Year: 1878




Not only does photography reproduce
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
/ receives impressions which altogether
escape the human eye. Thus, French
ambassador in Greece, Baron Gross, who
used to amuse himself with photography,
took one day view of the Acropolis,
lie never looked at it again till he was
back in Paris; and then, examining it
with the microscope, he was astonished
to find on a stone in the foreground the
figure of lion devouring 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 Pallas Athene,
had ever noticed; the sun had found it
out, and the Frenchmsn's photograph
had made it evident to the eyes Of the
men. 1t is the same with Mss. The
parts that have through age and damp
become illegible stand out in the photo
graphic copy as strongly marked as the
rest. Ink gets yellow with time; the
peroxide of iron, which gives it its color
ing, is gradually oxidized until even a
magnifying glass can trace nothing on
the parchment; but the chemical effect
remaius; the ink, which has become in
visible, still has power 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 valu-
able to the classical scholar. 1t gives
him a chance of recovering the MSS. of
Greek and Roman authors whose works
were supposed to have perished. Be
sides the burning of libraries like that
of Alexandria, and the natural decay
when rolls of parchments were stored for
safety in damp cellars, there was, all
through the Dark Ages, cruel custom
Of taking classical MSS. and using the
parchment up again, after rubbing of
the ink as far as possible with pumice-
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 volume containing, per-
haps, the now lost books OF Livy; per-
haps 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 of 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 ungoldly writing which
it was pious work to render illegible.


This sort of thing went on most vigor-
ously Just before the discovery or intro
duction from the East of paper-making;
for, of course, as civilization advanced,
the uses of parchment and vellum null
tiplied much more rapidly than sheep
and calves did. So it comes to pass that
in almost every monastery there are
some of these palimpsests-i G., rescraped
parchments-on which bills and ex-
penses, or monastic and theological rub
bish, covers something for which scholars
have perhaps long been vainly search
ing. Such palimpsests have hitherto
been treated with acids of various kinds
to get rid of the new ink, and then dipped
in a solution of tannin to bring out, il
possible, the old writing. All this wash
ing, however, too often had the effect of
making the whole hopelessly illegible;
whereas photography does away with
the need of it. In the sun picture
the effaced original comes out often as
clearly as that which was written after
ward; and then, of course, it is no very
difficult task to read between the lines.
But this application of photography is
useful not to the scholar only, but to the
statesman, or merchant, or special cor
respondent, or TO any one who wants TO
send letters that nobody else can read.
II you write with solution of sulphate
of quinine, the paper will look like
blank sheet over which fly has traced
few very faint marks; you may safely
send it even by way of Russian head
quarters, unless, indeed, there is pho
tographer there who knows the secret.
In that case he has only to take sun
copy of your seemingly blank sheet, and
what you wrote becomes as legible as the
old sympathetic ink" OF our grand
mothers used to when held before the
fire. Bankers, too, may sometimes find
it convenient to have doubtful checks
photographed. However carefully the
original amount may have been washed
out, the sun will bring it up again to the
confusion of the forger. As for doctors,
it may be worth their while now and
then to photograph their patients when
they suspect there is any eruptive disease
not yet visible. Mr.. II. Nogel, of Ger
lin, cites the case of lady who had al
ways Gas the phrase is) "taken well.
She came OUT one day all over little
black spots. The photographer was
blamed-his chemical must have been
bad, or the plate could not have been
properly cleaned. Two days later, how
ever, 1t became clear that the lady had
smallpox; in fact, she died of it soon
after. Yellow, as every one knows,
comes out black in the sun picture, so
her face must have been covered with
very faint yellnw spots before any eye
could trace the least mark upon the skin.