AN INDIARUBBER MAN.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 6501, 16 February 1882, Page 4

AN INDIARUBBER MAN.

The strangest phenomenon we have seen for a long time is now on view in Vienna. “ Der Gummimensoh,” or the indirubber man, is quite the queerest fellow imaginable. He is a pale, flaccid man, with red hair and a bilious complexion ; he wears black velvet knickerbockers, and is very polite. He can seize the skin of his chest with both hands, pull it away from his body about 18 inches, and raise it to the level of his head ; and yet, when he leaves go, instead of this skin hanging in horrid folds, it goes spreading itself again, so that not a crease is to be discovered. The skin of his nose he can stretch six inches, the skin of his fingers two inches, so that his hands look sizes No. 20 or 30. He drags at the calf of his leg, and behold a goodly and translucent membrane, in which can be seen the ramified network of arteries, pink and pulsating. This does not hurt him. He can—but enough. You see that he well deserves his title of “Gummimensoh.” What with his cadaverous face and gluey elasticity, he much reminds one of Dorb’s ghastly portrayal of the damned in the grand illustrations of the “ Inferno.” The medical faculty are highly exercised anent this man, and they have begged him for the smallest strip of skin, just for a microscopical investigation. There; has not been such a case for two centuries, and in those days, of course, the microscope ' was rather primitive. “ Gummimensch ”is : a Bavarian, 32 years of age, married, and has three normal children. He charges two florins to show himself; his skin feels like velvet, or perhaps like the breast of a, plucked fowl; but it is not a sweet sensation to touch him.,—“ Globe.”