Scientific American Supplement, No. 446, July 19, 1884 by Various

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In the Indies, these fakirs visit all the great markets, all religious
fetes, and usually all kinds of assemblages, in order to exhibit,
themselves. If one of them exhibits some new peculiarity, some curious
deformity, a strange posture, or, finally, any physiological curiosity
whatever that surpasses those of his confreres, he becomes the
attraction of the fete, and the crowd surrounds him, and small coin and
rupees begin to fall into his bowl.

Fakirs, like all persons who voluntarily torture themselves, are curious
examples of the modifications that will, patience, and, so to speak,
"art" can introduce into human nature, and into the sensitiveness and
functions of the organs. If these latter are capable of being improved,
of having their functions developed and of acquiring more strength (as,
for example, the muscles of boxers, the breast of foot racers, the voice
of singers, etc.), these same organs, on the contrary, can be atrophied
or modified, and their functions be changed in nature. It is in such
degradation and such degeneration of human nature that fakirs excel, and
it is from such a point of view that they are worth studying.

We may, so to speak, class these individuals according to the grades of
punishments that they inflict upon themselves, or according to the
deformities that they have caused themselves to undergo. But, as we have
already said, the number of both of these is extremely varied, each
fakir striving in this respect to eclipse his fellows. It is only
necessary to open a book of Indian travel to find descriptions of fakirs
in abundance; and such descriptions might seem exaggerated or unlikely
were they not so concordant. The following are a few examples:

_Immovable fakirs_.--The number of these is large. They remain immovable
in the spot they have selected, and that too for an exceedingly long
period of time. An example of one of these is cited who remained
standing for twelve years, his arms crossed upon his breast, without
moving and without lying or sitting down. In such cases charitable
persons always take it upon themselves to prevent the fakir from dying
of starvation. Some remain sitting, immovable, and apparently lifeless,
while others, who lie stretched out upon the ground, look like corpses.
It may be easily imagined what a state one of these beings is in after a
few months or years of immobility. He is extremely lean, his limbs are
atrophied, his body is black with filth and dust, his hair is long and
dishevelled, his beard is shaggy, his finger and toe nails have become
genuine claws, and his aspect is frightful. This, however, is a
character common to all fakirs.

We may likewise class among the immovables those fakirs who cause
themselves to be interred up to the neck, and who remain thus with their
head sticking out of the ground either during the entire time the fair
or fete lasts or for months and years.

_Anchylotic Fakirs_.--The number of fakirs who continue to hold one or
both arms outstretched is very large in India. The following description
of one of them is given by a traveler: "He was a goussain--a religious
mendicant--who had dishevelled hair and beard, and horrible tattooings
upon his face, and, what was most hideous, was his left arm, which,
withered and anchylosed, stuck up perpendicularly from the shoulder. His
closed hand, surrounded by straps, had been traversed by the nails,
which, continuing to grow, had bent like claws on the other side.
Finally, the hollow of this hand, which was filled with earth, served as
a pot for a small sacred myrtle."

Other fakirs hold their two arms above their head, the hands crossed,
and remain perpetually in such a position. Others again have one or both
arms extended. Some hang by their feet from the limb of a tree by means
of a cord, and remain head downward for days at a time, with their face
uncongested and their voice clear, counting their beads and mumbling
prayers.

One of the most remarkable peculiarities of fakirs is the faculty that
certain of them possess of remaining entirely buried in vaults and
boxes, and inclosed in bags, etc., for weeks and months, and, although
there is a certain deceit as regards the length of their absolute
abstinence, it nevertheless seems to be a demonstrated fact that, after
undergoing a peculiar treatment, they became plunged into a sort of
lethargy that allows them to remain for several days or weeks without
taking food. Certain fakirs that have been interred under such
conditions have, it appears, passed ten months or a year in their grave.

_Tortured Fakirs_.--Fakirs that submit themselves to tortures are very
numerous. Some of them perform exercises analogous to those of the
Aissaoua. Mr. Rousselet, in his voyage to the Indies, had an opportunity
of seeing some of these at Bhopal, and the following is the picturesque
description that he gives of them: "I remarked some groups of religious
mendicants of a frightfully sinister character. They were Jogins, who,
stark naked and with dishevelled hair, were walking about, shouting, and
dancing a sort of weird dance. In the midst of their contortions they
brandished long, sharp poniards, of a special form, provided with steel
chains. From time to time, one of these hallucinated creatures would
drive the poniard into his body (principally into the sides of his
chest), into his arms, and into his legs, and would only desist when, in
order to calm his apparent fury, the idlers who were surrounding him
threw a sufficient number of pennies to him."

At the time of the feast of the Juggernaut one sees, or rather one _did_
see before the English somewhat humanized this ceremony, certain fakirs
suspended by their flesh from iron hooks placed along the sides of the
god's car. Others had their priests insert under their shoulder blades
two hooks, that were afterward fixed to a long pole capable of pivoting
upon a post. The fakirs were thus raised about thirty feet above ground,
and while being made to spin around very rapidly, smilingly threw
flowers to the faithful. Others, again, rolled over mattresses garnished
with nails, lance-points, poniards, and sabers, and naturally got up
bathed in blood. A large number cause 120 gashes (the sacred number) to
be made in their back and breast in honor of their god. Some pierce
their tongue with a long and narrow poniard, and remain thus exposed to
the admiration of the faithful. Finally, many of them are content to
pass points of iron or rods made of reed through folds in their skin. It
will be seen from this that fakirs are ingenious in their modes of
exciting the compassion and charity of the faithful.

Elsewhere, among a large number of savage tribes and half-civilized
peoples, we find aspirants to the priesthood of the fetiches undergoing,
under the direction of the members of the religious caste that they
desired to enter, ordeals that are extremely painful. Now, it has been
remarked for a long time that, among the neophytes, although all are
prepared by the same hands, some undergo these ordeals without
manifesting any suffering, while others cannot stand the pain, and so
run away with fright. It has been concluded from this that the object of
such ordeals is to permit the caste to make a selection from among their
recruits, and that, too, by means of anesthetics administered to the
chosen neophytes.

In France, during the last two centuries, when torturing the accused was
in vogue, some individuals were found to be insensible to the most
fearful tortures, and some even, who were plunged into a species of
somnolence or stupefaction, slept in the hands of the executioner.

What are the processes that permit of such results being reached?
Evidently, we cannot know them all. A certain number are caste, sect, or
family secrets. Many are known, however, at least in a general way. The
processes naturally vary, according to the object to be attained. Some
seem to consist only in an effort of the will. Thus, those fakirs who
remain immovable have no need of any special preparation to reach such a
result, and the same is the case with those who are interred up to the
neck, the will alone sufficing. Fakirs probably pass through the same
phases that invalids do who are forced to keep perfectly quiet through a
fracture or dislocation. During the first days the organism revolts
against such inaction, the constraint is great, the muscles contract by
starts, and then the patient gets used to it; the constraint becomes
less and less, the revolt of the muscles becomes less frequent, and the
patient becomes reconciled to his immobility. It is probable that after
passing several months or years in a state of immobility fakirs no
longer experience any desire to change their position, and even did they
so desire, it would be impossible owing to the atrophy of their muscles
and the anchylosis of their joints.

Those fakirs who remain with one or several limbs immovable and in an
abnormal position have to undergo a sort of preparation, a special
treatment; they have to enter and remain two or three mouths in a sort
of cage or frame of bamboo, the object of which is to keep the limb that
is to be immobilized in the position that it is to preserve. This
treatment, which is identical with the one employed by surgeons for
curing affections of the joints, has the effect of soldering or
anchylosing the articulation. When such a result is reached, the fakir
remains, in spite of himself and without fatigue, with outstretched
arms, and, in order to cause them to drop, he would have to undergo a
surgical operation.

As for those voluntary tortures that cause an effusion of blood, the
insensibility of those who are the victims of it is explainable when we
reflect that _India_ is _the_ country _par excellence_ of anaesthetic
plants. It produces, notably, Indian hemp and poppy, the first of which
yields hashish and the other opium. Now it is owing to these two
narcotics, taken in a proper dose, either alone or combined according to
a formula known to Hindoo fakirs and jugglers, but ignored by the lower
class, that the former are able to become absolutely insensible
themselves or make their adepts so.

[Illustration: INDIAN FAKIRS IN VARIOUS POSITIONS.]

There is, especially, a liquor known in the Indian pharmacopoeia under
the name of _bang_, that produces an exciting intoxication accompanied
with complete insensibility. Now the active part of bang consists of a
mixture of opium and hashish. It was an analogous liquor that the
Brahmins made Indian widows take before leading them to the funeral
pile. This liquor removed from the victims not only all consciousness of
the act that they were accomplishing, but also rendered them insensible
to the flames. Moreover, the dose of the anaesthetic was such that if, by
accident, the widow had escaped from the pile (something that more than
once happened, thanks to English protection), she would have died
through poisoning. Some travelers in Africa speak of an herb called
_rasch_, which is the base of anaesthetic preparations employed by
certain Arabian jugglers and sorcerers.

It was hashish that the Old Man of the Mountain, the chief of the sect
of Assassins, had recourse to for intoxicating his adepts, and it was,
it is thought, by the use of a virulent solanaceous plant--henbane,
thornapple, or belladonna--that he succeeded in rendering them
insensible. We have unfortunately lost the recipe for certain
anaesthetics that were known in ancient times, some of which, such as the
_Memphis stone_, appear to have been used in surgical operations. We are
also ignorant of what the wine of myrrh was that is spoken of in the
Bible.

We are likewise ignorant of the composition of the anaesthetic soap, the
use of which became so general in the 15th and 16th centuries that,
according to Taboureau, it was difficult to torture persons who were
accused. The stupefying recipe was known to all jailers, who, for a
consideration, communicated it to prisoners. It was this use of
anaesthetics that gave rise to the rule of jurisprudence according to
which partial or general insensibility was regarded as a certain sign of
sorcery. We may cite a certain number of preparations, which vary
according to the country, and to which is attributed the properly of
giving courage and rendering persons insensible to wounds inflicted by
the enemy. In most cases alcohol forms the base of such beverages,
although the _maslach_ that Turkish soldiers drink just before a battle
contains none of it, on account of a religious precept. It consists of
different plant-juices, and contains, especially, a little opium.
Cossacks and Tartars, just before battle, take a fermented beverage in
which has been infused a species of toadstool (_Agaricus muscarius_),
and which renders them courageous to a high degree.

As well known, the old soldiers of the First Empire taught the young
conscripts that in order to have courage and not feel the blows of the
enemy, it was only necessary to drink a glass of brandy into which
gunpowder had been poured.--_La Nature_.

* * * * *

[SCHOOL OF MINES QUARTERLY.]

THE DEPOSITION OF ORES.

By J.S. NEWBERRY.

MINERAL VEINS.

In the _Quarterly_ for March, 1880, a paper was published on "The Origin
and Classification of Ore Deposits," which treated, among other things,
of mineral veins. These were grouped in three categories, namely: 1.
Gash Veins; 2. Segregated Veins; 3. Fissure Veins; and were defined as
follows:

_Gash Veins_.--Ore deposits confined to a single bed or formation of
_limestone_, of which the joints, and sometimes planes of bedding,
enlarged by the solvent power of atmospheric water carrying carbonic
acid, and forming crevices, galleries, or caves, are lined or filled
with ore leached from the surrounding rock, e.g., the lead deposits of
the Upper Mississippi and Missouri.

_Segregated Veins_.--Sheets of quartzose matter, chiefly lenticular and
conforming to the bedding of the inclosing rocks, but sometimes filling
irregular fractures across such bedding, found only in metamorphic
rocks, limited in extent laterally and vertically, and consisting of
material indigenous to the strata in which they occur, separated in the
process of metamorphism, e.g., quartz ledges carrying gold, copper, iron
pyrites, etc., in the Alleghany Mountains, New England, Canada, etc.

_Fissure Veins_.--Sheets of metalliferous matter filling fissures caused
by subterranean force, usually in the planes of faults, and formed by
the deposit of various minerals brought from a lower level by water,
which under pressure and at a high temperature, having great solvent
power, had become loaded with matters leached from different rocks, and
deposited them in the channels of escape as the pressure and temperature
were reduced.

Since that article was written, a considerable portion of several years
has been spent by the writer continuing the observations upon which it
was based. During this time most of the mining centers of the Western
States and Territories, as well as some in Mexico and Canada, were
visited and studied with more or less care. Perhaps no other portion of
the earth's surface is so rich in mineral resources as that which has
been covered by these observations, and nowhere else is to be found as
great a variety of ore deposits, or those which illustrate as well their
mode of formation. This is so true that it maybe said without
exaggeration that no one can intelligently discuss the questions that
have been raised in regard to the origin and mode of formation of ore
bodies without transversing and studying the great mining belt of our
Western States and Territories.

The observations made by the writer during the past four years confirm
in all essentials the views set forth in the former article in the
_Quarterly_, and while a volume might be written describing the
phenomena exhibited by different mines and mining districts, the array
of facts thus presented would be, for the most part, simply a
re-enforcement of those already given.

The present article, which must necessarily be short, would hardly have
a _raison d'etre_ except that it affords an opportunity for an addition
which should be made to the classes of mineral veins heretofore
recognized in this country, and it seems called for by the recent
publication of theories on the origin of ore deposits which are
incompatible with those hitherto presented and now held by the writer,
and which, if allowed to pass unquestioned, might seem to be
unquestionable.

BEDDED VEINS.

Certain ore deposits which have recently come under my observation
appear to correspond very closely with those that Von Cotta has taken as
types of his class of "bedded veins," and as no similar ones have been
noticed by American writers on ore deposits they have seemed to me
worthy of description.

These are zones or layers of a sedimentary rock, to the bedding of which
they are conformable, impregnated with ore derived from a foreign
source, and formed long subsequent to the deposition of the containing
formation. Such deposits are exemplified by the Walker and Webster, the
Pinon, the Climax, etc., in Parley's Park, and the Green-Eyed Monster,
and the Deer Trail, at Marysvale, Utah. These are all zones in quartzite
which have been traversed by mineral solutions that have by substitution
converted such layers into ore deposits of considerable magnitude and
value.

The ore contained in these bedded veins exhibits some variety of
composition, but where unaffected by atmospheric action consists of
argentiferous galena, iron pyrites carrying gold, or the sulphides of
zinc and copper containing silver or gold or both. The ore of the Walker
and Webster and the Pinon is chiefly lead-carbonate and galena, often
stained with copper-carbonate. That of the Green Eyed Monster--now
thoroughly oxidized as far as penetrated--forms a sheet from twenty to
forty feet in thickness, consisting of ferruginous, sandy, or talcose
soft material carrying from twenty to thirty dollars to the ton in gold
and silver. The ore of the Deer Trail forms a thinner sheet containing
considerable copper, and sometimes two hundred to three hundred dollars
to the ton in silver.

The rocks which hold these ore deposits are of Silurian age, but they
received their metalliferous impregnation much later, probably in the
Tertiary, and subsequent to the period of disturbance in which they were
elevated and metamorphosed. This is proved by the fact that in places
where the rock has been shattered, strings of ore are found running off
from the main body, crossing the bedding and filling the interstices
between the fragments, forming a coarse stock-work.

Bedded veins may be distinguished from fissure veins by the absence of
all traces of a fissure, the want of a banded structure, slickensides,
selvages, etc.; from gash veins and the floors of ore which often
accompany them, as well as from segregated veins, they are distinguished
by the nature of the inclosing rock and the foreign origin of the ore.
Sometimes the plane of junction between two contiguous sheets of rock
has been the channel through which has flowed a metalliferous solution,
and the zone where the ore has replaced by substitution portions of one
or both strata. These are often called blanket veins in the West, but
they belong rather to the category of contact deposits as I have
heretofore defined them. Where such sheets of ore occupy by preference
the planes of contact between adjacent strata, but sometimes desert such
planes, and show slickensided walls, and banded structure, like the
great veins of Bingham, Utah, these should be classed as true fissure
veins.

THEORIES OF ORE DEPOSIT.

The recently published theories of the formation of mineral veins, to
which I have alluded, are those of Prof. Von Groddek[1] and Dr.
Sandberger,[2] who attribute the filling of veins to exudations of
mineral solutions from the wall rocks (i.e., lateral secretions), and
those of Mr. S.F. Emmons,[3] and Mr. G.F. Becker,[4] who have been
studying, respectively, the ore deposits of Leadville and of the
Comstock, by whom the ores are credited to the leaching of adjacent
_igneous_ rocks.

[Footnote 1: Die Lehre von den Lagerstatten der Erze, von Dr. Albrecht
von Groddek, Leipzig. 1879.]

[Footnote 2: Untersuchungen uber Erzgange, von Fridolin Sandberger,
Weisbaden, 1882.]

[Footnote 3: Geology and Mining Industry of Leadville, Annual Report,
Director U.S. Geol. Surv., 1881.]

[Footnote 4: Geology of the Comstock Lode and Washoe District, G.F.
Becker, Washington, 1883.

It is but justice to Messrs. Becker and Emmons to say that theirs are
admirable studies, thorough and exhaustive, of great interest and value
to both mining engineers and geologists, and most creditable to the
authors and the country. No better work of the kind has been done
anywhere, and it will detract little from its merit even if the views of
the authors on the theoretical question of the sources of the ores shall
not be generally adopted.]

The lack of space must forbid the full discussion of these theories at
the present time, but I will briefly enumerate some of the facts which
render it difficult for me to accept them.

First, _the great diversity of character exhibited by different sets of
fissure veins which cut the same country rock_ seems incompatible with
any theory of lateral secretion. These distinct systems are of different
ages, of diversified composition, and have evidently drawn their supply
of material from different sources. Hundreds of cases of this kind could
be cited, but I will mention only a few; among others the Humboldt, the
Bassick, and the Bull Domingo, near Rosita and Silver Cliff, Colorado.
These are veins contained in the same sheet of eruptive rock, but the
ores are as different as possible. The Humboldt is a narrow fissure
carrying a thin ore streak of high grade, consisting of sulphides of
silver, antimony, arsenic, and copper; the Bassick is a great
conglomerate vein containing tellurides of silver and gold,
argentiferous galena, blende, and yellow copper; the Bull Domingo is
also a great fissure filled with rubbish containing ore chimneys of
galena with tufts of wire silver. I may also cite the Jordan, with its
intersecting and yet distinct and totally different veins; the Galena,
the Neptune, and the American Flag, in Bingham Canon, Utah; and the
closely associated yet diverse system of veins the Ferris, the
Washington, the Chattanooga, the Fillmore, etc., in Bullion Canon at
Marysvale. In these and many other groups which have been examined by
the writer, the same rocks are cut by veins of different ages, having
different bearings, and containing different ores and veinstones. It
seems impossible that all these diversified materials should have been
derived from the same source, and the only rational explanation of the
phenomena is that which I have heretofore advocated, the ascent of
metalliferous solutions from different and deep seated sources.

Another apparently unanswerable argument against the theory of lateral
secretion is furnished by the cases _where the same vein traverses a
series of distinct formations, and holds its character essentially
unaffected by changes in the country rock_. One of many such may be
cited in the Star vein at Cherry Creek, Nevada, which, nearly at right
angles to their strike, cuts belts of quartzite, limestone, and slate,
maintaining its peculiar character of ore and gangue throughout.

This and all similar veins have certainly been filled with material
brought from a distance, and not derived from the walls.

LEACHING OF IGNEOUS ROCKS.

The arguments against the theory that mineral veins have been produced
by the leaching of superficial _igneous_ rocks are in part the same as
those already cited against the general theory of lateral secretion.
They may be briefly summarized as follows:

1. Thousands of mineral veins in this and other countries occur in
regions remote from eruptive rocks. Into this category come most of
those of the eastern half of the Continent, viz., Canada, New England,
the Alleghany belt, and the Mississippi Valley. Among those I will refer
only to a few selected to represent the greatest range of character,
viz., the Victoria lead mine, near Sault Ste. Marie, the Bruce copper
mine on Lake Huron, the gold-bearing quartz veins of Madoc, the Gatling
gold vein of Marmora, the Acton and the Harvey Hill copper mines of
Canada, the copper veins of Ely, Vermont, and of Blue Hills, Maine, the
silver-bearing lead veins of Newburyport, Mass.; most of the segregated
gold veins of the Alleghany belt, the lead veins of Rossie, Ellenville,
and at other localities farther South; the copper bearing veins of
Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee; the veins carrying
argentiferous galena in Central Kentucky and in Southern Illinois; the
silver, copper, and antimony veins of Arkansas; and the lead and zinc
deposits of Missouri and the Upper Mississippi.

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