The Jesuit savant possessed in his museum an apparatus which probably came from some ancient Egyptian temple. It consisted of a hollow hemispherical dome supported by four columns, and placed over the image of the goddess of the numerous breasts. To two of the columns were adjusted movable holders, upon which lamps were fixed. The hemisphere was hermetically closed beneath by a metallic plate. The small altar, into which the milk was poured, communicated with the interior {10} of the statue by a tube reaching nearly to the bottom; it was also connected with the hollow dome by a tube having a double bend. At the moment of sacrifice, the two lamps, which were turned by means of movable holders directly beneath the lower plate of the dome, were lighted, thereby causing the air inclosed in the dome to expand. This expanded air, passing through the tube, pressed upon the milk shut within the altar, forcing it to ascend the straight tube into the interior of the statue and up to the height of the breasts of the goddess. A series of little ducts, branching off from the principal tube, conveyed the liquid into the breasts. From these mammary glands of bronze the {11} lacteal fluid streamed out, to the great admiration of the spectators, who believed that a miracle had taken place. When the sacrifice was finished, the lamps were extinguished by the attendant priest of the shrine, and the milk ceased to flow. There were many other mechanical devices of great interest, such as the miraculous vessels used in the temples of Egypt and Greece, and the apparatus that formed part of the Grecian puppet-shows and other theatrical performances; but these hardly come within the scope of this chapter. Philo of Byzantium and Heron of Alexandria both left exhaustive treatises on the mechanic arts as understood by the ancients. Philo’s work has unfortunately been lost, but Heron’s treatise has a world of interest to anyone who is attracted to the subject. [Illustration: A RECENTLY PATENTED SLOT MACHINE ALMOST IDENTICAL WITH HERON’S WATER-VESSEL] [Illustration: LUSTRAL WATER-VESSEL DESCRIBED BY HERON ABOUT 100 B.C.] [Illustration: ORIENTAL CONJURER PERFORMING THE CUP-AND-BALL TRICK, WITH SNAKE EFFECT INTRODUCED. From an old and rare book called _The Universal Conjurer or the Whole Art as Practised by the Famous Breslaw, Katerfelto, Jonas, Flockton, Conus, and by the Greatest Adepts in London and Paris, etc._ London. (From the Ellison Collection, New York.)]