., and each of 'the 

 four lifters would think it no great effort to lift 30 lbs. 

 with the forefinger. Drawing in a full breath is always a 

 good preliminary process for any muscular effort ; and after 

 this process each of the four lifters does easily what he can 

 always do easily, lifting not the fifth person bodily, but 

 just a fourth portion of his weight — 30 lbs., or -10 at the 

 outside. 



In all lifting feats the lower limbs are really taxed, even 

 though the arms seem to do the work. To suppose other- 

 wise were to make a mistake as foolish as that of the Irish- 

 man (though why such stories should be put always upon 

 Irishmen I do not know) who thought to relieve his horse 

 by putting the meal sacks, which formed a large portion 

 of his load, over his own shoulders. I,ift a weight how we 



may, the legs have to bear it. It will be understood, then, 

 that whatever weight the arms may seem to lift in any ex- 

 periment, the whole body can be made to lift much more. 



In all stories of great weights which have been lifted it 

 will be found that the lifting power of the whole body has 

 been in question. This, indeed, is true of all the most 

 remarkable feats of strength which have been recorded. 

 One need not consider the feats of a Hercules {i.e. Herakles) 

 or of a Samson, seeing that both one and the other is a sun- 

 god, of whom naturally wonderful feats are narrated. (The 

 very name Samson means the glorious sun.) 



Feats actually noted and recorded are sufficiently surpris- 

 ing witliout considering feats purely mythical. 



The famous strong man, Topham, of Islington, may be 

 considered a fair illustration of those cases of exceptional 

 development of strength — without exceptional muscular 

 development — of which we hear from time to time, as we 

 hear from time to time of men remarkably large or remark- 

 ably small. It would seem as though some physiological 

 peculiarity in such men enabled them to get from their 

 muscles much more nearly their full action than (as physio- 

 logists know) is ordinarily possible. Toisham could take a 

 kitchen poker and twist it round hLs neck in such sort that 

 four or five strong men were unable to untwist it — a feat 

 which he accomplished as readilj' as the twisting. He could 

 squeeze a pewter pint-pot flat in bis hand, double up a crown 

 piece (familiarl}' known in former times as a " cart-wheel ") 

 with his fingers, and break a short piece of tobacco-pipe by 

 side jn-essure between two fingers opened out in V-shape. 

 This last feat, as depending on the action of muscles very 

 seldom trained to do any work, is specially remarkable ; it 

 serves to confirm the belief that Topham was able, as it were, 

 to charge his muscles with an exceptional supply of nerve 

 force. They were certainly not unusually developed, though 

 of course they were above the average size. 



Van Eckeberg, an athletic German, lifted a weight of 

 nearly 3,000 lbs. by the use of the strength of his whole 

 body. He stood within a well-balanced framework heavily 

 loaded, and to be raised by straps attached to a strong waist- 

 band. The lifting power was obtained by straightening his 

 lower limbs (almost straight just before lifting). The 

 heavily- loaded framework was thus raised an inch or two, a 

 slight swaying movement showing the spectators that it was 

 really free from contact with the ground. 



So powerful was Topham's frame for this sort of work, 

 that he pulled against a strong dray horse- -his body being 

 in a horizontal position, and the pull of the horse being 

 resisted by the pressure of his feet against two stirrups, so 

 that the action was akin to that of Van Eckeberg's in the 

 lifting experiment. Unfortunately, after he had successfully 

 resisted the pull of one horse in this way, he had one of his 

 knees .shattered in an attempt to pull against two horses, 

 and thereafter he was disabled from the performance of feats 

 of this kind. Great care indeed is required in all lifting 

 exercises to avoid any sudden change in the direction of the 

 pull. 



The secret of this great lifting power of the legs in such 

 work lies in the fact that the action has that exceedingly 

 effective leverage which is employed in the Stanhope Press — 

 firmiliarly known, in fact, for this very reason, as " knee 

 leverage." When the legs are nearly upright the knees 

 may be perhaps half a foot from the position they take 

 when the legs are straightened. While they move through 

 this half foot the body is not raised more than perhajjs half an 

 inch ; consequently the power used in straightening the legs is 

 multiplied into a twelve-fold greater lifting power. It is 

 beaiuse of this powerful knee-straightening action that 

 lifting exercises are apt to develop abnormally the muscles 

 of the lower and inner end of the front thigh. 



