This page has been validated.
158
MIRACLE-MONGERS AND THEIR METHODS

or no serum, and in two hours time it became as fragile as coral.

He was unable to pronounce more than a few words, such as Oui, Non, Caillou, Bon. "He has been taught," adds the pious father, evidently pleased with the docility of his interesting pupil, "to make the sign of the cross, and was baptized some months ago in the church of St. Come, at Paris. The respect he shows to ecclesiastics and his ready disposition to please them, afforded me the opportunity of satisfying myself as to all these particulars; and I am fully convinced that he is no cheat."

Here is the advertisement of a stone-eater who appeared in England in 1788.

An Extraordinary Stone-Eater
The Original
STONE-EATER
The Only One in the World,

Has arrived, and means to perform this, and every day (Sunday excepted) at Mr. Hatch's, trunk maker, 404 Strand, opposite Adelphi.