A Miracle Tested It may be doubted whether a performance
of an Eastern " miracle " has ever been so thoroughly vetted as that of fire-walking which was demonstrated last Tuesday to a very learned audience in a Carshalton garden. Fire- walking consists in walking barefoot unburned over • glowing charcoal in a- trench. ' The test at Carshalton was unusually severe, the trench being swept by a wind. that blew the, ash off the glowing embers, the surface heat above which was measured and recorded as 800' F. Over • this the fire-walker, a Kaslimiri Mohammedan, walked twice, while the scientific observers stood all round, immediate witnesses both of his passage and •of the fierce heat. An eminent surgeon, Professor Pannet, examined his feet immediately before and after each trip, and found no change in their condition or tempera- ture ; a piece of court plaster placed under one of the feet was unseorched: Two bystanders made the attempt ; but each jumped off at once scorched seriously. Fire- walking is • a very widespread " miracle," and it is of great interest to have it thus brought to scientific tests. No physical explanation emerged.
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