We put the world before you by means of the Bioscope and Urban films (Nov 1903)

79 or, as he prefers to term them, scientific pictures. The first experiment in this direction was made last August, with a number of views entitled "The Qnseen World." " I was a little in doubt," said Mr. Cox, " as to whether they would appeal to the public at large. But from the very first night they were a huge success. They ran for two mouths, and we have now replaced them by a series entitled 'Denizens of the Deep.' When the first series was running I received quite a number of letters of appreciation. We described the pictures as ' Nature's closest secrets. We will say nothing — it is too mar luncheon time — of the cheese mites shown to exist on a piece of ripe Stilton. Let us come to something laughable— say the American toad. A great toad sits waiting for his repast, a complacent smile upon his face. The meal-worms arrive, and the toad sets to work. With marvellous rapidity he catches them, turning his head from side to side and gulping down the unfortunate meal-worms, one, two, and three at a time, his fat sides heaving with pleasure and excitement. The house always laughed at that. Then we showed the chameleon feeding. lie projects a tongue almost as long as his body, and, as his eyes act independently of each other, he keeps a good look-out all round meanwhile. The beauties of the fresh -water hydra, tin1 circulation of protoplasm in the Canadian waterweed— one of the most wonderful sights revealed by the microscope — the circulation of the frog's blood, pictures of bee life — all these and more were the original list, which used to occupy about twenty minutes in presentation." All this seems so little akin to what may be called the " legitimate drama " of the music hall as to suggest that the public taste may be changing. Is, for instance, knock-about business of the semi-idiotic type just a little on the wane ? Mr. Douglas Cox thinks that possibly it may be, but he is more inclined to say that the public, as ever, is showing its app eciation of something new, or, at all events, of something presented in a new form. Possibly the average musichall habitue is apt to regard the microscope as an instrument certain to bore people. Hut when he sees himself introduced into a new world by its aid, and makes the acquaintance of a lot of " funny little beggars " whose existence he never suspected, he finds himself imbibing knowledge, and doing it under seductive conditions. The •' popular lecture," with its accompanying slides, would be regarded as intolerable. At the Alhambra the living picture of animal life, with its brief description given in a resonant voice, is quite another story. And it will still be more so when the colours come to do the subject even fuller justice. Mr. Douglas Cox points out that, whatever may be possible with other aspects of natural history, things which are only to be viewed by the microscope can never be reproduced for stage purposes other than by the means of photography. He doubts, too, whether in the representation of fish life, which is the subject of the latest set of views, you could ever get the real thing. There are lobsters, for instance, among the most pugilistic of the crustaceans. With his claws one lobster will sometimes snap another in halves. The misfortune is that if he were allowed on the stage he could never be relied on to snap at the right time, and when he did few people could witness the interesting process. It is the sime with the spider. An unhappy little fly is seen getting enmeshed in the silken web, and the proprietor pounces on him voraciously. But another spider comes up, and there ensues a terrific fight for tin' spoil. I low could a contest of this description be stage managed except in the living picture? Then there is the " brick-making " rotifer, which refuses all the indigestible portions of his food, forms them into tiny round bricks, and