hundred degrees, and to swallow twenty
grains of phosphorus, challenged him to
perform the exploits which he professed
to be performing daily. In consequence
M. Chabert publicly accepted Mr. J.
Smith's challenge for L50, requesting him
to provide the poison himself. A day was
fixed upon which the challenge was to be
determined, and at two o'clock on that
day, a number of gentlemen assembled in
the Argyle-rooms, where the exhibition
was to take place. At a little before three
the fire-king made his appearance near his
oven, and as some impatience had been
exhibited, owing to the non-arrival of Mr.
J. Smith, he offered to amuse the company
with a few trifling experiments. He made
a shovel red-hot and rubbed it over his
tongue, a trick for which no credit, he said,
was due, as the moisture of the tongue was
sufficient to prevent any injury arising
from it. He next rubbed it over his hair
and face, declaring that anybody might
perform the same feat by first washing
themselves in a mixture of spirits of
sulphur and alum, which, by cauterising the
epidermis, hardened the skin to resist the
fire.

He put his hand into some melted lead,