The Van Buren press., 1878-06-18
A Black Phenomenon,

pursuent to call from the Medical
society, some forty Of the members OF
the fraternity met at noon, on Saturday,,
in tho library room of the City hospital,
for tho purpose of investigating the
practical phenomenon Of a man posses
sed OF tho power of moving his heart
from its normal position to either side of
the lower extremetics of the stomah.
The man who was to perform this sur
prsng feat was negro, styling himself
DIR. Ezekel Thomas, and hailins from
London, England, where he claims to
have undergone scientihcal observation
time and again, rs we'll Us having exhib.
tied himself IN all the principal cities OF
the United States, battling the medical
abilities of the most distinguished to
comprehend his powers. Promptly at
noon it was announced that tho subject
was in attendance without the college
grounds, and the meeting was called to
order by DR.. j. l.. Ancrum, vice presi-
don't OF The Medical society, who stated
that the call was made for the purpose
Of seeing exhibited before them the body
OF negro who proiessed to perform cer-
tain wonderful phenomena. That in
order to investigate the subject fully,
so rs to be enabled to instruct the Medi-
cal society on the subject, he would ap-
point a committee of three to investigate,
at somo future time, the body of the man,
at their leisure, to complete their report
back to the fraternity, and that on this
committee, with the sanction OF the
meeting, he would appoint Drs. Middle
town, Michel, Manning, Simmons and
J. 2. Chazal. The nominations thus
made were unanimously confirmed by
the board. The chairman DR.. Ancrum,
then said that an exhibition OF the man
would be made at tho meeting now in
session, and sent out and had DR.. Eek
iol Thomas invited in. The doctor quick
y obeyed the call, and the form of a
greasy, dirty negro walked boldly into
the library. lie was dressed in dirty
pair Of pants, II ragged greasy coat, and
dirty cotton shirt Without ceremony
the doctor, who was short heavy built
negro, threw off his coat and began to
prepar for the exhibition; he next noun
ted the platform, pulled Oft his shirt and
exhibited his body in " nude state from
the waist up. Being now ready for ex-
hibition, he commenced by displays to
the fraternity tho wonderful muscular
power of his stomach. By muscular
contraction he rolled and eontortei his
intestines and made them revolve first
in one direction and then in another at
will. After exhibiting this feat, he in
vited them to come forward and listen
to the beat of his heart in it's natural
position. In order to convince them
that it was there, towels were obtained
and put over his skin, and the ears Of the
medical men, once after another, were
applied to the hearts position and the
beat heard. When all were satisfied
that it was there, by Il contortion Of the
muscles in his stomach, he removed his
intestines to the left side and dropped
his heart TO the bottom of the right side
The doctors sprang to their feet, covered
the skin with u towel and listened to the
heart beat in the right side of the stom-
ach. lie then apparently drew his heart
back to its normal position, cleared the
lclb sluc Vi lno lHtGsllileS Ill SllnlluT way ,
and stopped his heart on this side; here
the doctors listened for the heart again,
and found it; this was repeated three or
fo..' ti... s..ei. -;de,-..-l- oil ,,,o..a
convinced Of the strange power the ne
gro was possessed of The next exhibi,
ton was that Of stopping the circulation
of blood and the pulsations of the heart,
pulse and arteries throughout the body.
He called on all first to examine him,
and while they held his pulse and their
fingers on the arteries in the neck, he
called out ready, said good bye and in
an instant all ceased to beat. After this
he performed the feat of breaking bar
Of iron three-quarters of an inch in diam
eter by striking it across the muscles Of
his powerful athletic arm. The hat was
then handed around for collection, and
the meeting adjourned to take up DR..
Ezekiel Thomas at some future day
Charleston Journal of Commerce.