A NOVEL EXHIBITION.

Timaru Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 5420, 23 May 1892, Page 3

A NOVEL EXHIBITION.

An account of the performances of the Indian Fakir Soliman Ben Aissa is given br the Vienna correspondent of tho Jjanaet. Tha eshibition baa very properly been forbiddeu m publip places m Vienna, but a series cf private pnlortainment has been arrangec. An aristooratio audiaqoo was prssent at tbß first of these. Tbe fukir oommenr^d hj performance by inba'ing the fumes of burned powder prepared from extraots of BQake and scorpion poisons, and by certain quick movements of the head he produced a foaming at the month. After tbese preliminaries, needles Bnd other sharp instruments were thrust through various parts of his body, including a Istiletto a foot long and half Bn iaoh broad, which was thrust through his tongue. Another feat which is Baid to have caused a great Bsnsfttiot consisted m pulling forward the eyeball onr| prgsontine it outside the orbit to the view of the audience befiyepn twp fjngprs. £c was " invnlnerable ". alio to the beat psoduoofj by a flaming torch held tar a minute and o half against the under surface of his forearm. Ghowing glass and playing with poisonous snaken were among his other tricks. Tbe Lanoet recalls tbe experiments of the celebrated " Firp King," who many years ago oreated » eeoeation ill London

by advertising hji power to drink prussic acid' without injury to himself. The history of bis exposure, sudden downfall, and subsequent malignant challenge to Mr Wakley to flight a duel, form one of the most interesting and humorous chapters m the older volumes of tho Lancet. The Lancet deprecates medical men lending their countenance m any degree to such dismal spectacles. Medical science has nobler purposes to fulfil and higher motives to guide it than the gratification, under the teeming sanction of ecienoe, of the morbid curioaity of certiin classes.