The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-08-31
NOT AN OPTICAL ILLUSION
SWORD SWALLOWING REALLY THE
FEAT 1T APPEARS TO BE.
Threats OF Mountebanks Trained 10
Receive All sorts of Objects
How the Trick Is Done.
WASHINGTON Times.

NdSnihSlOH lie
Persons who visit those summer seaside
resorts which are favored with a board
walk with numerous little theaters along
1t, wherein are TO be seen continuous per-
formances'' of more or less merit. will have
doubtless come across a 'sword-swal-
lower This accomplished Individual
comes out dressed in a brilliant costume.
AT one side there are flags of different ma
lions surrounding sabers, swords and yata-
gans. and at the other a stack of guns pro-
vided with bayonets. Taking a fiat saber.
whose blade and hilt have been cut out of
the same piece of metal. he introduces the
point into his throat. taps the hilt gently.
and the blade at length entirely disappears
He then repeats the experiment by swai-
lowing the blade at a single gulp.
Subsequently, after swallowing and dis
gorging two of these same swords, he
causes one TO penetrate up to it's guard, a
second not quite so far, a third a little less
still, and a fourth up TO about half its
length. Pressing now on the hits, he swal-
lows the four blades at a gulp, and then
he takes them out leisurely one by one.
The effect is quite surprising, and the
larger number of spectators account for 1t
by the supposition that the performer pro-
duces an illusion, merely appearing TO swai-
low the swords, Wnlcn IN realty utlu their
way into some exterior receptacle. This is.
indeed, sometimes the case, but the ma
jority of sword swallowers really do intro
duce into their mouths and food passages
the blades that they cause to disappear.
They attain this result as follows;
HOW IT is DONE.
Parts of the throat. despite their sensi-
tiveness and their rebellion against contact
with solid bodies, are capable of becoming
so changed through habit that they grad
ually get used to abnormal contacts. This
fact is taken advantage of in medicine. 1t
daily happens that persons affected with
disorders of the throat or stomach can no
longer swallow or take nourishment, and
would die of exhaustion were they not fed
artificially by means OF the oesophageaJ
tube. This tube is of vulcanized rubber,
which the patient swallows after the man
ner of sword swallowers, and through the
exterior extremity of which milk or bouillon
is introduced. But the patient, before be-
ing able to make daily use of this appa-
ratus, must serve an apprenticeship. The
first Introduction of the end of the tube
into the pharynx is extremely painful, the
second a little less so, and ii is only after
a large number of trials, more or less pro-
longed. that the patient succeeds in swal-
lowing ten or twelve inches of the tubing
without the slightest disagreeable sensa-
ton.
With the sword sw%allowers il is absolute
ly the same, for with them ii Is only as a
consequence of repeated trials that the
pharynx becomes sufficiently accustomed to
it to permit them TO finally swallow objects
as large and rigid as swords, Sabers, canes,
and even billiard cues.
All sword swallowers do not proceed in
the same way. Some swallow the blade
directly without any intermediate apara-
tus; but in this case their sabers are pro-
vided at the extremity, near the point,
with a small bayonet-shaped appendage,
over which they slip a gutta-percha tip
without the spectators perceiving it. 9th
ers do not even take such a ~precaution,
but swallow the saber or sword just as
ii is. 1t is said that an old French zouave,
who has become a juggler, allows the spec
tators TO touch below his sternum the pro-
lection that the point of the saber in his
stomach makes on his skin.
The majority of sword swallowers. how
ever. who exhibit upon the stage employ
a guiding tube which they have previously
swallowed, so that the experiments they
are enabled to perform become less dam
gerOuS and can be varied more. This guild
ing tube is made of thin metal. Its dimen-
sions permit of the easy introduction of the
fiat-bladed sabers, among otner things,
and of the performance of the four-saber
experiment, and of the introduction of sa-
berS and swords of all kinds.
THE PHYSIOLOGY OF 1T.
TO explain the trick from a physiological
standpoint, the saber swallowed by the per-
former enters the mouth and pharynx first.
then the oesophagus, traverses the cardiac
opening of the stomach, and enters the lat
ter as far as the antrum of the pylorus-the
small cul de sac Of the stomach. In their
normal state these organs are not in a
straight line, but they are forced so by the
passage of the sword. In the first place
the head is thrown back so that the mouth
is i'm the direction of the oesophagus. the
curves of which disappear or become less:
the angle that the oesophagus makes with
the stomach becomes null; and, finally. the
last-named organ distends I'm a vertical di-
rection and its internal curve disappears,
thus permitting the blade to traverse the
stomach through it's greater diameter; that
is TO say, to reach the small cul de sac. Ii
should be mentioned that, before such a re-
suit can be attained, the stomach must
have been emptied through fasting on the
part of the operator.
Sword swallowers nave rendered i'm
portant services TO medicine. IL was due TO
one OF them-a swallowcr OF both swords
and pebbles-that, i'm 1177, a Scotch physi-
clan, stevens, was enabled to make the first
studies upon the gastric Juice of human
beings. In order TO do this. he caused this
individual to swallow small metallic tubes
pierced with holes and filled with meat ac-
cording to Reaumur's method, and got him
TO disgorge. them again after a certain
length OF time. IL was also sword swal-
lowers who showed physicians to what ex-
tent the pharynx could become habituated
to contact, and from this resulted the in
vention of the Foucher tube, the oesopha-
geal tube, the washing out Of the stomach
by means of a rubber tube used as "A siphon
and the recent methods of illumination and
| photographing of the stomach.