Mountain Democrat. [volume] (Placerville, El Dorado Co., Cal.) 1854-1860, 1858-09-25
From Household Words.
THE SPHER0IDAL STATE.

\ new branch Of physics has Of late years
been inauGuratcd by the discovery f'what is
called the Sphrroitlal state OF matter. When
we had got as far as steam and gas, we ianci-
cd We had lathomed the utter:n0st secrets Of
nature but now marvelS, which Il writer of
fiction would hardly dare to introduce into "A
fairy tale or n legend, turn out to be incon-
teStably and ddcmonstrably true For instance,
bold pcriincntaliSt-somc people might
call him an impudcnt quack-sct his heart OH
manufacturing a lump Of ice. And where
does he succeed in making it? Of all pre-
poStcrouS places in the world, he produces it
inside glowing crucible standing in n heated
furnace the heat Of the furnace, moreover,
not being the gentle temperature which ba-
kcrS use to reduce beef and potatoes to sa-
voury dish nicely Drowned aud with the gravy
in, but chemists white heat; and the bit of
ice, so turned cut, is not halEmctcd hail
stone which you would suck with pleasure (if
clcan) after summer afternoons thunder
storm, but diabolical little lump Of such in
tense coldncSS that you would take it to be
the concentration of whole Russian winter,
or an essential icc-drop distilled out of the
very north pole itself The performer Of the
feat is Monsieur p. II. Boutigny, (d'EvcrCux, }
cicticS, and Chcva!icr Of the Legion Of Honor,
who has proved by experiment in his own
proper pcrson-and his friends have not hcsi-
tatcd to follow his exanpe-that the judicial
tests or ordcalS of former ages, by -cd-hot
iron, by boiling water or oil, and other Ingc-
nious means OF torture which have been used
at divers cpochS amongst almost every nation
under the sun-he has demonstrated that
these fearful, fiery trials may have been tri-
umphantly passed through and undergone
without any exercise Of charlatanism or trick
cry on the part OF the actors, and also without
any supernatural interference beyond the in
hucncc of physical laws which have always
been in operation and do act to the present
day. Occult powers Of nature they may have
hitherto been, but natural powers they ever
remain.
Ono Adurabad Mabrosphand priest Of
Zoroastcr, wishing to convince the disScntcrs
and intidels of his day of the superior truth
and hOlncsss of his faith, proposed that on his
naked body there should be poured eighteen
pounds of melted copper, hot from the furnace,
on the condition that, if he received no harm
diSbclicvers should bow and yield their crc-
dence in the presence Of 50 great prodigy
The Dictionnairc lliStoriquc, which tells the
tale, adds that the trial was reported to have
been made with such complete success that
all the Sceptics were incontincntly converted.
Is this gross fable, or is it only an unex-
planned fact? Most readers are tempted 10
treat it as coarse and vulgar story, utteil ly
repugnant to common sense. But many
things which common sense has scornfully
rejected have found refuge and resting
place in the realms of science In proof Of
the fact, we have only to 60 back to the inian-
cy Of steam, gas, and electricity.
NJ. Boutigny regards the anccdotc rs an un-
doubted fact; and however improbable, it re-
ally is, nevertheless, perfectly ver0cious and
historical. Many credible things, he remarks,
are false; and many incredible things are true.
1t is hardly worth diSputing now, whether the
hard-namcd apostle Of Zoroaster's creed en-.
ploycd his Not copper shOwCr-bath or moi, be.
cause NJ. BOUtgny backs his opinion by per.
sOnal proof Of the possibility Of the case lie
has plunged (hc writeS) finger or his hands
several times into a mould &c incandcScent
metal, frightful to look at lie has repeated
the experiment with silver, bronze, and lead
and the result. hds been completely identical
the same sensation, and no burning-cXccp
in an instance which he mentions afterwards
lie adds. that by wctting the finger with cthcl
before plunging it into melted lead, feeling
Of chillincSs is experienced. by wcttiug tht
finger with water, it may bcplunSed with i'm
punity into tall0w heated three hundred tic