Physiologic wonders are to be found in all our modern sports and games. In billiards, base-ball, cricket, tennis, etc., there are experts who are really physiologic curiosities. In the trades and arts we see development of the special senses that is little less than marvelous. It is said that there are workmen in Krupp's gun factory in Germany who have such control over the enormous trip hammers that they can place a watch under one and let the hammer fall, stopping it with unerring precision just on the crystal. An expert tool juggler in one of the great English needle factories, in a recent test of skill, performed one of the most delicate mechanical feats imaginable. He took a common sewing needle of medium size (length 1 5/8 inches) and drilled a hole through its entire length from eye to point--the opening being just large enough to admit the passage of a very fine hair. Another workman in a watch-factory of the United States drilled a hole through a hair of his beard and ran a fiber of silk through it.
Ventriloquists, or "two-voiced men," are interesting anomalies of the present day; it is common to see a person who possesses the power of speaking with a voice apparently from the epigastrium.
Some acquire this faculty, while with others it is due to a natural resonance, formed, according to Dupont, in the space between the third and fourth ribs and their cartilaginous union and the middle of the first portion of the sternum. Examination of many of these cases proves that the vibration is greatest here. It is certain that ventriloquists have existed for many centuries. It is quite possible that some of the old Pagan oracles were simply the deceptions of priests by means of ventriloqui**.
Dupont, Surgeon-in-chief of the French Army about a century since, examined minutely an individual professing to be a ventriloquist. With a stuffed fox on his lap near his epigastrium, he imitated a conversation with the fox. By lying on his belly, and calling to some one supposed to be below the surface of the ground, he would imitate an answer seeming to come from the depths of the earth. With his belly on the ground he not only made the illusion more complete, but in this way he smothered "the epigastric voice."He was always noticed to place the inanimate objects with which he held conversations near his umbilicus.
Ventriloquists must not be confounded with persons who by means of skilful mechanisms, creatures with movable fauces, etc., imitate ventriloqui**. The latter class are in no sense of the word true ventriloquists, but simulate the anomaly by quickly changing the tones of their voice in rapid succession, and thus seem to make their puppets talk in many different voices. After having acquired the ability to suddenly change the tone of their voice, they practice imitations of the voices of the aged, of children, dialects, and feminine tones, and, with a set of mechanical puppets, are ready to appear as ventriloquists. By contraction of the pharyngeal and laryngeal muscles they also imitate tones from a distance. Some give their performance with little labial movement, but close inspection of the ordinary performer of this class shows visible movements of his lips. The true ventriloquist pretends only to speak from the belly and needs no mechanical assistance.
The wonderful powers of mimicry displayed by expert ventriloquists are marvelous; they not only imitate individuals and animals, but do not hesitate to imitate a conglomeration of familiar sounds and noises in such a manner as to deceive their listeners into believing that they hear the discussions of an assemblage of people. The following description of an imitation of a domestic riot by a Chinese ventriloquist is given by the author of "The Chinaman at Home" and well illustrates the extent of their abilities: "The ventriloquist was seated behind a screen, where there were only a chair, a table, a fan, and a ruler. With this ruler he rapped on the table to enforce silence, and when everybody had ceased speaking there was suddenly heard the barking of a dog. Then we heard the movements of a woman. She had been waked by the dog and was shaking her husband. We were just expecting to hear the man and wife talking together when a child began to cry. To pacify it the mother gave it food; we could hear it drinking and crying at the same time. The mother spoke to it soothingly and then rose to change its clothes.
Meanwhile another child had wakened and was beginning to make a noise. The father scolded it, while the baby continued crying.
By-and-by the whole family went back to bed and fell asleep. The patter of a mouse was heard. It climbed up some vase and upset it. We heard the clatter of the vase as it fell. The woman coughed in her sleep. Then cries of "Fire! fire!" were heard. The mouse had upset the lamp; the bed curtains were on fire. The husband and wife waked up, shouted, and screamed, the children cried, people came running and shouting. Children cried, dogs barked, squibs and crackers exploded. The fire brigade came racing up. Water was pumped up in torrents and hissed in the flames. The representation was so true to life that every one rose to his feet and was starting away when a second blow of the ruler on the table commanded silence. We rushed behind the screen, but there was nothing there except the ventriloquist, his table, his chair, and his ruler."Athletic Feats.--The ancients called athletes those who were noted for their extraordinary agility, force, and endurance. The history of athletics is not foreign to that of medicine, but, on the contrary, the two are in many ways intimately blended. The instances of feats of agility and endurance are in every sense of the word examples of physiologic and functional anomalies, and have in all times excited the interest and investigation of capable physicians.