Morning journal and courier., 1883-11-03
Sword SRaIloWera.
How Professionals Train Themselves for
 These Daring Ftass.

] How Pr0feSstOm@1s Train Themselves fol These Daring Feass.
 | EFrom La Naturel sG1
 When physician introduces his finger, tn
 handle of a spoon, or pencil into the thSoa of patient, the latter experiences an extreme | ly disaGTeeable sensation. Any touching
 however slight it may be, of the pharynl causes strangling, pain and nausea, and thl organ reacts with violence against the obsta cae that presents itself to free respiration experienced the disagreeable impression anC for this reason we are justly surprised whel We meet with people who seem to be proo
 against it, and who, for example, introduct
 into their pharynx large, solid and stiff ob jects like sword blades, and cause these tt
 penetrate to depth that appears incredible It is experiments of this kind that constitute | the tricks of sword sgallowers.
 l These experiments are nearly always tht same. The individual comes out dressed iE I Q brilliant costume. At one side of him there are flags of different nationalities surround
 ing a panoply of sabres, swords and yatagans l and at the other stack of guns provided l with bayonets. Taking flat sabre, whose
 blade and hilt have been cut ont of the same | sheet of metal, the blade being from 55 to GO l eentimetres in length, he introduces it's ex- tremity into his throat, taps the hilt gently, and the blade at length entirely disappears. He then repeats the experiment in swallowing
 the blade at 8 single gulp. Subsequently after swallowing and disgorgiug two of these same swol ds he causes one to pent -ats up to it's guard, a second not quite so far, third
 little less still and a fourth up to about half
 It's length.
 Pressing now on the hilts, he swallows the
 four blades at gulp; and then he takes them
 out leisurely, one by one. The effect is quite surprising. After swallowing several differ ent swords and sabres, he takes an old musket, armed with triangular bsyonet, and swal- lows the latter, the gun remaining vertical over his head. Finally, he borrows large sabre from dragoon who is present for the purpose, and causes two thirds of it to disap- sword swallower borrows cane from per son in the audience and swallows it almost entirely.
 certain number of spectators usually think that the performer produces an illusion through the aid Of some trick, and that it is impossible to swallow 8 sword blade. But this is a mistake, for sword swallowers who employ artifces are few in number and their experiments but slightly varied, while the majority really do introduce into their mouth and food passage Rhe blades that they cause to disappear. They attain this result as fol- lows:
 The back parts of the mouth, despite their sensiuveness and their rebellion against con- tact with solid bodies, are capable of becom- ing so changed through habit that they grad ually get used to abnormal contacts. This fact is taken advantage of in medicine It daily happens that persons afflicted with dis orders of the throat or stomach can no longer swallow or take pourishment, and would die of exhaustion were they not fed critically by means of the ossophageal tube. The lat ter is vnlcanized rubber tube which the patient swallows after the manner of sword swallowers. and through the extremity of which an aid introduces milk or bouillon. But the patient before being able to make daily use of this apparatus must serve gen. uine apprenticeship. The first introduction of the end of the tube into the pharnyx is ex tremeiy painful, the second is a littls less so, and it is only after large number of trials, more or less prolonged, that the patient sue ceeds in swallowing thirty CT forty centi- metres of the tubing without a disagreeable sensation.
 The washing out of the stomach, performed by means of long flexible tuba which the patient partially swallows, and with which he iniects into and removes from his stomach 8 quantity of tepid water by raising the tube or letting 1t hang down to form siphon, like wise necessitates an apprenticeship of some | days; but the patient succeeds in accustom- 1 ing his organs to contact with the tube, and | Is finally able, after short time, to swallow | the latter with indifference at least, if not l 
 With these sword swallow wers it is absolute | Iy the same; for with them it is only as a | of repeated trial that the phar | ynxibecomss sufficiently accustomed to it to | permit them to finally swallow objects as | large and rigid as swords, sabres, canes and | even billiard cues.