204 SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



Account of ven- door and * atked " Are you there/' to a perfon fuppofed to 

 tnloqmfm. k e j n fa e p a (f a g e ^ t} ie anfwer in the unufual voice was imme- 

 diately afcribed by the audience to a perfon actually in the 

 paflage ; and upon (hutting the door and withdrawing from it, 

 when he turned round, directing his voice to the door and 

 faid, " Stay there till I call you," the anfwer which was 

 lower, and well adapted to the fuppofed diftance and obfta- 

 cle interpofed, appeared (till more ftrikingly to be out of the 

 room. He then looked up to the cieling and called out in his 

 own voice, " What are you doing above ? do you intend to 

 come down ?" to which an immediate anfwer was given, 

 which feemed to be in the room above, M I am coming down 

 directly." The fame deception was practifed on the fuppofi- 

 tion of a perfon being under the floor, who anfwered in the 

 unufual but a very different voice from the other, that he was 

 down in the cellar putting away fome wine. An excellent 

 deception of the watchman crying the hour in the ftreet, and 

 approaching nearer the houfe till he came oppofite the win- 

 dow was practifed. Our attention was directed to the ftreet 

 by the marked attention which Fitz- James himfelf appeared 

 to pay to the found. He threw up the fath and aiked the 

 hour, which was immediately anfwered in the fame tone, but 

 clearer and louder ; but upon his (hutting the window down 

 again the watchman proceeded lefs audibly, and all at once 

 the voice became very faint, and Fitz- James in his natural 

 voice faid, " he has turned the corner." In all thefe in- 

 ftances, as well as others, which were exhibited to the very 

 great entertainment and furprize of the fpectators, the acute 

 obferver will perceive that the direction of the found was ima- 

 ginary, and arofe entirely from the well ftudied and ikilful 

 combinations of the performer. Other (cenes which were to 

 follow required the imagination to be too completely mifled to 

 admit of the actor being feen. He went behind a folding 

 icreen in one corner of the room, when he counterfeited the 

 knocking at a door. One perfon called from within, and was 

 anfwered by a different perfon from without, who was ad- 

 mitted, and we found from the converfation of the parties, 

 that the latter was in pain, and defirous of having a tooth 

 extracted. The dialogue, and all the particulars of the ope- 

 ration that followed, would require a long difcourfe if I were 

 \o attempt to defcribe them to the reader. The imitation of 



the 

 * The whole performance was in French. 



