Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine [284]
occasion, with the aid of a bridle passed about his neck, he lifted three hogsheads full of water, weighing 1386 pounds. If he had utilized the force of his limbs and his loins, like the German, he would have been able to perform far more difficult feats. With his teeth he could lift and maintain in a horizontal position a table over six feet long, at the extremity of which he would put some weight. Two of the feet of the table he rested on his knees. He broke a cord five cm. in diameter, one part of which was attached to a post and the other to a strap passed under his shoulder. He was able to carry in his hands a rolling-pin weighing 800 pounds, about twice the weight a strong man is considered able to lift.
Tom Johnson was another strong man who lived in London in the last century, but he was not an exhibitionist, like his predecessors. He was a porter on the banks of the Thames, his duty being to carry sacks of wheat and corn from the wharves to the warehouses. It was said that when one of his comrades was ill, and could not provide support for his wife and children, Johnson assumed double duty, carrying twice the load. He could seize a sack of wheat, and with it execute the movements of a club-swinger, and with as great facility. He became quite a celebrated boxer, and, besides his strength, he soon demonstrated his powers of endurance, never seeming fatigued after a lively bout. The porters of Paris were accustomed to lift and carry on their shoulders bags of flour weighing 159 kilograms (350 pounds) and to mount stairs with them. Johnson, on hearing this, duplicated the feat with three sacks, and on one occasion attempted to carry four, and resisted this load some little time. These four sacks weighed 1400 pounds.
Some years since there was a female Hercules who would get on her hands and knees under a carriage containing six people, and, forming an arch with her body, she would lift it off the ground, an attendant turning the wheels while in the air to prove that they were clear from the ground.
Guyot-Daubes considers that one of the most remarkable of all the men noted for their strength was a butcher living in the mountains of Margeride, known as Lapiada (the extraordinary). This man, whose strength was legendary in the neighboring country, one day seized a mad bull that had escaped from his stall and held him by the horns until his attendants could bind him. For amusement he would lie on his belly and allow several men to get on his back; with this human load he would rise to the erect position. One of Lapiada's great feats was to get under a cart loaded with hay and, forming an arch with his body, raise it from the ground, then little by little he would mount to his haunches, still holding the cart and hay. Lapiada terminated his Herculean existence in attempting a mighty effort. Having charged himself alone with the task of placing a heavy tree-trunk in a cart, he seized it, his muscles stiffened, but the blood gushed from his mouth and nostrils, and he fell, overcome at last. The end of Lapiada presents an analogue to that of the celebrated athlete, Polydamas, who was equally the victim of too great confidence in his muscular force, and who died crushed by the force that he hoped to maintain. Figures 181 and 183 portray the muscular development of an individual noted for his feats of strength, and who exhibited not long since.
In recent years we have had Sebastian Miller, whose specialty was wrestling and stone-breaking; Samson, a recent English exhibitionist, Louis Cyr, and Sandow, who, in addition to his remarkable strength and control over his muscles, is a very clever gymnast. Sandow gives an excellent exposition of the so-called "checkerboard "arrangement of the muscular fibers of the lower thoracic and abdominal regions, and in a brilliant light demonstrates his extraordinary power over his muscles, contracting muscles ordinarily involuntary in time with music, a feat really more remarkable than his exhibition of strength. Figures 182 and 184 show the beautiful muscular development of this
Tom Johnson was another strong man who lived in London in the last century, but he was not an exhibitionist, like his predecessors. He was a porter on the banks of the Thames, his duty being to carry sacks of wheat and corn from the wharves to the warehouses. It was said that when one of his comrades was ill, and could not provide support for his wife and children, Johnson assumed double duty, carrying twice the load. He could seize a sack of wheat, and with it execute the movements of a club-swinger, and with as great facility. He became quite a celebrated boxer, and, besides his strength, he soon demonstrated his powers of endurance, never seeming fatigued after a lively bout. The porters of Paris were accustomed to lift and carry on their shoulders bags of flour weighing 159 kilograms (350 pounds) and to mount stairs with them. Johnson, on hearing this, duplicated the feat with three sacks, and on one occasion attempted to carry four, and resisted this load some little time. These four sacks weighed 1400 pounds.
Some years since there was a female Hercules who would get on her hands and knees under a carriage containing six people, and, forming an arch with her body, she would lift it off the ground, an attendant turning the wheels while in the air to prove that they were clear from the ground.
Guyot-Daubes considers that one of the most remarkable of all the men noted for their strength was a butcher living in the mountains of Margeride, known as Lapiada (the extraordinary). This man, whose strength was legendary in the neighboring country, one day seized a mad bull that had escaped from his stall and held him by the horns until his attendants could bind him. For amusement he would lie on his belly and allow several men to get on his back; with this human load he would rise to the erect position. One of Lapiada's great feats was to get under a cart loaded with hay and, forming an arch with his body, raise it from the ground, then little by little he would mount to his haunches, still holding the cart and hay. Lapiada terminated his Herculean existence in attempting a mighty effort. Having charged himself alone with the task of placing a heavy tree-trunk in a cart, he seized it, his muscles stiffened, but the blood gushed from his mouth and nostrils, and he fell, overcome at last. The end of Lapiada presents an analogue to that of the celebrated athlete, Polydamas, who was equally the victim of too great confidence in his muscular force, and who died crushed by the force that he hoped to maintain. Figures 181 and 183 portray the muscular development of an individual noted for his feats of strength, and who exhibited not long since.
In recent years we have had Sebastian Miller, whose specialty was wrestling and stone-breaking; Samson, a recent English exhibitionist, Louis Cyr, and Sandow, who, in addition to his remarkable strength and control over his muscles, is a very clever gymnast. Sandow gives an excellent exposition of the so-called "checkerboard "arrangement of the muscular fibers of the lower thoracic and abdominal regions, and in a brilliant light demonstrates his extraordinary power over his muscles, contracting muscles ordinarily involuntary in time with music, a feat really more remarkable than his exhibition of strength. Figures 182 and 184 show the beautiful muscular development of this