Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1879-01-15
SOME Uses OF PHOTOGRAPHY.

SOME USES OF PHOTOGRAPHY.
Not only does photography re-
produce with absolute perfection
details which the most scrupulous
eye-work could not trace without
errors, but it actually sees what Is
invisible; the sensitive plate re-
ceives impressions which altogeth-
or escape the human eye. Thus a
French ambassador in Greece,
Baron eros, who used to amuse
himself with photography, took
one day view of the Acropolis'
He never looked at it again till he
was back in Paris; and then, ex'
aiming it with the microscope, he
was astonished to find on stone
in the foreground the figure OF a
lion devouring a serpent, in the
very earliest style Of Greek art
Here was something which none OF
the antiquarians, who have counted
every stone in the old temple OF
PalIas Athene, had ever noticed !;
the sun had found it out, and the
Frenchman's photograph had made
it evident to the eyes of men. 1t
is the same with MSS. The parts
that have through age and damp
become illegible stand out in the
Photographic copy as strongly
marked as the rest. Ink gets yell
low with time; the peroxide OF
iron, which gives it its coloring, is
gradually oxidized until even a
magnifying glass can trace nothing
on the parchment, but the chemi-
cal effect remains; the ink, which
has become invisible, still has pow
err to diminish the susceptibility to
light of those parts on which it
was laid; and so the writing, which
had long since disappeared, comes
out black and legible by the aid OF
the camera.
This use of photography is very
valuable to the classical Scholar
1t gives him chance of recover
ing the MSS. of Greek and Roman
authors whose works were sup
posed to have persisted. Besides
the burning of libraries like that
of Alexandria, and the natural de-
cav when rolls of parchments were
stored for safety in damp cellars
there was, all through the Dark
Ages, a cruel custom of taking
classical MSS, and using the parch-
ment up again, after rubbing of
the ink as far as possible with
pummice stone. Thus, If a new
account book was wanted, and the
monastery funds were low, instead
of buying few new skins, Brother
Paulus, sub-prior and bursar
thought he was doing very clever
thing by diving into the library
and picking out a volume contain
ing, perhaps, the now lost books o.
Livy; perhaps half dozen Greek
plays-any thing, except, of course
the writings of the fathers and
those of Aristotle, whom, somehow
the medieval school men had come
to look upon with as much rever.
ence as if he had been a father oil
the church. The said volume was
handed over to a serving brother,
who washed it, pumiced it, and got
rid as wholly as he could of the
ungodly writing which it was a
pious work to rended illegible.
This sort Of thing went on Wig
erously just before the discovery
or introduction from the East OF
paper-making; for, Of course, as
civilization advanced, the uses OF
parchment and veslum multiplied
much more rapidly than sheep and
calves did. So it comes to pass
that i'm almost every monastery
there are some Of these palimpsests
Il. e., rescraped parchments-on
which bills and expenses, or mon
sstic and theological matters, COW
ers something for which scholars
have perhaps long been vainly
Such palimpsests have