The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1877-05-11
Dead Ewes That Bear Witness.

Dead Eyes That Bear WltheSS.
There is well-worn story of the con-
viction Of murderer having been at
tanned by the circumstance that recog-
nizable image or likeness was found i'm
pressed upon the victims eye, after death.
The story has been variously told. One
version places the occurrence in Lyons,
France; another in England. 1t was
probably invented about the time that
daguerreotypes came into use; and
was perhaps suggested by the fact that
small picture of whatever the eye is look
ing at is formed in the center of the eye
and is plainly visible to other eyes.
AS the story is told in one way, a daguer-
reotype was taken of the victim, and the
image of the murderer was found in the
eye by painter who was making pict-
ure OF the murdered man and had &C.
caslon to study the daguerreotype under
high magnifying power. Another version
makes the image found that of friend
who bent over the victim when expiring;
the friend is of course arrested as the
murderer, and thus the plot gains variety.
The notion that such an image in the eye
could remain fixed after death must GER
tainly have seemed plausible to roman
GERS, or they would not have rung so
many changes upon it. Perhaps, how
ever, most readers have dismissed it from
their minds as absurd.
But the conceptions of fancy in one
age often become the facts of discovery
in another. Within few weeks pa
tent German has announced and exhib-
tied some startling experiments that bring
the eye-picture story fully within the
limits OF possibility. DR.. w. Kuhne,
Professor of Physiology in the University
of Heidelberg, mas been carefully review
ing and extending discovery of DR.. Boil,
now of Rome. DR.. Boil had found that
the external layer of the retina of the eye
possesses in life beautiful purple color.
This color is perpetually destroyed and
renewed while the eye is doing work.
DR.. Kuhne found that light was the agent
by which the purple is destroyed; while
the animal is alive the color is quickly re-
stored by the secretive action of the neigh
boring tissues. The next discovery was
that only certain kinds of light have the
power Of discharging the color. IF kept in
other kinds Of light, such for instance
as is obtained by burning a mixture of
soda and alcohol, the purple color re-
mains unaltered, even after death. Final
ly, DR.. Kuhne found chemical reagents
that would fix the color. Now came the
GROWING experiment. He fastened a rab-
bit so that one of its eyes was for Three
minutes exposed to the light from an
open windOw-shutter Then he instantly
decapitated the rabbit aud put the eye in
suitable pickle. Two minutes after the
decapitation the other eye was similarly
exposed to light, and it too was afterward
picked. The next morning both eyes
showed sharply defined image of the
square OF light, surrounded by deep
rose-tint. The image in the second eye
was somewhat the sharper and whittier of
the two. Prof. Bunsen was present and
witnessed this marvellous experiment.
Obviously under more delicate treat
ment the eye could be made to tell the
story of fainter impressions. The eyes
of human victims may yet bear testimo-
ny in courts of law, when murderers are
on trial. In the case we have described,
however, We have no doubt that Profs.
Kuhne and Bunsen dined on the decap-
itated rabbit, and that it agreed with
them. We are only on the threshold of
a similar class Cf discoveries. Window
glass, for instance, that has had letters
fastened upon it and has been exposed to
the light for several years, is found to
have gone some structural change so that
no cleaning will entirely efface the evil
dence that the letters were once attached.
No matter how thoroughly the glass
may be wiped and polished, breath
upon it brings back the shadowy outlines,
the ghosts Of the letters again. Similar
results have followed where nothing but
shadow has rested on the pane. 1t is
found that sunlight changes the color of
glass, just as it alters the sensitive plate
in the photographers camera. A little
more OF such progress may enable US to
compel the walls of old buildings to pict-
ure forth the scenes that we're last enact
ed within them. The opened tomb Of
Greek hero may bear witness to the
last procession within its walls before it
was closed from the light. How the de-
tective of the future will revel in such
evidenced Armed with pocket tele-
phone he may find means of conveying
the fatal whispers of conversation miles
away from the speakers. The mirrors,
the window-panes, the lacquered furni-
ture may picture the occurrences. Last
of all, the CHASTITY head of a lap dog may
be brought into court, and its picked
eyes, under the microscope, may yield
such images rs will convince jury that
a divorce is justified. Think of what q
blood-curdling romance Edgar Allan Poe
could have written, if he had been pro-