54 Memoir on the Incomlustille Man ; 



instant the oil, which was then swallowed scarcely tepid. 

 The experimenter certainly never drank at one draught alone 

 the dose or oil which he swallowed at several times, nor 

 ever ventured to take in his mouth a whole spoonful of 

 boiling oil. 



V. The experiment, with liquid lead, of which, with the 

 extremity of his fingers, he put a very small portion not in 

 his mouth, but on his tongue, requires no other explanation 

 than the preceding. 



VI. The red-hot iron also which he passed repeatedly 

 over the back of his tongue produced no alteration on it, 

 as he had perhaps clothed it with the plaster of which I 

 have already spoken. 



VII. Washing himself with nitric acid, exposing his 

 face to the vapours which arose from sulphuric or nitric acids 

 thrown on the fire, are experiments equivalent to those with 

 sulphurous and nitrous acid ; and also putting his face ex- 

 posed for a time to the flame of blazing oil, are phaenomena 

 which do not merit any particular examination, and which 

 certainly present nothing different from the others. The 

 force of habit, the callousness which the skin after a time 

 acquires by the continued exercise of such experiments, and 

 the preceding preparations of the exterior surface of the body, 

 are reasons sufficient to explain easily all the phasnomena of 

 this kind. But, How is it possible that the transparent and 

 opaque cornea of the eyes and the organs of respiration are 

 not affected by the powerful action of acid vapours ? It 

 would be madness to believe that he held or could hold his 

 eyes open when his face was exposed to the contact of such 

 vapours ; and if he respired at the same time he must inevi- 

 tably become a victim of such temerity. 



In the experiment with a piece of iron almost red-hot be- 

 tween his teeth, and which he held there for a short time, 

 it was sufficient to observe at that moment the visage of the 

 experimenter, to see the impression of uneasiness and even 

 acute pain delineated. In this experiment without doubt, 

 more than in any other, he suffered ; and hence the cause 

 why Seuor Lionetto seldom repeated it. His teeth indeed 

 are blackened and spoiled to the last degree. 



It 



