The Washington times. (Washington [D.C.]) 1901-1902, 1901-08-25
NOT AN OPTICAL ILLUSION
Sword Swallowing Really the
Feat 1t Appears to Be.
Threats of Mountebanks Trained to
Receive All Sorts of Objects-How
the Trick Is Done Valuable
Service Rendered to Medicine

Persons who visit those summer sea
side resorts which are favored with a
boardwalk with numerous small the
aires along it, wherein are to be seen
continuous performances" of more or
less merit. will have doubtless come
across a 'sword-swallower." This ac-
complished individual comes out dress
ed in brilliant costume. At one side
there are flags of different nations sur
rounding sabres. swords, and yatagans,
and at the other a stack of guns pro-
vided with bayonets. Taking a fiat sa-
Der. whose blade and hilt have been cut
out of the same piece of metal, he in
PRODUCES the point into his throat, taps
the hilt gently. and the blade at length
entirely disappears. He then repeats
the experiment in swallowing the blade
at a single gulp.
Subsequently, after swallowing and
disgorging two of these same swords,
he causes one to penetrate up to its
guard, second not quite so far, third
a little less still, and a fourth up to
about half its length. Pressing now on
the hits, he swallows 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 it by the suppo-
sition that the performer produces an
illusion, merely appearing to swallow
the swords, which in reality find their
way into some exterior receptacle. This
is. indeed. sometimes the case, but the
majority of sword swallowers really do
introduce into their mouths and food
passages the blades that they cause TO
disappear. They attain this result as
follows:
Parts of the throat. despite their SEN
sitiveness and their rebellion against
contact with solid bodies. are capable of
becoming so changed through habit
that they gradually get used to abnor-
NAL contacts. This fact is taken ad-
vantage of in medicine. 1t daily hap
pens that persons affected with disor-
ders 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 oeso-
phageal tube. This tube is of vulcan
lied rubber, which the patient swallows
after the manner of sword swallowers,
and Though the exterior extremity of
which milk or bouillon is introduced
But the patient before being able to
make daily use of this apparatus must
serve an apprenticeship. The first in
PRODUCTION of the end of the tube into
the pharynx is extremely painful, the
second a little less so, and it is only
af trio or
less prolonged, that the patient sue
ceeds in swallowing ten or twelve
inches of the tubing without the slight
est disagreeable sensation.
With the sword swallowers it is alb
solutely the same, for with them it is
only as consequence of repeated trials
that the pharynN becomes sufficiently
accustomed To it to permit them to fin
ally swallow objects as large and rigid
as swords, sabres. canes, and even bill
lizard cues.
All sword swallowers do not proceed
in the same way. Some swallow the
blade directly without any intermediate
apparatus; but in this case their sabres
are provided at the extremity, near the
point, with a small bayonet-shaped ap-
pendage. over which they slip a gutta-
perchS tip without the spectators per-
ceiving it. Others do not even take such
a precaution, but swallow the sabre or
sword Just as it is. 1t is said that an
old French zcuave. who has become a
juggler, allows the spectators to touch
below his sternum the projection that
the point of the sabre in his stomach
makes on his skin.
The majority of sword swallowers.
however, who exhibit upon the stage
employ a guiding tube which they have
previously swallowed. SO that the ex-
periments they are enabled to perform
become less dangerous and can be vari-
ed more. This guiding tube is made Of
thin metal Its dimensions permit of
the easy introduction of the fat bladed
sabres, among other things, and of the
performance of the four-sabre expert
ment, and of the Introduction of sabres
and swords of all kinds.
To explain the trick from a physi-
illogical standpoint. the sabre swallow
ed by the performer enters the mouth
and pharynx first, then the oesophagus,
traverses the cardiac opening of the
stomach. and enters the later as far as
the anrum of the pylorus-the small
cul de sac of the stomach. In their nor
NAL 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 in the direction of the |
oesophagus. the curves of which disap- |
pear or become less; the angle that the |
oesophagus makes with the stomach |
becomes null; and, finally. the last
named organ distends in vertical di-
rection and its internal curve disap-
pears, thus permitting the blade to
traverse the stomach through its
greater diameter: that is TO say, TO
reach the small cul de sac. 1t 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 have rendered i'm |
portant services to medicine. 1t was |
due TO one of them-a swallower OF |
both swords and pebbles-that. In l777. |
q Scotch physician, Stevens, was en- /
abled to make the first studies upon the |
gastric juice of human beings. In or
der to do this, he caused this individual
to swallow small metallic tubes pierced |
with holes and filed with meat accord
Ing to Reaumur's method. and got him
to disgorge them again after certain |
length Of time. II was also sword swal-
lowers who showed physicians to what
extent the pharynx could become hab-
ituated to contact: and from this re-
suited the invention of the Foucher
tube. the oesophagea tube. the wash
Ing out OF the stomach by means of a
fCGn aC cir Nd