This trick requires only dexterity; and nevertheless, when I performed it at the Theatre-Royal in the Hay-Market, every body imagined that the person whom I had tricked out of his shirt was in a confederacy with me.

The means of performing this trick are the following; only observing that the cloaths of the person whose shirt is to be pulled off be wide and easy.

Begin by making him pull off his stock, and unbuttoning his shirt at the neck and sleeves, afterwards tye a little string in the button-hole of the left sleeve; then, passing your hand behind his back, pull the shirt out of his breeches, and slip it over his head; then pulling it out before in the same manner, you will leave it on his stomach; after that, go to the right hand, and pull the sleeve down, so as to have it all out of the arm: the shirt being then all of a heap, as well in the right sleeve as before the stomach, you are to make use of the little string fastened to the button-hole of the left sleeve, to get back the sleeve that must have slipt up, and to pull the whole shirt out that way.

To hide your way of operating from the person whom you unshirt, and from the assembly, you may cover his head with a lady’s cloak, holding a corner of it in your teeth.

In order to be more at your ease, you may mount on a chair, and do the whole operation under the cloak. Such are the means I used when I performed publicly this trick.

CONTENTS.

Page
PREFACE[5]
Chap. I. Curious Method of restoring to Life, in two Minutes, a Fly that has been drowned even twenty-four hours[11]
Chap. II. To make a Colour that will appear or disappear by Means of the Air[12]
Chap. III. Method of drawing a deformed Figure, which will appear well proportioned from a certain Point of View[ibid.]
Chap. IV. To change the Colour of a Rose[13]
Chap. V. To render hideous the Faces of all the Company[14]
Chap. VI. Method of Engraving in Relief on the Shell of a new-laid Egg[ibid.]
Chap. VII. To shoot a Swallow flying, with a Gun loaded with Powder, as usual; and after, to find Means to bring it to life again[15]
Chap. VIII. To make a Calve’s Head bellow as if alive, when dressed and served up[16]
Chap. IX. A puzzling Question to be proposed for Solution[17]
Chap. X. To dispose two little Figures, so that one shall light a Candle, and the other put it out[19]
Chap. XI. A curious Secret to make a Card pass from one Hand into the other[20]
Chap. XII. To change a Card which is in the Hand of a Person, recommending him to cover it well[23]
Chap. XIII. To guess a Card that has been thought of by any body, by writing before-hand on a Paper or Card a Number, which will certainly be that of the Card that has been thought of[25]
Chap. XIV. A mathematical Combination for guessing, in a whole Pack composed of Fifty-two Cards, how many Points will make the Cards under each Parcel, which Parcels are to be made by one of the Company, observing to him that each Parcel he makes is to compose the Number of Thirteen, to begin from the Point of the first Card which he takes to form each Parcel[28]
Chap. XV. To guess the Thoughts of any Person, assuring him, that you will write before-hand on a Piece of Paper the Amount of the Parcel of Cards he shall happen to chuse out of the two placed on the Table[32]
Chap. XVI. A curious and agreeable Wager, which you are sure of winning[34]
Chap. XVII. A trick with Cards; uniting the double Advantage of being very easy and infallible, it being on a little numerical Combination[35]
Chap. XVIII. Sympathetic Inks[36]
Chap. XIX. To make an Addition before the Figures are set, by knowing only how many Figures are in each Row; as likewise how many Rows compose the whole; and then adding yourself some Figures equal to those that had been set[38]
Chap. XX. An artificial Spider, which moves by Electricity[42]
Chap. XXI. To extinguish two Wax Candles, and light two others, distant about three Feet, by the firing of a Pistol, loaded with Powder, as usual[43]
Chap. XXII. To compose a red Colour, imitating the Colour of Blood[44]
Chap. XXIII. To extinguish a Wax Candle, at eighty or a hundred Paces distance, by firing a Gun loaded with Ball, and to be certain of not missing, however unskilful may be the Marksman[47]
Chap. XXIV. To cut a Glass, a Looking-glass, or even a Piece of Crystal, let it be ever so thick, without the Help of a Diamond, in the same Shape as the Mark of the Drawing made on it with Ink[49]
Chap. XXV. To melt a Piece of Steel, as if it was lead, without requiring a very great Fire[50]
Chap. XXVI. To unite Wax and Water, (Things absolutely opposite to each other); this Union, made in the twentieth Part of a Minute, forms a good Pomatum to clean the Skin, and render it soft and white. It is a fine Cosmetic[52]
Chap. XXVII. A curious Method of sealing a Letter, so as not to be opened, by variegating the Seal with different coloured Species of Wax[53]
Chap. XXVIII. To make fine blue Wax, which is very difficult to be had[54]
Chap. XXIX. A philosophical Mushroom[55]
Chap. XXX. To make a Ring shift from one Hand to another, and to make it go on whatever Finger is required on the other Hand, while somebody holds both your Arms, in order to prevent any communication between them[57]
Chap. XXXI. To guess by smelling, which has been the Number struck out by a Person in the Company, in the Product of a Multiplication given him to do[59]
Chap. XXXII. To make any Pen-knife out of three jump out of a Goblet, agreeable to the Option of the Company[63]
Chap. XXXIII. To pull off any Person’s Shirt, without undressing him, or having Occasion for a Confederate[64]

THE END.