432 Miscellaneous Intelligence. 



pounds of melted copper, issuing from the furnace, all hot, should be 

 poured on his naked body, on condition that if he was not injured by 

 it, the unbelievers should yield to so great a miracle. The trial was 

 said to be attended with such success, that thev were all converted." 







The historian adds, with an air of doubt, certainly allowable in such a 

 matter, " We see that the religion of Zoroaster had also its miracles 

 and its legends."* 



Now this fiery ordeal, undergone with such success by Adurabad- 

 Mabrasphand, is in plain truth an experiment of primitive facility and 

 simplicity, and which is anything but miraculous. 



I stop here an instant, for I fancy that I see the smile of incredulity 

 rise on the lips of some who do me the honor of listening to me; 

 that smile, so discouraging to one who is insincere, but which only 

 heightens the ardor of him who intends to practice no deception, and 

 who does all in his power not to deceive himself. 



To such persons then I would offer this encouragement ; the little 

 that I have still to relate appears improbable, but it is true, and that is 

 enough. Having said this, I continue. 



In France, in England, in Italy, wherever I have had occasion to 

 speak of bodies in the spheroidal state, I have met with persons who 

 have put to me this question : May there not be some connection be- 

 tween these phenomena and that presented by men who run barefooted 

 over liquid metal (?) still incandescent, or who plunge their hand into 

 molten lead, &c. ?t To all I have answered, Yes, 1 believe that there 

 is an intimate relation between all these facts and the spheroidal state. 

 And then, in my turn, I put this question : Have you witnessed the fact 

 which" you tell me ? And the answer has invariably been in the 

 negative. 



avow that all these on-dits and the marvelous legends which I had 

 read in various worksf on the fiery ordeal and incombustible men, ad- 

 mitted without reserve by some, obstinately denied by others, excited 

 my curiosity greatly, and gave me a strong desire to verify all these 

 phenomena, and to recall them to the recollection of contemporary ob- 

 servers ; for, alas ! all this is as old as the world ; nil sub sole novum. 



I wrote first to my friend Dr. Roche, who passes his life in the midst 

 of the blast furnaces of the Eure, and who is the physician of a por- 

 tion of the Cyclopean population who feed them. I requested of him 

 precise particulars. All that he could ascertain was, that a man named 

 La Forge, of from thirty-five to thirty-six years of age, very corpulent, 

 walked step by step barefooted on the pigs after the casting: but he 

 had not seen this. This was not enough to dispel my doubts. 



I then applied to a foundry at Paris, where I was laughed at and 

 shown the door. I retired, hanging down my ears, thinking over the 

 difficulties of verifying a single fact, and such a simple one. 



Subsequently I was fortunate enough to meet with M. Alph. Michel, 

 who lives in the midst of the forges of Franche-Comte. M. Michel 



* Dietionaire historic jue, critique et bibliograpbique, t. xxvii, p. 417. 



f I have alluded to these facts in the work entitled, Xouvelle branche de Physique ; 

 or Etude* sur fa Corps d VEtat spheroidal, p. 36. 



% Des Errewrs et des Prejuqe* renaridus dans les diverse* classes de la Soeitte, 

 tarii, p. 183. • ^ r 



