The means by which this seeming impossibility is performed are as simple as the trick is mysterious, as the following will show. In the center of the vase, reaching from side to side and from the bottom to within a half inch of the top, is a piece of polished mirror. The side edges of the mirror rest in the angles of the vase, and as the vase is only seen from the front, the edges are not seen. The front half of the vase being reflected in the mirror leaves the impression that one is looking directly through the vase, when in reality you only see one-half of the inside. (Fig. 60.) To the back of this mirror is attached a watertight tin box, in which are placed six small silk handkerchiefs and two candles. The exterior of the box and back of the mirror are painted a dead black color. Enough water is poured into the vase to reach the top edge of the mirror. In the water is dissolved a small portion of iron protosulphate. A few cut flowers are placed in the vase, which is then placed on the stand with the mirror side to the audience, and the candles lighted. After the flowers are removed and a handkerchief borrowed, the magician secures possession of and palms between his fingers a small lozenge made of pyrogallic acid, which he drops in the water in front of the mirror in the act of covering the vase with the handkerchief. In a very few moments the lozenge dissolves, and the pyrogallic acid of which it is composed causes the water, which holds in solution the iron protosulphate, to change to a good black ink. On removing the handkerchief with which the vase was covered, ink is seen to have taken the place of the water, and from the center of the vase the performer removes the silk handkerchiefs and candles. Our first engraving shows the vase of water on the stand; the second shows the vase after the water has changed to ink, with the magician removing one of the silk handkerchiefs. The third illustration represents the vase with one side broken away, showing attached to the back of the mirror the tin receptacle that contains the handkerchiefs and candles. The “Mermaid’s Head.” M. Alber, the prestidigitateur, describes in _La Nature_ a variant of a trick which, although old in principle, has recently been brought out in a new and attractive form. Upon a light tripod placed in an alcove or recess hung with some sort of a red fabric, such as cotton velvet, stands an aquarium in which gold fish are observed swimming about, and in the center of which is seen a living female head that moves, smiles, and seems to be absolutely at its ease, although deprived of a body and immersed in water. A reference to the figure will show how the apparatus is arranged.