AN INGENIOUS HOAX.

Oamaru Mail, Volume I, Issue 151, 14 October 1876, Page 3

AN INGENIOUS HOAX.

When the tar-water mania was at its height, in the year 1777, and that compound wna received as the universal t'umedy for ;r]l dis: as- s, Sir John Hi'l, to himself on t: e Uoyal Society htcnuse they r kited him -as a Fellow, contrived the « ilowmg ingenious hoax, it is thus told l>y Horace Waipole, in one of id* Utters to Sir liosv.cc Mann; but WaJpoie oinits to sslaie that Sir Jo.in Hi'l wrote all tLe letters, and not the a;.i!or himself. A sailor, wt.o had a brok.-a leg, was advised to communicate his cr.se to the I'oyal Society. The account lie gave was, t;;at having fallen from the top of the mast and fractured his kg, he had dressed it with nothing but tar and oakum, and in three days he was able to walk as well as before t;ie accident. The story at first appeared quite incredible, as no such efficacious qualities were known in tar, ard still less in oakum ; nor was a poor sailor to !u credited on his own bare assertion of so wonderful a cure. The society very reasonably demanded a fuller relation and the corroboration of evidence. Many doubted whether the leg had b-.cn really broken. That part of the story had been amply verified. Still, it was difficult to believe that the man had made U3e of no other application than tar and oakum ; and how they could cure a broken lug in three days, even if they couid cure it at all, was a matter of utmost wonder. Several letters jjassed between tiie society and the patient, wiio persevered in the most solemn assentations of having used no other remedies, and it appeared beyond a doubt that the man spoke the truth. But charming was the plain, honest simplicity of the s,iilor : in a postcript to his last letter hb added these words- *' I forgot to tell your Honors that the leg was a wooden one." " Was there ever," says Wallace, " more humor ? What would one have given to have been present, and seen the foolish faces of the wise assembly ('.' — Doctors and Patients.