Thus far the pursuits of the alchemist were honourable and useful; but when his calling was followed, as it soon was, by men prodigal of fortune and of character, science became an instrument of crime; secrets unattained were bartered for the gold of the credulous and the ignorant, and books innumerable were composed to teach these pretended secrets to the world. An intellectual reaction, however, soon took place; and those very princes who had sought to fill their exhausted treasuries at the furnace of the chemist, were the first to enact laws against the frauds which they had encouraged, and to dispel the illusions which had so long deceived their subjects.
But even when the moral atmosphere of Europe was thus disinfected, chemistry supplied the magician with his most lucrative wonders, and those who could no longer delude the public with dreams of wealth and longevity, now sought to amuse and astonish them by the exhibition of their skill. The narrow limits of this volume will not permit me to give even a general view of those extraordinary effects which this popular science can display. I must therefore select from its inexhaustible stores those topics which are most striking in their results, and most popular in their details.
One of the most ancient feats of magic was the art of breathing flame,—an art which even now excites the astonishment of the vulgar. During the insurrection of the slaves in Sicily, in the second century before Christ, a Syrian named Eunus acquired by his knowledge the rank of their leader. In order to establish his influence over their minds, he pretended to possess miraculous power. When he wished to inspire his followers with courage, he breathed flames or sparks among them from his mouth, at the same time that he was rousing them by his eloquence. St. Jerome informs us that the Rabbi Barchochebas, who headed the Jews in their last revolt against Hadrian, made them believe that he was the Messiah, by vomiting flames from his mouth; and at a later period, the Emperor Constantius was thrown into a state of alarm when Valentinian informed him that he had seen one of the body-guards breathing out fire and flames. We are not acquainted with the exact methods by which these effects were produced; but Florus informs us that Eunus filled a perforated nut-shell with sulphur and fire, and having concealed it in his mouth, he breathed gently through it while he was speaking. This art is performed more simply by the modern juggler. Having rolled together some flax or hemp, so as to form a ball the size of a walnut, he sets it on fire, and allows it to burn till it is nearly consumed: he then rolls round it while burning some additional flax, and by these means the fire may be retained in it for a considerable time. At the commencement of his exhibition he introduces the ball into his mouth, and while he breathes through it the fire is revived, and a number of burning sparks are projected from his mouth. These sparks are too feeble to do any harm, provided he inhales the air through his nostrils.
The kindred art of walking on burning coals or red-hot iron remounts to the same antiquity. The priestesses of Diana at Castabala in Cappadocia were accustomed, according to Strabo, to walk over burning coals; and at the annual festival which was held in the temple of Apollo on Mount Soracte in Etruria, the Hirpi marched over burning coals, and on this account they were exempted from military service, and received other privileges from the Roman Senate. This power of resisting fire was ascribed even by Varro to the use of some liniment with which they anointed the soles of their feet.
Of the same character was the art of holding red-hot iron in the hands or between the teeth, and of plunging the hands into boiling water or melted lead. About the close of the seventeenth century, an Englishman of the name of Richardson 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 Royal 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 off from his hand as from a ladle. The tar remained in complete 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. Davenport ascribes this singular effect to the slowness with which the tar communicates its heat, which he conceives to arise from the abundant volatile vapour which is evolved, “carrying off rapidly the caloric in a latent state, and intervening between the tar and the skin, so as to prevent the more rapid communication of heat.” He conceives also, that when the hand is withdrawn, and the hot tar adhering to it, the rapidity with which this vapour is evolved from the surface exposed to the air cools it immediately. The workmen informed Mr. Davenport that, if a person put his hand into the cauldron with his glove on, he would be dreadfully burnt; but this extraordinary result was not put to the test of observation.
But though the conjurors with fire may have availed themselves of these singular properties of individual bodies, yet the general secret of their art consisted in rendering the skin of the exposed parts callous and insensible to heat,—an effect which may be produced by continually compressing or singeing them till the skin acquires a horny consistence. A proof of this opinion is mentioned by Beckmann, who assures us, that in September, 1765, when he visited the copper-works at Awestad, one of the workmen, bribed by a little money to drink, took some of the melted copper in his hand, and, after showing it to the company, threw it against a wall. He then squeezed the fingers of his horny hand close to each other, held it a few minutes under his arm-pit, to make it perspire, as he said, and taking it again out, drew it over a ladle filled with melted copper, some of which he skimmed off, and moved his hand backwards and forwards very quickly by way of ostentation. During this performance, M. Beckmann noticed a smell like that of singed horn or leather, though the hand of the workman was not burned. This callosity of the skin may be effected by frequently moistening it with dilute sulphuric acid. Some allege that the juices of certain plants produce the same effect, while others recommend the frequent rubbing of the skin with oil. The receipt given by Albertus Magnus for this purpose was of a different nature. It consisted of a non-conducting calcareous paste, which was made to adhere to the skin by the sap of the marsh-mallow, the slimy seeds of the flea-bane, and the white of an egg.
As the ancients were acquainted with the incombustibility of asbestos or amianthus, and the art of weaving it into cloth, it is highly probable that it was employed in the performance of some of their miracles, and it is equally probable that it was subsequently used, along with some of the processes already described, in enabling the victims of superstition to undergo without hazard the trial of ordeal by fire. In every country where this barbarous usage prevailed, whether in the sanctuary of the Christian idolater, or in the pagan temple of the Bramin, or under the wild orgies of the African savage, Providence seems to have provided the means of meeting it with impunity. In Catholic countries this exculpatory judgment was granted chiefly to persons in weak health, who were incapable of using arms, and particularly to monks and ecclesiastics, who could not avail themselves of the trial by single combat. The fire ordeal was conducted in the church under the inspection of the clergy: mass was at the same time celebrated, and the iron and the victims were consecrated by the sprinkling of holy water. The preparatory steps were also under the direction of the priests. It was necessary that the accused should be placed three days and three nights under their care, both before and after the trial. Under the pretence of preventing the defendant from preparing his hands by art, and in order to ascertain the result of the ordeal, his hands were covered up and sealed during the three days which preceded and followed the fiery application; and it has been plausibly conjectured by Beckmann, that during the first three days the preventive was applied to those whom they wished to acquit, and that the last three days were requisite to bring back the hands to their natural condition. In these and other cases, the accused could not have availed himself directly of the use of asbestos gloves, unless we could suppose them so made as to imitate the human skin at a distance; but the fibres of that mineral may have been imbedded in a paste which applied itself readily to all the elevations and depressions of the skin.
In our own times the art of defending the hands and face, and indeed the whole body, from the action of heated iron and intense fire, has been applied to the nobler purpose of saving human life, and rescuing property from the flames. The revival and the improvement of this art we owe to the benevolence and the ingenuity of the Chevalier Aldini of Milan, who has travelled through all Europe to present this valuable gift to his species. Sir H. Davy had long ago shown that a safety lamp for illuminating mines, containing inflammable air, might be constructed of wire-gauze alone, which prevented the flame within, however large or intense, from setting fire to the inflammable air without. This valuable property, which has been long in practical use, he ascribed to the conducting and radiating power of the wire-gauze, which carried off the heat of the flame, and deprived it of its power. The Chevalier Aldini conceived the idea of applying the same material, in combination with other badly conducting substances, as a protection against fire. The incombustible pieces of dress which he uses for the body, arms, and legs, are formed out of strong cloth, which has been steeped in a solution of alum, while those for the head, hands, and feet, are made of cloth of asbestos or amianthus. The head-dress is a large cap which envelops the whole head down to the neck, having suitable perforations for the eyes, nose, and mouth. The stockings and cap are single, but the gloves are made of double amianthus cloth, to enable the fireman to take into his hand burning or red hot bodies. The piece of ancient asbestos cloth preserved in the Vatican was formed, we believe, by mixing the asbestos with other fibrous substances; but M. Aldini has executed a piece of nearly the same size, nine feet five inches long and five feet three inches wide, which is much stronger than the ancient piece, and possesses superior qualities, in consequence of having been woven without the introduction of any foreign substance. In this manufacture the fibres are prevented from breaking by the action of steam, the cloth is made loose in its fabric, and the threads are about the fiftieth of an inch in diameter.
The metallic dress which is superadded to these means of defence consists of five principal pieces, viz. a casque or cap, with a mask large enough to leave a proper space between it and the asbestos cap; a cuirass with its brassets; a piece of armour for the trunk and thighs; a pair of boots of double wire-gauze; and an oval shield 5 feet long by 2½ wide, made by stretching the wire-gauze over a slender frame of iron. All these pieces are made of iron wire-gauze, having the interval between its threads the twenty-fifth part of an inch.