MTEEOES OF VARIABLE CURVATURE. 97 



their own likeness in the hideous forms of hu- 

 manity which were thus delineated, that they 

 could not be brought to contemplate them a 

 second time. If the figure is inanimate, like the 

 small cast of a statue, the effect is very curious, 

 as the swelling and contracting of the parts and 

 the sudden change of expression give a sort of 

 appearance of vitality to the image. The in- 

 flexibility of such a figure, however, is unfavour- 

 able to its transformation into caricatures. 



Interesting as these metamphorses are, they 

 lose in the simplicity of the experiment much of 

 the wonder which they could not fail to excite if 

 exhibited on a great scale, where the performer 

 is invisible, and where it is practicable to give an 

 aerial representation of the caricatured figures. 

 This may be done by means of the apparatus 

 shown in Fig. 7,* where we may suppose AB to 

 be the reduced image seen in the reflecting 

 surface ABC, Fig. 13.f By bringing this image 

 nearer the mirror MM, Fig. 7, a magnified and 

 inverted image of it may be formed at a b, of such 

 a magnitude as to give the last image in PQ the 

 same size as life. Owing to the loss of light by 

 the two reflexions, a very powerful illumination 

 would be requisite for the original figure. If 

 such an exhibition were well got up, the effect of 

 it would be very striking. 



* Page 86. t Page 96. 



