FEARFULLY AND WONDERFULLY MADE.
WOMBWELL'S exhibiter used to remark of the elephant's trunk that it was adapted to unroot oaks or pick up a pin. Civil engi- neering appears to embrace an equal multiplicity of objects. At the last meeting of the Institution of Civil Engineers, a new pa- tent machine for the manufacture of teeth, gums, and palates, was exhibited alongside of railroad and locomotive models, and (deservedly) much admired. It is pretty generally known that the loss of the organs just enumerated is not =frequently sup- plied by artificial imitations ; but the description of the process by which the imitations are formed and inserted goes further -to place the human body on a footing of equality with machines than the mere abstract knowledge. A cast of the mouth is first taken in the usual way-, to obtain an exact counterpart of the inequalities of the inside : the space intervening •between two vermeil lips may be clogged up with plaster of Paris as a prepara- tive to restored beauty. Art does not stop here in its power to replace mutilated or decayed members. Legs and arms of exqui- site proportion and finish—to say nothing of swelling caudal appendages sacred to the use of the fair sex—meet the eye in every street. In the vicinity of Temple Bar, a placard in -a shop- window informs the passer-by, that "artificial eyes, a peculiar clearness and vivacity of expression," are to be had there. The thriving appearance of all these decorative artists -tempts people at times to question whether any person they converse with is entirely human. The whole population seem akin to the en- chanted prince in the Arabian Nights—upwards flesh and down- wards marble. When the Police :pick up a lady or gentleman knocked down by an over-driven cab, they must feel puzzled whether to.carry the body for repair-to the.surgeon, the mechanist or the eivil engineer.
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