Miscellaneous Intelligence. 433 



promised me, with the greatest kindness, to inquire into these facts, and 

 to report upon them if desired. 



The following is an extract from the letter which he did me the honor 

 to write to me, dated the 26th of last March : 



"On my return home, I did not fail to obtain information from the 

 workmen of the facts of the case (the immersion of the finger in the 

 incandescent melted metal), and most of them laughed in my face, 

 which did not deter me. Laslly, being one day at the forge oi' Magny, 

 near Lure, I put the question again to a workman, who answered that 

 nothing was more simple; and, to prove it, at the moment when the 

 metal in a state of fusion issued from a Wilkinson, he passed his finger 

 into the incandescent jet. A person employed in the establishment re- 

 peated the experiment with impunity: and I myself, emboldened by 

 what I saw, did the same. . . . I may observe, that, in making this trial, 

 none of us moistened his finder. 



T 



M 1 hasten, sir, to acquaint you with this fact, which seems to support 

 your ideas on the globular state of liquids; for the fingers being natu- 

 rally more or less humid, it is, I think, to this moisture passing to the 

 spheroidal state, that we must ascribe their momentary incombustibility." 



The following are the experiments which I have made : 



I divided or cut with my hand a jet of melted metal of five to six 

 centimetres, which escaped by the tap, then I immediately plunged the 

 other hand in a pot filled with incandescent metal, which was truly 

 frightful to look at. I involuntarily shuddered. But both hands came 

 out of the ordeal victorious. And now, if any thing astonishes me, it 

 is that such experiments are not quite common. 



I shall of course be asked, what precautions are necessary to pre- 

 serve oneself from the disorganizing action of the incandescent mat- 

 ter t I answer, None ; — only to have no fear, to make the experiment 

 with confidence, to pass the hand rapidly, but not too rapidly, in the 

 metal in full fusion. 



Otherwise, if the experiment were performed with fear, or with too 

 great rapidity, the repulsive force which exists in incandescent bodies 

 might be overcome, and thus the contact with the skin be effected, 

 which would undoubtedly remain in a state easy to understand. ^ 



To form a conception of the danger there would be in passing the 

 hand too rapidly into the metal in fusion, it will suffice to recollect that 

 the resistance is proportionate to the square of the velocity, and, in 

 so compact a fluid as liquid iron, this resistance increases certainly in a 

 higher ratio. 



The experiment succeeds especially when the skin is humid ; and 

 the involuntary dread which one feels at facing these masses of fire, 

 almost always puts the body into that state of moisture so necessary to 

 success ; but by taking some precautions, one becomes veritably invul- 

 nerable. The following is what has succeeded best with me: I rub 

 my hands with soap, so as to give them a polished surface ; then, at the 

 moment of making the experiment, I dip my hand into a cold solution 

 of sal-ammoniac saturated with sulphurous acid, or simply into water 

 containing some sal-ammoniac, and, in default of that, into fresh water. 



Regnault, who has occupied himself with this subject, says, "Those 



who make a trade of fire handling, and holding it in the mouth, some- 



