By Isle of Wight Observer
A story published in the Isle of Wight Observer on 1st December, 1855 describes the ‘extraordinary feat’ of a disabled man showing a display of immense strength. A second article from the same issue details the discovery of a new method of numbing during teeth extraction that involved hot and cold wires.
EXTRAORDINARY FEAT. – An itinerant cripple took up his quarters on the quay on Thursday afternoon, and performed a feat which, had we not seen, we would never have believed. As he could not stand without a crutch, he knelt in front of a Windsor chair, on which was placed a stone about the size of a 9lb. skittle ball. Taking an agate stone about a foot in circumference, in his left hand he placed it on the stone in the chair, and with his hand struck a blow which broke it into atoms, as completely as a strong man would with a geologist’s hammer. He repeated the feat several times, and there was no deception in the business.
REMEDY FOR TOOTHACHE – Chamber’s Journal alludes to a discovery by Mr. Blundell, dentist of London, of a process for extracting teeth without pain, and to another process described by Dr. Roberts before the Royal Scottish Society of Arts, for cauterizing the dental nerve and stopping teeth without pain, independent of the ordinary intimidating mode of holding a redhot iron before the patient’s face. Mr. Blundell’s process is the application of ice to the jaw, which so deadens the sensibility that the tooth is extracted entirely without pain. The process of Dr. Roberts is to cauterize by means of a wire applied to the patient’s tooth perfectly cold, and afterwards instantaneously heated to the required extent by a small electric battery.