in the other A number of questions, ready prepared, are inscribed on
oval medallions, and the spectator takes any of these he chooses and
to which he wishes an answer, and having placed it in a drawer ready to
receive it, the drawer shuts with a spring till the answer is returned.
The magician then arises from his seat, bows his head, describes circles
with his wand, and consulting the book as If in deep thought, he lifts
it towards his face. Having thus appeared to ponder over the proposed
question he raises his wand, and striking with it the wall above his
head, two folding doors fly open, and display an appropriate answer to
the question. The doors again close, the magician resumes his original
position, and the drawer opens to return the medallion. There are twenty
of these medallions, all containing different questions, to which the
magician returns the most suitable and striking answers. The medallions
are thin plates of brass, of an elliptical form, exactly resembling each
other. Some of the medallions have a question inscribed on each side,
both of which the magician answered in succession. If the drawer is shut
without a medallion being put into it, the magician rises, consults his
book, shakes his head, and resumes his seat. The folding doors remain
shut, and the drawer is returned empty. If two medallions are put into
the drawer together, an answer is returned only to the lower one. When
the machinery is wound up, the movements continue about an hour, during
which time about fifty questions may be answered. The inventor stated
that the means by which the different medallions acted upon the
machinery, so as to produce the proper answers to the questions which
they contained, were extremely simple."

The duck of Vaucanson was still more remarkable. It was _of _the size
of life, and so perfect an imitation of the living animal that all the
spectators were deceived. It executed, says Brewster, all the natural
movements and gestures, it ate and drank with avidity, performed all the
quick motions of the head and throat which are peculiar to the duck, and
like it muddled the water which it drank with its bill. It produced
also the sound of quacking in the most natural manner. In the anatomical
structure the artist exhibited the highest skill. Every bone in the
real duck had its representative In the automaton, and its wings were
anatomically exact. Every cavity, apophysis, and curvature was imitated,
and each bone e