Fire-Walking

Abstract

MANY of those taking part in the discussion on recent fire-walking performances appear to assume that a normal person would be burnt if his passage over the hot surface were identical with that of the fire-walker, and that a beginner can walk on charcoal or boulders with the same evenness and speed as a trained man. Having thus begged the question, they proceed to offer a variety of explanations, discordant in themselves, and ranging from thickened skin to an extrusion of ectoplasm ; thus illustrating once more the futility of propounding theories hi the absence of vital experimental data.