the oven, the physicians found that his pulse beat 134 pulsations a
minute, though it was but 72 at his going in, The oven being healed anew
for a second experiment, the Spaniard re-entered and seated himself in
the same attitude; at three quarters past eight, ate the fowl, and drank
a bottle of wine to the health of the spectators. At coming out his
pulse was 176, and the thermometer indicated a heat of 110 degrees of
Reaumur. Finally, for the third and last experiment, which almost
immediately followed the second, he was stretched on a plank, surrounded
with lighted candles, and thus put into the oven, the mouth of which was
closed this time. He was there nearly five minutes, when all the
spectators cried out, "Enough, enough," and anxiously hastened to take
him out. A noxious and suffocating vapour of tallow filled the inside of
the oven, and all the candles were extinguished and melted. The
Spaniard, whose pulse was 200 at coming out of this gulf of heat,
immediately threw himself into a cold bath, and in two or three minutes
after was on his feet safe and sound.


WILL OF MR. WILLIAM HICKINGTON,

_Proved in the Deanery Court of York, 1772._

This is my last Will,
I insist on it still,
So sneer on and welcome
And e'en laugh your fill.
I, William Hickington,
Poet of Pocklington,
Do give and bequeathe,
As free as I breathe,