350 LETTERS ON NATURAL MAGIC. 



iron in the hands or between the teeth, and of plunging 

 the hands into boiling water or incited lead. About the 

 close of the seventeenth century, an Englishman of the 

 name of Bichardson rendered himself famous by chewing 

 burning coals, pouring melted lead upon his tongue, and 

 swallowing melted glass. That these effects are produced 

 partly by deception, and partly by a previous preparation 

 of the parts subjected to the heat, can scarcely admit of a 

 doubt. The fusible metal, composed of mercury, tin, and 

 bismuth, which melts at a low temperature, might easily 

 have been substituted in place of lead ; and fluids of easy 

 ebullition may have been used in place of boiling water. 

 A solution of spermaceti or sulphuric ether, tinged with 

 alkanet root, which becomes solid at 50 of Fahrenheit, 

 and melts and boils with the heat of the hand, is supposed 

 to be the substance which is used at Naples when the 

 dried blood of St. Januarius melts spontaneously, and 

 boils over the vessel which contains it. 



But even when the fluid requires a high temperature to 

 boil, it may have other properties, which enable us to 

 plunge our hands into it with impunity. This is the case 

 with boiling tar, which boils at a temperature of 220, 

 even higher than that of water. Mr. Davenport informs 

 us, that he saw one of the workmen in the King's Dock- 

 yard at Chatham immerse his naked hand in tar of that 

 temperature. He drew up his coat sleeves, dipped in his 

 hand and wrist, bringing out fluid tar, and pouring it oft 

 from his hand as from a ladle. The tar remained in com- 

 plete contact with his skin, and he wiped it off with tow. 

 Convinced that there was no deception in this experiment, 

 Mr. Davenport immersed the entire length of his fore- 

 finger in the boiling cauldron, and moved it about a short 

 time before the heat became inconvenient. Mr. Daven- 

 port ascribes this singular effect to the slowness with 

 which the tar communicates its heat, which he conceives 



