408 ADDITIONAL PHENOMENA OF NATURAL MAGIC. 



more than the power of the atmospheric concussion 

 involved, might produce the most serious consequences. 

 Who is not familiar with that most disagreeable of sounds, 

 the sharpening of a saw with a file, to recall the very 

 recollection of which is to conjure up a sensation of 

 horror ? It is not in such a case because our dislike is 

 arbitrary and capricious that we hate the sensation pro- 

 duced, but because it is really disagreeable, and to some 

 delicate constitutions has a positively injurious physical 

 effect, that repugnance to it prevails, and the nerves 

 shrink and quiver painfully beneath its action. 



A very amusing novelty has recently been successfully 

 exhibited at one of the London amphitheatres, which may 

 be called " Shadow Pantomime." The body of the house 

 or room being darkened, a white screen is interposed 

 between the audience and the performers, with a light 

 behind it, by means of which the shadows of the per- 

 formers only are given projected on the screen. When 

 a performer approaches near to the light at the back of 

 the stage his shadow is greatly magnified and appears of 

 gigantic proportions, while the other performers approach- 

 ing nearer to the screen appear upon it by their shadows 

 of nearly their natural size. The effect is highly striking 

 and effective, as well as amusing, as the hand of an 

 individual near the light will appear larger by its shadow 

 on the screen than the whole body of an actor more 

 remote from the light, and nearer to the screen. Jack 

 the Giant Killer, and the adventures of Gulliver, admit of 

 a highly effective and comic representation by means of 

 this very ingenious adaptation of shadow, and the arrange- 

 ments are so simple and easily made that the amusements 

 of the nursery may be readily and greatly enhanced and 

 illustrated by it at absolutely no expense, and scarcely 

 any trouble. 



