MAILLAKDET'S CONJUEOR. 285 



covered by Mr. Brockedon, who has kindly com- 

 municated to me an account of it. 



Upon examining the edge of the circular medal- 

 lions, Mr. Brockedon discovered in all of them, 

 except the blanks, a small hole almost concealed 

 by the milling. This led Mr. Brockedon to 

 examine the receptacle for the medallion in the 

 drawer, and he observed the edge of a pin flush 

 with the edge of the receptacle, whence the pin 

 was protruded by the machine into the holes in 

 the medallion, the depth of the hole regulating 

 the answer. In order to prove this, Mr. B. cut 

 a slip from a cedar pencil small enough to enter 

 easily the holes in the medallion, if he found 

 them to be of different depths. As the blank 

 medallions had no hole, and produced only a 

 shake of the magician's head, Mr. B. took a me- 

 dallion with a question, and having plugged the 

 hole with a bit of cedar, he cut it flush, and 

 having placed it in the receptacle, the conjuror 

 shook his head, and thus bore testimony to the 

 truth of Mr. Brockedon's discovery. 



M. Maillardet has constructed various other 

 automata, representing insects and other animals. 

 One of these was a spider entirely made of steel, 

 which exhibited all the movements of the animal. 

 It ran on the surface of a table during three 

 minutes, and to prevent it from running off, its 

 course always tended towards the centre of the 

 table. He constructed likewise a caterpillar, 

 a lizard, a mouse, and a serpent. The serpent 

 crawls about in every direction, opens its mouth, 

 hisses, and darts out its tongue. 



Ingenious and beautiful as all these pieces of 

 mechanism are, and surprising as their effects 

 appear even to scientific spectators, the principal 



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