The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1878-12-19
Man Who Can UnIoint Himself and Twist
His Body into all Sorts of Shapes.

Man Who Can UnIoint Himself and Twist
His Body into all Sorts of Shapes.
A novel exhibition in anatomy given
to the students Of the Rush medical
college, in Chicago, is described as fol.
lows : At four o'clock the large amphi-
theater lecture room was filled with
fedged and unfedged doctors, and in
the arena stood Charles Warren, a man
of about thirty years of age, of athletic
appearance, and apparently jointed the
same as ordinary mortals. But he soon
showed that he differed from most men
in his makeup, for there was hardly
Joint in his whole body that he could
not throw out of place, or at least give
that appearance. He went through
with his distortions, much to the amaze
ment as well as the amusement of all.
He commenced by giving a circulatory
movement to the scapul@, moving
either one or both at a time. and with
out any apparent motion of the shoul-
ders. He then threw the humerus into
the axilo, disjointed his elbow, wrist
and phalanges. This was done merely
by the contraction of the muscles of
the arm, and not by the pulling of one
member by another. In none of his
feats was there any such wrench of one
joint from another. Without touching
any part of his body with his hands, the
joints would move out of position. He
forced the femur from the thigh bone.
This he could do while standing on one
or both feet or while reclining. The dis
location caused an apparent shortening
of the limb. Another striking feat was
the turning of his feet SO that he could
touch the bottoms of them while his
legs were perfectly straight. Perhaps
the most remarkable of all his powers
was the wonderful expansibility of his
chest. Medical works, upon the strength
of examinations of thousands of men in
the army and navy, generally give five
inches as the maximum of expansion.
The exhibitor could expand his from
nine to twelve inches. Those who did
not take much interest in other perform
ances were wonder-struck at this.
This feat was performed by the remarkf
able degree of the compressibility o.
the chest and his powers to force his
heart and lungs into the abdominal
cavity, and then of the power to force
his viscera into his chest. The abdomen
was hardly less curious when the viscera
was forced upward by the diaphragm
than was the inflated chest, for at such
a time there seemed to be an entire alb
sence of organs in that part OF the body,
and to be no distance at all from the
front walls of the abdomen to the spinal
column.
The subject proved fine study in the
anatomy of the muscles, because he
could contract them SO as to show the
position of each one from origin to in.
sertion. He had this power over the
muscles in pairs or separately, and
could make them as distinct as if dis
sected.
Mr.. Warren concluded with an exhibi.
tion of his ability to comfort his whole
body, drawing himself through rings
and performing other things, much to
the amusement of the students and the
professors, if they had only felt at lib
erty to give way to laughter. Mr.
Warren has daughter who takes after
himself and can dislocate her Joints with
such ease that they sound like rattles.