1856. HARLEQUIN'S DRESS. 297 



the Provost and Council. In acknowledging his friend's 

 kindness he says, " It seems to be supposed here that on the 

 day when I was made Professor of Technology there flowed 

 into my head the whole Cyclopaedia of Useful Arts, and 

 all the Encyclopaedias and other treasures of knowledge, 

 and in a liquified condition formed a well full to overflowing 

 somewhere in my pineal gland, so that whoever is ignorant 

 need only put down his bucket and draw it up full. 



" One of my pupils asked me one day, what a harle- 

 quin's dress was made of. This was in the pantomime 

 season, and the young man had been recreating himself at 

 the theatre. When I shook my head in reply, and smiled, 

 he interposed, ' Perhaps I have put an improper question ? ' 

 I hastened to compose his fears, and promised a reply. But 

 how was the momentous question to be answered 1 I used 

 to know a fiddler of a chemical turn, who belonged to the 

 theatre ; but he and his fiddle had long ago vanished, I knew 

 not whither, and he was my only dramatic oracle. What 

 was to be done ? My character as a technologist was at 

 stake, and I was casting about for an introduction to that 

 mysterious entity, Harlequin himself, when help came from 

 an unexpected quarter. The sun would not rise in a proper 

 manner in the opera of the Prophet, and I was waited on 

 by an emissary from the theatrical manager, and requested 

 to assist his Sunship, which by means of a lime-ball light I 

 was enabled to do to the satisfaction of all. I bartered my 

 light for light upon the harlequin's dress, and was informed 

 it was made of the India-rubber elastic tissues, with trian- 

 gular spaces at intervals of a pervious material to allow of 

 perspiration. . . . 



" After these experiences, I felt no surprise at being sum- 

 moned to the Town Council to explain to them off-hand all 

 about fireworks, which, as one of our municipal rulers was 





