Chapter IX: Physiologic and Functional Anomalies (5)

Ventriloquists, or "two-voiced men," are interesting anomalies of the present day; it is common to see a person who possesses the power of speaking with a voice apparently from the epigastrium. Some acquire this faculty, while with others it is due to a natural resonance, formed, according to Dupont, in the space between the third and fourth ribs and their cartilaginous union and the middle of the first portion of the sternum. Examination of many of these cases proves that the vibration is greatest here. It is certain that ventriloquists have existed for many centuries. It is quite possible that some of the old Pagan oracles were simply the deceptions of priests by means of ventriloquism.

Dupont, Surgeon-in-chief of the French Army about a century since, examined minutely an individual professing to be a ventriloquist. With a stuffed fox on his lap near his epigastrium, he imitated a conversation with the fox. By lying on his belly, and calling to some one supposed to be below the surface of the ground, he would imitate an answer seeming to come from the depths of the earth. With his belly on the ground he not only made the illusion more complete, but in this way he smothered "the epigastric voice."

He was always noticed to place the inanimate objects with which he held conversations near his umbilicus.

Ventriloquists must not be confounded with persons who by means of skilful mechanisms, creatures with movable fauces, etc., imitate ventriloquism. The latter class are in no sense of the word true ventriloquists, but simulate the anomaly by quickly changing the tones of their voice in rapid succession, and thus seem to make their puppets talk in many different voices. After having acquired the ability to suddenly change the tone of their voice, they practice imitations of the voices of the aged, of children, dialects, and feminine tones, and, with a set of mechanical puppets, are ready to appear as ventriloquists. By contraction of the pharyngeal and laryngeal muscles they also imitate tones from a distance. Some give their performance with little labial movement, but close inspection of the ordinary performer of this class shows visible movements of his lips. The true ventriloquist pretends only to speak from the belly and needs no mechanical assistance.

The wonderful powers of mimicry displayed by expert ventriloquists are marvelous; they not only imitate individuals and animals, but do not hesitate to imitate a conglomeration of familiar sounds and noises in such a manner as to deceive their listeners into believing that they hear the discussions of an assemblage of people. The following description of an imitation of a domestic riot by a Chinese ventriloquist is given by the author of "The Chinaman at Home" and well illustrates the extent of their abilities: "The ventriloquist was seated behind a screen, where there were only a chair, a table, a fan, and a ruler. With this ruler he rapped on the table to enforce silence, and when everybody had ceased speaking there was suddenly heard the barking of a dog. Then we heard the movements of a woman. She had been waked by the dog and was shaking her husband. We were just expecting to hear the man and wife talking together when a child began to cry. To pacify it the mother gave it food; we could hear it drinking and crying at the same time. The mother spoke to it soothingly and then rose to change its clothes. Meanwhile another child had wakened and was beginning to make a noise. The father scolded it, while the baby continued crying. By-and-by the whole family went back to bed and fell asleep. The patter of a mouse was heard. It climbed up some vase and upset it. We heard the clatter of the vase as it fell. The woman coughed in her sleep. Then cries of "Fire! fire!" were heard. The mouse had upset the lamp; the bed curtains were on fire. The husband and wife waked up, shouted, and screamed, the children cried, people came running and shouting. Children cried, dogs barked, squibs and crackers exploded. The fire brigade came racing up. Water was pumped up in torrents and hissed in the flames. The representation was so true to life that every one rose to his feet and was starting away when a second blow of the ruler on the table commanded silence. We rushed behind the screen, but there was nothing there except the ventriloquist, his table, his chair, and his ruler."

Athletic Feats.--The ancients called athletes those who were noted for their extraordinary agility, force, and endurance. The history of athletics is not foreign to that of medicine, but, on the contrary, the two are in many ways intimately blended. The instances of feats of agility and endurance are in every sense of the word examples of physiologic and functional anomalies, and have in all times excited the interest and investigation of capable physicians.

The Greeks were famous for their love of athletic pastimes; and classical study serves powerfully to strengthen the belief that no institution exercised greater influence than the public contests of Greece in molding national character and producing that admirable type of personal and intellectual beauty that we see reflected in her art and literature. These contests were held at four national festivals, the Olympian, the Pythian, the Nemean, and the Isthmean games. On these occasions every one stopped labor, truce was declared between the States, and the whole country paid tribute to the contestants for the highly-prized laurels of these games. Perhaps the enthusiasm shown in athletics and interest in physical development among the Greeks has never been equaled by any other people. Herodotus and all the Greek writers to Plutarch have elaborated on the glories of the Greek athlete, and tell us of the honors rendered to the victors by the spectators and the vanquished, dwelling with complacency on the fact that in accepting the laurel they cared for nothing but honor. The Romans in "ludi publici," as they called their games, were from first to last only spectators; but in Greece every eligible person was an active participant. In the regimen of diet and training the physicians from the time of Hippocrates, and even before, have been the originators and professional advisers of the athlete. The change in the manner of living of athletes, if we can judge from the writings of Hippocrates, was anterior to his time; for in Book V of the "Epidemics" we read of Bias, who, "suapte nature vorax, in choleram-morbum incidit ex carnium esu, praecipueque suillarum crudarum, etc."

From the time of the well-known fable of the hero who, by practicing daily from his birth, was able to lift a full-grown bull, thus gradually accustoming himself to the increased weight, physiologists and scientists have collaborated with the athlete in evolving the present ideas and system of training. In his aphorisms Hippocrates bears witness to the dangers of over-exercise and superabundant training, and Galen is particularly averse to an art which so preternaturally develops the constitution and nature of man; many subsequent medical authorities believed that excessive development of the human frame was necessarily followed by a compensatory shortening of life.

The foot-race was the oldest of the Greek institutions, and in the first of the Olympiads the "dromos," a course of about 200 yards, was the only contest; but gradually the "dialos," in which the course was double that of the dromos, was introduced, and, finally, tests of endurance as well as speed were instituted in the long-distance races and the contests of racing in heavy armor, which were so highly commended by Plato as preparation for the arduous duties of a soldier. Among the Greeks we read of Lasthenes the Theban, who vanquished a horse in the course; of Polymnestor, who chased and caught a hare; and Philonides, the courier of Alexander the Great, who in nine hours traversed the distance between the Greek cities Sicyone and Elis, a distance of over 150 miles. We read of the famous soldier of Marathon, who ran to announce the victory to the Magistrates of Athens and fell dead at their feet. In the Olympian games at Athens in 1896 this distance (about 26 miles) was traversed in less than three hours.

It is said of Euchidas, who carried the fire necessary for the sacrifices which were to replace those which the Persians had spoiled, that he ran a thousand stadia (about 125 miles) and fell dead at the end of his mission. The Roman historians have also recited the extraordinary feats of the couriers of their times. Pliny speaks of an athlete who ran 235 kilometers (almost 150 miles) without once stopping. He also mentions a child who ran almost half this distance.

In the Middle Ages the Turks had couriers of almost supernatural agility and endurance. It is said that the distance some of them would traverse in twenty-four hours was 120 miles, and that it was common for them to make the round trip from Constantinople to Adrianople, a distance of 80 leagues, in two days. They were dressed very lightly, and by constant usage the soles of their feet were transformed into a leathery consistency. In the last century in the houses of the rich there were couriers who preceded the carriages and were known as "Basques," who could run for a very long time without apparent fatigue. In France there is a common proverb, "Courir comme un Basque." Rabelais says: "Grand-Gousier depeche le Basque son laquais pour querir Gargantua en toute hate."

In the olden times the English nobility maintained running footmen who, living under special regimen and training, were enabled to traverse unusual distances without apparent fatigue. There is an anecdote of a nobleman living in a castle not far from Edinburgh, who one evening charged his courier to carry a letter to that city. The next morning when he arose he found this valet sleeping in his antechamber. The nobleman waxed wroth, but the courier gave him a response to the letter. He had traveled 70 miles during the night. It is said that one of the noblemen under Charles II in preparing for a great dinner perceived that one of the indispensable pieces of his service was missing. His courier was dispatched in great haste to another house in his domain, 15 miles distant, and returned in two hours with the necessary article, having traversed a distance of over 30 miles. It is also said that a courier carrying a letter to a London physician returned with the potion prescribed within twenty-four hours, having traversed 148 miles. There is little doubt of the ability of these couriers to tire out any horse. The couriers who accompany the diligences in Spain often fatigue the animals who draw the vehicles.

At the present time in this country the Indians furnish examples of marvelous feats of running. The Tauri-Mauri Indians, who live in the heart of the Sierra Madre Mountains, are probably the most wonderful long-distance runners in the world. Their name in the language of the mountain Mexicans means foot-runners; and there is little doubt that they perform athletic feats which equal the best in the days of the Olympian games. They are possibly the remnants of the wonderful runners among the Indian tribes in the beginning of this century. There is an account of one of the Tauri-Mauri who was mail carrier between Guarichic and San Jose de los Cruces, a distance of 50 miles of as rough, mountainous road as ever tried a mountaineer's lungs and limbs. Bareheaded and barelegged, with almost no clothing, this man made this trip each day, and, carrying on his back a mail-pouch weighing 40 pounds, moved gracefully and easily over his path, from time to time increasing his speed as though practicing, and then again more slowly to smoke a cigarette. The Tauri-Mauri are long-limbed and slender, giving the impression of being above the average height. There is scarcely any flesh on their puny arms, but their legs are as muscular as those of a greyhound. In short running they have the genuine professional stride, something rarely seen in other Indian racers. In traversing long distances they leap and bound like deer.

"Deerfoot," the famous Indian long-distance runner, died on the Cattaraugus Reservation in January, 1896. His proper name was Louis Bennett, the name "Deerfoot" having been given to him for his prowess in running. He was born on the reservation in 1828. In 1861 he went to England, where he defeated the English champion runners. In April, 1863, he ran 11 miles in London in fifty-six minutes fifty-two seconds, and 12 miles in one hour two minutes and two and one-half seconds, both of which have stood as world's records ever since.

In Japan, at the present day, the popular method of conveyance, both in cities and in rural districts, is the two-wheeled vehicle, looking like a baby-carriage, known to foreigners as the jinrickisha, and to the natives as the kuruma. In the city of Tokio there is estimated to be 38,000 of these little carriages in use. They are drawn by coolies, of whose endurance remarkable stories are told. These men wear light cotton breeches and a blue cotton jacket bearing the license number, and the indispensable umbrella hat. In the course of a journey in hot weather the jinrickisha man will gradually remove most of his raiment and stuff it into the carriage. In the rural sections he is covered with only two strips of cloth, one wrapped about his head and the other about his loins. It is said that when the roadway is good, these "human horses" prefer to travel bare-footed; when working in the mud they wrap a piece of straw about each big toe, to prevent slipping and to give them a firmer grip. For any of these men a five-mile spurt on a good road without a breathing spell is a small affair. A pair of them will roll a jinrickisha along a country road at the rate of four miles an hour, and they will do this eight hours a day. The general average of the distance traversed in a day is 25 miles. Cockerill, who has recently described these men, says that the majority of them die early. The terrible physical strain brings on hypertrophy and valvular diseases of the heart, and many of them suffer from hernia. Occasionally one sees a veteran jinrickisha man, and it is interesting to note how tenderly he is helped by his confreres. They give him preference as regards wages, help push his vehicle up heavy grades, and show him all manner of consideration.

Figure 180 represents two Japanese porters and their usual load, which is much more difficult to transport than a jinrickisha carriage. In other Eastern countries, palanquins and other means of conveyance are still borne on the shoulders of couriers, and it is not so long since our ancestors made their calls in Sedan-chairs borne by sturdy porters.

Some of the letter-carriers of India make a daily journey of 30 miles. They carry in one hand a stick, at the extremity of which is a ring containing several little plates of iron, which, agitated during the course, produce a loud noise designed to keep off ferocious beasts and serpents. In the other hand they carry a wet cloth, with which they frequently refresh themselves by wiping the countenance. It is said that a regular Hindustanee carrier, with a weight of 80 pounds on his shoulder,--carried, of course, in two divisions, hung on his neck by a yoke,--will, if properly paid, lope along over 100 miles in twenty-four hours--a feat which would exhaust any but the best trained runners.

The "go-as-you-please" pedestrians, whose powers during the past years have been exhibited in this country and in England, have given us marvelous examples of endurance, over 600 miles having been accomplished in a six-days' contest. Hazael, the professional pedestrian, has run over 450 miles in ninety-nine hours, and Albert has traveled over 500 miles in one hundred and ten hours. Rowell, Hughes, and Fitzgerald have astonishingly high records for long-distance running, comparing favorably with the older, and presumably mythical, feats of this nature. In California, C. A. Harriman of Truckee in April, 1883, walked twenty-six hours without once resting, traversing 122 miles.

For the purpose of comparison we give the best modern records for running:--

100 Yards.--9 3/5 seconds, made by Edward Donavan, at Natick, Mass., September 2, 1895.

220 Yards.--21 3/5 seconds, made by Harry Jewett, at Montreal, September 24, 1892.

Quarter-Mile.--47 3/4 seconds, made by W. Baker, at Boston, Mass., July 1, 1886.

Half-Mile.--1 minute 53 2/3 seconds, made by C. J. Kirkpatrick, at Manhattan Field, New York, September 21, 1895.

1 Mile.--4 minutes 12 3/4 seconds, made by W. G. George, at London, England, August 23, 1886.

5 Miles.--24 minutes 40 seconds, made by J. White, in England, May 11, 1863.

10 Miles.--51 minutes 6 3/5 seconds, made by William Cummings, at London, England, September 18,1895.

25 Miles.--2 hours 33 minutes 44 seconds, made by G. A. Dunning, at London, England, December 26, 1881.

50 Miles.--5 hours 55 minutes 4 1/2 seconds, made by George Cartwright, at London, England, February 21, 1887.

75 Miles.--8 hours 48 minutes 30 seconds, made by George Littlewood, at London, England, November 24, 1884.

100 Miles.--13 hours 26 minutes 30 seconds, made by Charles Rowell at New York, February 27, 1882.

In instances of long-distance traversing, rapidity is only a secondary consideration, the remarkable fact being in the endurance of fatigue and the continuity of the exercise. William Gale walked 1500 miles in a thousand consecutive hours, and then walked 60 miles every twenty-four hours for six weeks on the Lillie Bridge cinder path. He was five feet five inches tall, forty-nine years of age, and weighed 121 pounds, and was but little developed muscularly. He was in good health during his feat; his diet for the twenty-four hours was 16 pounds of meat, five or six eggs, some cocoa, two quarts of milk, a quart of tea, and occasionally a glass of bitter ale, but never wine nor spirits. Strange to say, he suffered from constipation, and took daily a compound rhubarb pill. He was examined at the end of his feat by Gant. His pulse was 75, strong, regular, and his heart was normal. His temperature was 97.25 degrees F., and his hands and feet warm; respirations were deep and averaged 15 a minute. He suffered from frontal headache and was drowsy. During the six weeks he had lost only seven pounds, and his appetite maintained its normal state.

Zeuner of Cincinnati refers to John Snyder of Dunkirk, whose walking-feats were marvelous. He was not an impostor. During forty-eight hours he was watched by the students of the Ohio Medical College, who stated that he walked constantly; he assured them that it did not rest him to sit down, but made him uncomfortable. The celebrated Weston walked 5000 miles in one hundred days, but Snyder was said to have traveled 25,000 miles in five hundred days and was apparently no more tired than when he began.

Recently there was a person who pushed a wheelbarrow from San Francisco to New York in one hundred and eighteen days. In 1809 the celebrated Captain Barclay wagered that he could walk 1000 miles in one thousand consecutive hours, and gained his bet with some hours to spare. In 1834 Ernest Mensen astonished all Europe by his pedestrian exploits. He was a Norwegian sailor, who wagered that he could walk from Paris to Moscow in fifteen days. On June 25, 1834, at ten o'clock A.M., he entered the Kremlin, after having traversed 2500 kilometers (1550 miles) in fourteen days and eighteen hours. His performances all over Europe were so marvelous as to be almost incredible. In 1836, in the service of the East India Company, he was dispatched from Calcutta to Constantinople, across Central Asia. He traversed the distance in fifty-nine days, accomplishing 9000 kilometers (5580 miles) in one-third less time than the most rapid caravan. He died while attempting to discover the source of the Nile, having reached the village of Syang.

A most marvelous feat of endurance is recorded in England in the first part of this century. It is said that on a wager Sir Andrew Leith Hay and Lord Kennedy walked two days and a night under pouring rain, over the Grampian range of mountains, wading all one day in a bog. The distance traversed was from a village called Banchory on the river Dee to Inverness. This feat was accomplished without any previous preparation, both men starting shortly after the time of the wager.

Riders.--The feats of endurance accomplished by the couriers who ride great distances with many changes of horses are noteworthy. According to a contemporary medical journal there is, in the Friend of India, an account of the Thibetan couriers who ride for three weeks with intervals of only half an hour to eat and change horses. It is the duty of the officials at the Dak bungalows to see that the courier makes no delay, and even if dying he is tied to his horse and sent to the next station. The celebrated English huntsman, "Squire" Osbaldistone, on a wager rode 200 miles in seven hours ten minutes and four seconds. He used 28 horses; and as one hour twenty-two minutes and fifty-six seconds were allowed for stoppages, the whole time, changes and all, occupied in accomplishing this wonderful feat was eight hours and forty-two minutes. The race was ridden at the Newmarket Houghton Meeting over a four-mile course. It is said that a Captain Horne of the Madras Horse Artillery rode 200 miles on Arab horses in less than ten hours along the road between Madras and Bangalore. When we consider the slower speed of the Arab horses and the roads and climate of India, this performance equals the 200 miles in the shorter time about an English race track and on thoroughbreds. It is said that this wonderful horseman lost his life in riding a horse named "Jumping Jenny" 100 miles a day for eight days. The heat was excessive, and although the horse was none the worse for the performance, the Captain died from the exposure he encountered. There is a record of a Mr. Bacon of the Bombay Civil Service, who rode one camel from Bombay to Allygur (perhaps 800 miles) in eight days.

As regards the physiology of the runners and walkers, it is quite interesting to follow the effects of training on the respiration, whereby in a measure is explained the ability of these persons to maintain their respiratory function, although excessively exercising. A curious discussion, persisted in since antiquity, is as to the supposed influence of the spleen on the ability of couriers. For ages runners have believed that the spleen was a hindrance to their vocation, and that its reduction was followed by greater agility on the course. With some, this opinion is perpetuated to the present day. In France there is a proverb, "Courir comme un derate." To reduce the size of the spleen, the Greek athletes used certain beverages, the composition of which was not generally known; the Romans had a similar belief and habit Pliny speaks of a plant called equisetum, a decoction of which taken for three days after a fast of twenty-four hours would effect absorption of the spleen. The modern pharmacopeia does not possess any substance having a similar virtue, although quinin has been noticed to diminish the size of the spleen when engorged in malarial fevers. Strictly speaking, however, the facts are not analogous. Hippocrates advises a moxa of mushrooms applied over the spleen for melting or dissolving it. Godefroy Moebius is said to have seen in the village of Halberstadt a courier whose spleen had been cauterized after incision; and about the same epoch (seventeenth century) some men pretended to be able to successfully extirpate the spleen for those who desired to be couriers. This operation we know to be one of the most delicate in modern surgery, and as we are progressing with our physiologic knowledge of the spleen we see nothing to justify the old theory in regard to its relations to agility and coursing.

Swimming.--The instances of endurance that we see in the aquatic sports are equally as remarkable as those that we find among the runners and walkers. In the ancient days the Greeks, living on their various islands and being in a mild climate, were celebrated for their prowess as swimmers. Socrates relates the feats of swimming among the inhabitants of Delos. The journeys of Leander across the Hellespont are well celebrated in verse and prose, but this feat has been easily accomplished many times since, and is hardly to be classed as extraordinary. Herodotus says that the Macedonians were skilful swimmers; and all the savage tribes about the borders of waterways are found possessed of remarkable dexterity and endurance in swimming.

In 1875 the celebrated Captain Webb swam from Dover to Calais. On landing he felt extremely cold, but his body was as warm as when he started. He was exhausted and very sleepy, falling in deep slumber on his way to the hotel. On getting into bed his temperature was 98 degrees F. and his pulse normal. In five hours he was feverish, his temperature rising to 101 degrees F. During the passage he was blinded from the salt water in his eyes and the spray beating against his face. He strongly denied the newspaper reports that he was delirious, and after a good rest was apparently none the worse for the task. In 1876 he again traversed this passage with the happiest issue. In 1883 he was engaged by speculators to swim the rapids at Niagara, and in attempting this was overcome by the powerful currents, and his body was not recovered for some days after. The passage from Dover to Calais has been duplicated.

In 1877 Cavill, another Englishman, swam from Cape Griz-Nez to South Forland in less than thirteen hours. In 1880 Webb swam and floated at Scarborough for seventy-four consecutive hours--of course, having no current to contend with and no point to reach. This was merely a feat of staying in the water. In London in 1881, Beckwith, swimming ten hours a day over a 32-lap course for six days, traversed 94 miles. Since the time of Captain Webb, who was the pioneer of modern long-distance swimming, many men have attempted and some have duplicated his feats; but these foolhardy performances have in late years been diminishing, and many of the older feats are forbidden by law.

Jumpers and acrobatic tumblers have been popular from the earliest time. By the aid of springing boards and weights in their hands, the old jumpers covered great distances. Phayllus of Croton is accredited with jumping the incredible distance of 55 feet, and we have the authority of Eustache and Tzetzes that this jump is genuine. In the writings of many Greek and Roman historians are chronicled jumps of about 50 feet by the athletes; if they are true, the modern jumpers have greatly degenerated. A jump of over 20 feet to-day is considered very clever, the record being 29 feet seven inches with weights, and 23 feet eight inches without weights, although much greater distances have been jumped with the aid of apparatus, but never an approximation to 50 feet. The most surprising of all these athletes are the tumblers, who turn somersaults over several animals arranged in a row. Such feats are not only the most amusing sights of a modern circus, but also the most interesting as well. The agility of these men is marvelous, and the force with which they throw themselves in the air apparently enables them to defy gravity. In London, Paris, or New York one may see these wonderful tumblers and marvel at the capabilities of human physical development.

In September, 1895, M. F. Sweeney, an American amateur, at Manhattan Field in New York jumped six feet 5 5/8 inches high in the running high jump without weights. With weights, J. H. Fitzpatrick at Oak Island, Mass., jumped six feet six inches high. The record for the running high kick is nine feet eight inches, a marvelous performance, made by C. C. Lee at New Haven, Conn., March 19, 1887.

Extraordinary physical development and strength has been a grand means of natural selection in the human species. As Guyot-Daubes remarks, in prehistoric times, when our ancestors had to battle against hunger, savage beasts, and their neighbors, and when the struggle for existence was so extremely hard, the strong man alone resisted and the weak succumbed. This natural selection has been perpetuated almost to our day; during the long succession of centuries, the chief or the master was selected on account of his being the strongest, or the most valiant in the combat. Originally, the cavaliers, the members of the nobility, were those who were noted for their courage and strength, and to them were given the lands of the vanquished. Even in times other than those of war, disputes of succession were settled by jousts and tourneys. This fact is seen in the present day among the lower animals, who in their natural state live in tribes; the leader is usually the strongest, the wisest, and the most courageous.

The strong men of all times have excited the admiration of their fellows and have always been objects of popular interest. The Bible celebrates the exploits of Samson of the tribe of Dan. During his youth he, single handed, strangled a lion; with the jaw-bone of an ass he is said to have killed 1000 Philistines and put the rest to flight. At another time during the night he transported from the village of Gaza enormous burdens and placed them on the top of a mountain. Betrayed by Delilah, he was delivered into the hands of his enemies and employed in the most servile labors. When old and blind he was attached to the columns of an edifice to serve as an object of public ridicule; with a violent effort he overturned the columns, destroying himself and 3000 Philistines.

In the Greek mythology we find a great number of heroes, celebrated for their feats of strength and endurance. Many of them have received the name of Hercules; but the most common of these is the hero who was supposed to be the son of Jupiter and Alemena. He was endowed with prodigious strength by his father, and was pursued with unrelenting hatred by Juno. In his infancy he killed with his hands the serpents which were sent to devour him. The legends about him are innumerable. He was said to have been armed with a massive club, which only he was able to carry. The most famous of his feats were the twelve labors, with which all readers of mythology are familiar. Hercules, personified, meant to the Greeks physical force as well as strength, generosity, and bravery, and was equivalent to the Assyrian Hercules. The Gauls had a Hercules-Pantopage, who, in addition to the ordinary qualities attributed to Hercules, had an enormous appetite.

As late as the sixteenth century, and in a most amusing and picturesque manner, Rabelais has given us the history of Gargantua, and even to this day, in some regions, there are groups of stones which are believed by ignorant people to have been thrown about by Gargantua in his play. In their citations the older authors often speak of battles, and in epic ballads of heroes with marvelous strength. In the army of Charlemagne, after Camerarius, and quoted by Guyot-Daubes (who has made an extensive collection of the literature on this subject and to whom the authors are indebted for much information), there was found a giant named Oenother, a native of a village in Suabia, who performed marvelous feats of strength. In his history of Bavaria Aventin speaks of this monster. To Roland, the nephew of Charlemagne, the legends attributed prodigious strength; and, dying in the valley of Roncesveaux, he broke his good sword "Durandal" by striking it against a rock, making a breach, which is stilled called the "Breche de Roland." Three years before his death, on his return from Palestine, Christopher, Duke of Bavaria, was said to have lifted to his shoulders a stone which weighed more than 340 pounds. Louis de Boufflers, surnamed the "Robust," who lived in 1534, was noted for his strength and agility. When he placed his feet together, one against the other, he could find no one able to disturb them. He could easily bend and break a horseshoe with his hands, and could seize an ox by the tail and drag it against its will. More than once he was said to have carried a horse on his shoulders. According to Guyot-Daubes there was, in the last century, a Major Barsaba who could seize the limb of a horse and fracture its bone. There was a tale of his lifting an iron anvil, in a blacksmith's forge, and placing it under his coat.

To the Emperor Maximilian I was ascribed enormous strength; even in his youth, when but a simple patriot, he vanquished, at the games given by Severus, 16 of the most vigorous wrestlers, and accomplished this feat without stopping for breath. It is said that this feat was the origin of his fortune. Among other celebrated persons in history endowed with uncommon strength were Edmund "Ironsides," King of England; the Caliph Mostasem-Billah; Baudouin, "Bras-de-Fer," Count of Flanders; William IV, called by the French "Fier-a-Bras," Duke of Aquitaine; Christopher, son of Albert the Pious, Duke of Bavaria; Godefroy of Bouillon; the Emperor Charles IV; Scanderbeg; Leonardo da Vinci; Marshal Saxe; and the recently deceased Czar of Russia, Alexander III.

Turning now to the authentic modern Hercules, we have a man by the name of Eckeberg, born in Anhalt, and who traveled under the name of "Samson." He was exhibited in London, and performed remarkable feats of strength. He was observed by the celebrated Desaguliers (a pupil of Newton) in the commencement of the last century, who at that time was interested in the physiologic experiments of strength and agility. Desaguliers believed that the feats of this new Samson were more due to agility than strength. One day, accompanied by two of his confreres, although a man of ordinary strength, he duplicated some of Samson's feats, and followed his performance by a communication to the Royal Society. One of his tricks was to resist the strength of five or six men or of two horses. Desaguliers claimed that this was entirely due to the position taken. This person would lift a man by one foot, and bear a heavy weight on his chest when resting with his head and two feet on two chairs. By supporting himself with his arms he could lift a piece of cannon attached to his feet.

A little later Desaguliers studied an individual in London named Thomas Topham, who used no ruse in his feats and was not the skilful equilibrist that the German Samson was, his performances being merely the results of abnormal physical force. He was about thirty years old, five feet ten inches in height and well proportioned, and his muscles well developed, the strong ligaments showing under the skin. He ignored entirely the art of appearing supernaturally strong, and some of his feats were rendered difficult by disadvantageous positions. In the feat of the German--resisting the force of several men or horses--Topham exhibited no knowledge of the principles of physics, like that of his predecessor, but, seated on the ground and putting his feet against two stirrups, he was able to resist the traction of a single horse; when he attempted the same feat against two horses he was severely strained and wounded about the knees. According to Desaguliers, if Topham had taken the advantageous positions of the German Samson, he could have resisted not only two, but four horses. On another occasion, with the aid of a bridle passed about his neck, he lifted three hogsheads full of water, weighing 1386 pounds. If he had utilized the force of his limbs and his loins, like the German, he would have been able to perform far more difficult feats. With his teeth he could lift and maintain in a horizontal position a table over six feet long, at the extremity of which he would put some weight. Two of the feet of the table he rested on his knees. He broke a cord five cm. in diameter, one part of which was attached to a post and the other to a strap passed under his shoulder. He was able to carry in his hands a rolling-pin weighing 800 pounds, about twice the weight a strong man is considered able to lift.

Tom Johnson was another strong man who lived in London in the last century, but he was not an exhibitionist, like his predecessors. He was a porter on the banks of the Thames, his duty being to carry sacks of wheat and corn from the wharves to the warehouses. It was said that when one of his comrades was ill, and could not provide support for his wife and children, Johnson assumed double duty, carrying twice the load. He could seize a sack of wheat, and with it execute the movements of a club-swinger, and with as great facility. He became quite a celebrated boxer, and, besides his strength, he soon demonstrated his powers of endurance, never seeming fatigued after a lively bout. The porters of Paris were accustomed to lift and carry on their shoulders bags of flour weighing 159 kilograms (350 pounds) and to mount stairs with them. Johnson, on hearing this, duplicated the feat with three sacks, and on one occasion attempted to carry four, and resisted this load some little time. These four sacks weighed 1400 pounds.

Some years since there was a female Hercules who would get on her hands and knees under a carriage containing six people, and, forming an arch with her body, she would lift it off the ground, an attendant turning the wheels while in the air to prove that they were clear from the ground.

Guyot-Daubes considers that one of the most remarkable of all the men noted for their strength was a butcher living in the mountains of Margeride, known as Lapiada (the extraordinary). This man, whose strength was legendary in the neighboring country, one day seized a mad bull that had escaped from his stall and held him by the horns until his attendants could bind him. For amusement he would lie on his belly and allow several men to get on his back; with this human load he would rise to the erect position. One of Lapiada's great feats was to get under a cart loaded with hay and, forming an arch with his body, raise it from the ground, then little by little he would mount to his haunches, still holding the cart and hay. Lapiada terminated his Herculean existence in attempting a mighty effort. Having charged himself alone with the task of placing a heavy tree-trunk in a cart, he seized it, his muscles stiffened, but the blood gushed from his mouth and nostrils, and he fell, overcome at last. The end of Lapiada presents an analogue to that of the celebrated athlete, Polydamas, who was equally the victim of too great confidence in his muscular force, and who died crushed by the force that he hoped to maintain. Figures 181 and 183 portray the muscular development of an individual noted for his feats of strength, and who exhibited not long since.

In recent years we have had Sebastian Miller, whose specialty was wrestling and stone-breaking; Samson, a recent English exhibitionist, Louis Cyr, and Sandow, who, in addition to his remarkable strength and control over his muscles, is a very clever gymnast. Sandow gives an excellent exposition of the so-called "checkerboard" arrangement of the muscular fibers of the lower thoracic and abdominal regions, and in a brilliant light demonstrates his extraordinary power over his muscles, contracting muscles ordinarily involuntary in time with music, a feat really more remarkable than his exhibition of strength. Figures 182 and 184 show the beautiful muscular development of this remarkable man.

Joseph Pospischilli, a convict recently imprisoned in the Austrian fortress of Olen, surprised the whole Empire by his wonderful feats of strength. One of his tricks was to add a fifth leg to a common table (placing the useless addition in the exact center) and then balance it with his teeth while two full-grown gipsies danced on it, the music being furnished by a violinist seated in the middle of the well-balanced platform. One day when the prison in which this Hercules was confined was undergoing repairs, he picked up a large carpenter's bench with his teeth and held it balanced aloft for nearly a minute. Since being released from the Olen prison, Pospischilli and his cousin, another local "strong man" named Martenstine, have formed a combination and are now starring Southern Europe, performing all kinds of startling feats of strength. Among other things they have had a 30-foot bridge made of strong timbers, which is used in one of their great muscle acts. This bridge has two living piers--Pospischilli acting as one and Martenstine the other. Besides supporting this monstrous structure (weight, 1866 pounds) upon their shoulders, these freaks of superhuman strength allow a team of horses and a wagon loaded with a ton of cobble-stones to be driven across it.

It is said that Selig Whitman, known as "Ajax," a New York policeman, has lifted 2000 pounds with his hands and has maintained 450 pounds with his teeth. This man is five feet 8 1/2 inches tall and weighs 162 pounds. His chest measurement is 40 inches, the biceps 17 inches, that of his neck 16 1/2 inches, the forearm 11, the wrist 9 1/2, the thigh 23, and the calf 17.

One of the strongest of the "strong women" is Madame Elise, a Frenchwoman, who performs with her husband. Her greatest feat is the lifting of eight men weighing altogether about 1700 pounds. At her performances she supports across her shoulders a 700-pound dumb-bell, on each side of which a person is suspended.

Miss Darnett, the "singing strong lady," extends herself upon her hands and feet, face uppermost, while a stout platform, with a semicircular groove for her neck, is fixed upon her chest, abdomen, and thighs by means of a waist-belt which passes through brass receivers on the under side of the board. An ordinary upright piano is then placed on the platform by four men; a performer mounts the platform and plays while the "strong lady" sings a love song while supporting possibly half a ton.

Strength of the Jaws.--There are some persons who exhibit extraordinary power of the jaw. In the curious experiments of Regnard and Blanchard at the Sorbonne, it was found that a crocodile weighing about 120 pounds exerted a force between its jaws at a point corresponding to the insertion of the masseter muscles of 1540 pounds; a dog of 44 pounds exerted a similar force of 363 pounds.

It is quite possible that in animals like the tiger and lion the force would equal 1700 or 1800 pounds. The anthropoid apes can easily break a cocoanut with their teeth, and Guyot-Daubes thinks that possibly a gorilla has a jaw-force of 200 pounds. A human adult is said to exert a force of from 45 to 65 pounds between his teeth, and some individuals exceed this average as much as 100 pounds. In Buffon's experiments he once found a Frenchman who could exert a force of 534 pounds with his jaws.

In several American circuses there have been seen women who hold themselves by a strap between their teeth while they are being hauled up to a trapeze some distance from the ground. A young mulatto girl by the name of "Miss Kerra" exhibited in the Winter Circus in Paris; suspended from a trapeze, she supported a man at the end of a strap held between her teeth, and even permitted herself to be turned round and round.

She also held a cannon in her teeth while it was fired. This feat has been done by several others. According to Guyot-Daubes, at Epernay in 1882, while a man named Bucholtz, called "the human cannon," was performing this feat, the cannon, which was over a yard long and weighed nearly 200 pounds, burst and wounded several of the spectators.

There was another Hercules in Paris, who with his teeth lifted and held a heavy cask of water on which was seated a man and varying weights, according to the size of his audience, at the same time keeping his hands occupied with other weights. Figure 185 represents a well-known modern exhibitionist lifting with his teeth a cask on which are seated four men. The celebrated Mlle. Gauthier, an actress of the Comedie-Francais, had marvelous power of her hands, bending coins, rolling up silver plate, and performing divers other feats. Major Barsaba had enormous powers of hand and fingers. He could roll a silver plate into the shape of a goblet. Being challenged by a Gascon, he seized the hand of his unsuspecting adversary in the ordinary manner of salutation and crushed all the bones of the fingers, thus rendering unnecessary any further trial of strength.

It is said that Marshal Saxe once visited a blacksmith ostensibly to have his horse shod, and seeing no shoe ready he took a bar of iron, and with his hands fashioned it into a horseshoe. There are Japanese dentists who extract teeth with their wonderfully developed fingers. There are stories of a man living in the village of Cantal who received the sobriquet of "La Coupia" (The Brutal). He would exercise his function as a butcher by strangling with his fingers the calves and sheep, instead of killing them in the ordinary manner. It is said that one day, by placing his hands on the shoulders of the strong man of a local fair, he made him faint by the pressure exerted by his fingers.

Manual strangulation is a well-known crime and is quite popular in some countries. The Thugs of India sometimes murdered their victims in this way. Often such force is exerted by the murderer's fingers as to completely fracture the cricoid cartilage.

In viewing the feats of strength of the exhibitionist we must bear in consideration the numerous frauds perpetrated. A man of extraordinary strength sometimes finds peculiar stone, so stratified that he is able to break it with the force he can exert by a blow from the hand alone, although a man of ordinary strength would try in vain. In most of these instances, if one were to take a piece of the exhibitionist's stone, he would find that a slight tap of the hammer would break it. Again, there are many instances in which the stone has been found already separated and fixed quite firmly together, placing it out of the power of an ordinary man to break, but which the exhibitionist finds within his ability. This has been the solution of the feats of many of the individuals who invite persons to send them marked stones to use at their performances. By skilfully arranging stout twine on the hands, it is surprising how easily it is broken, and there are many devices and tricks to deceive the public, all of which are more or less used by "strong men."

The recent officially recorded feats of strength that stand unequaled in the last decade are as follows:--

Weight-lifting.--Hands alone 1571 1/4 pounds, done by C. G. Jefferson, an amateur, at Clinton, Mass December 10, 1890; with harness, 3239 pounds, by W B. Curtis, at New York December 20 1868; Louis Cyr, at Berthierville, Can., October 1, 1888, pushed up 3536 pounds of pig-iron with his back, arms, and legs.

Dumb-bells.--H. Pennock, in New York, 1870, put up a 10-pound dumb-bell 8431 times in four hours thirty-four minutes; by using both hands to raise it to the shoulder, and then using one hand alone, R. A. Pennell, in New York, January 31, 1874, managed to put up a bell weighing 201 pounds 5 ounces; and Eugene Sandow, at London, February 11, 1891, surpassed this feat with a 250-pound bell.

Throwing 16-pound hammer.--J. S. Mitchell, at Travers Island, N. Y., October 8, 1892, made a record-throw of 145 feet 3/4 inch.

Putting 16-pound Shot.--George R. Gray, at Chicago, September 16, 1893, made the record of 47 feet.

Throwing 50-pound Weight.--J. S. Mitchell, at New York, September 22, 1894, made the distance record of 35 feet 10 inches; and at Chicago, September 16, 1893, made the height record of 15 feet 4 1/2 inches.

The class of people commonly known as contortionists by the laxity of their muscles and ligaments are able to dislocate or preternaturally bend their joints. In entertainments of an arena type and even in what are now called "variety performances" are to be seen individuals of this class. These persons can completely straddle two chairs, and do what they call "the split;" they can place their foot about their neck while maintaining the upright position; they can bend almost double at the waist in such a manner that the back of the head will touch the calves, while the legs are perpendicular with the ground; they can bring the popliteal region over their shoulders and in this position walk on their hands; they can put themselves in a narrow barrel; eat with a fork attached to a heel while standing on their hands, and perform divers other remarkable and almost incredible feats. Their performances are genuine, and they are real physiologic curiosities. Plate 6 represents two well-known contortionists in their favorite feats.

Wentworth, the oldest living contortionist, is about seventy years of age, but seems to have lost none of his earlier sinuosity. His chief feat is to stow himself away in a box 23 X 29 X 16 inches. When inside, six dozen wooden bottles of the same size and shape as those which ordinarily contain English soda water are carefully stowed away, packed in with him, and the lid slammed down. He bestows upon this act the curious and suggestive name of "Packanatomicalization."

Another class of individuals are those who can either partially or completely dislocate the major articulations of the body. Many persons exhibit this capacity in their fingers. Persons vulgarly called "double jointed" are quite common.

Charles Warren, an American contortionist, has been examined by several medical men of prominence and descriptions of him have appeared from time to time in prominent medical journals. When he was but a child he was constantly tumbling down, due to the heads of the femurs slipping from the acetabula, but reduction was always easy. When eight years old he joined a company of acrobats and strolling performers, and was called by the euphonious title of "the Yankee dish-rag." His muscular system was well-developed, and, like Sandow, he could make muscles act in concert or separately.

He could throw into energetic single action the biceps, the supinator longus, the radial extensors, the platysma myoides, and many other muscles. When he "strings," as he called it, the sartorius, that ribbon muscle shows itself as a tight cord, extending from the front of the iliac spine to the inner side of the knee. Another trick was to leave flaccid that part of the serratus magnus which is attached to the inferior angle of the scapula whilst he roused energetic contraction in the rhomboids. He could displace his muscles so that the lower angles of the scapulae projected and presented the appearance historically attributed to luxation of the scapula.

Warren was well informed on surgical landmarks and had evidently been a close student of Sir Astley Cooper's classical illustrations of dislocations. He was able so to contract his abdominal muscles that the aorta could be distinctly felt with the fingers. In this feat nearly all the abdominal contents were crowded beneath the diaphragm. On the other hand, he could produce a phantom abdominal tumor by driving the coils of the intestine within a peculiar grasp of the rectus and oblique muscles. The "growth" was rounded, dull on percussion, and looked as if an exploratory incision or puncture would be advisable for diagnosis.

By extraordinary muscular power and extreme laxity of his ligaments, he simulated all the dislocations about the hip joint. Sometimes he produced actual dislocation, but usually he said he could so distort his muscles as to imitate in the closest degree the dislocations. He could imitate the various forms of talipes, in such a way as to deceive an expert. He dislocated nearly every joint in the body with great facility. It was said that he could contract at will both pillars of the fauces. He could contract his chest to 34 inches and expand it to 41 inches.

Warren weighed 150 pounds, was a total abstainer, and was the father of two children, both of whom could readily dislocate their hips.