possibly considered it _qua_ Committee a trifle superfluous."

"Do you not think we ought to visit the Aquarium?" asked the first
speaker. "I am told that there is a Hypnotist who appears there twice
a-day, and whose exhibition, from a scientific point of view, should
be decidedly interesting."

After this there was a speedy departure, and for some hours the
Committee lounged about the Aquarium, They there saw a female acrobat
of great strength. Then they paid a visit to the Alhambra, where they
met a pleasant young lady, who, seemingly without any assistance,
lifted four or five bulky gentlemen seated on a chair. This she did
without any exertion and with a smiling countenance. On their return
to their private room, they seemed somewhat hostile to the pretensions
of the Hypnotist, whose feats they had just witnessed--they preferred
to his performances the feats of the Magnetic Lady.

[Illustration]

"Quite a mistake," said one; "instead of taking off a leg, or showing
the strength of a billiard cue, he makes men believe that they are
swimming in a tank!"

"Very undignified," remarked another; "it would have been so much
better had he performed a surgical operation--say, setting a compound
fracture of the leg, like that performed by two medical men in 1845;
and more interesting to the vast majority of the audience."

"But the Alhambra was excellent," was the reply. "Suppose we send
to our Committee a Report of the 'Magnetic Lady' and ignore the