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It is said that under Charles VI a Genoese acrobat, on the occasion of the arrival of the Queen of France, carried in each hand an illuminated torch while descending a rope stretched from the summit of the towers of Notre Dame to a house on the Pont au Change. According to Guyot-Daubes, a similar performance was seen in London in 1547.
These persons, both made and female, will with their feet juggle substances and articles that it requires several assistants to raise. A curious trick is given by Rousselet in his magnificent work entitled "L'Inde des Rajahs," and quoted by Guyot-Daubes. It is called in India the "dance of the eggs."
It is also said that the divers of Oceanica use heavy stones. According to Guyot-Daubes, in the Philippine Isles the native pearl-fishers teach their children to dive to the depth of 25 meters. The Tahitians, who excited the admiration of Cook, are noted for their extraordinary diving.
It is quite possible that in animals like the tiger and lion the force would equal 1700 or 1800 pounds. The anthropoid apes can easily break a cocoanut with their teeth, and Guyot-Daubes thinks that possibly a gorilla has a jaw-force of 200 pounds. A human adult is said to exert a force of from 45 to 65 pounds between his teeth, and some individuals exceed this average as much as 100 pounds.
Extraordinary physical development and strength has been a grand means of natural selection in the human species. As Guyot-Daubes remarks, in prehistoric times, when our ancestors had to battle against hunger, savage beasts, and their neighbors, and when the struggle for existence was so extremely hard, the strong man alone resisted and the weak succumbed.
According to Guyot-Daubes, these organs, in a straight line, extend a distance of from 55 to 62 cm., and consequently the performer is enabled to swallow an instrument of this length. The length is divided as follows: Mouth and pharynx, . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 to 12 cm. Esophagus, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 to 28 cm. Distended stomach, . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 to 22 cm. 55 to 62 cm.
According to Guyot-Daubes, at Epernay in 1882, while a man named Bucholtz, called "the human cannon," was performing this feat, the cannon, which was over a yard long and weighed nearly 200 pounds, burst and wounded several of the spectators.
He could easily bend and break a horseshoe with his hands, and could seize an ox by the tail and drag it against its will. More than once he was said to have carried a horse on his shoulders. According to Guyot-Daubes there was, in the last century, a Major Barsaba who could seize the limb of a horse and fracture its bone.
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