cient evidence of this.
Green mentions submersion for fifteen minutes; Douglass, for fourteen
minutes; Laub, for fifteen minutes; Povall gives a description of three
persons who recovered after a submersion of twenty-five minutes. There
is a case in French literature, apparently well authenticated, in which
submersion for six minutes was followed by subsequent recovery.
There have been individuals who gave exhibitions of prolonged
submersion in large glass aquariums, placed in full view of the
audience. Taylor remarks that the person known some years ago in London
as "Lurline" could stay under water for three minutes. There have been
several exhibitionists of this sort. Some of the more enterprising seat
themselves on an artificial coral, and surrounded by fishes of divers
hues complacently eat a meal while thus submerged. It is said that
quite recently in Detroit there was a performer who accomplished the
feat of remaining under water four minutes and eight seconds in full
view of the audience. Miss Lurline swam about in her aquarium, which
was brilliantly illuminated, ate, reclined, and appeared to be taking a
short nap during her short immersion. In Paris, some years since, there
was exhibited a creature called "l'homme-poisson," who performed feats
similar to Lurline, including the smoking of a cigarette held entirely
in his mouth. In all these exhibitions all sorts of artificial means
are used to make the submersion appear long. Great ceremony, music, and
the counting of the seconds in a loud voice from the stage, all tend to
make the time appear much longer than it really is. However, James
Finney in London, April 7, 1886, stayed under water four minutes,
twenty-nine and one-fourth seconds, and one of his feats was to pick up
70 or 80 gold-plated half-pennies with his mouth, his hands being
securely tied behind his back, and never emerging from his tank until
his feat was fully accomplished. In company with his sister he played a
game of "nap" under water, using porcelain cards and turning them to
the view of the audience. "Professor Enochs" recently stayed under
water at Lowell, Mass., for four minutes, forty-six and one-fifth
seconds. The best previous record was four minutes, thirty-five
seconds, made by "Professor Beaumont" at Melbourne on December 16, 1893.
For the most satisfactory examples of prolonged submersion we must look
to the divers, particularly the natives who trade in coral, and the
pearl f
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