NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. Ill 



proving profitable as an adjunct to the theatre, a patent was applied 

 for by Prof. Pepper ; the issue of which was strenuously opposed by 

 competing exhibitors ; to compass their ends, the latter lodged objec- 

 tions against the issuing of the patent, just before it was to receive the 

 Great Seal, and the provisional patentee was allowed one month to 

 answer the objections. The trial of " the ghost" came off before the 

 Lord Chancellor, and distinguished counsel appeared for both parties. 

 Mr. Bower, for the objectors, against Prof. Pepper, put in several affi- 

 davits to the effect that " the ghost " was somewhat of an antiquated 

 personage, that he was well known to several public characters, and 

 could not be justly claimed as the exclusive property of Prof. Pepper. 

 It was averred that a respectable spectre was shown in London in 1845, 

 by Herr Dohler, the celebrated conjurer, and that it made the tour of 

 the whole country with him. Other evidence of a similar nature was 

 also produced ; and in the course of the arguments on the subject, the 

 Lord Chancellor himself stated that he had seen a ghost, fifty-five years 

 before, exhibited by the celebrated Belzoni. Upon the other side, how- 

 ever, evidence was put in, from no less scientific personages than Prof. 

 Wheatstone and Sir David Brewster, to the effect that the invention 

 was new ; and the Lord Chancellor hearing both sides fully, came to 

 the conclusion that the ghost in question was a new ghost, and accord- 

 ingly gave judgment for the defendant, Prof. Pepper. 



That Prof. Pepper's plan of producing spectral appearances is, how- 

 ever, a very old affair, seems to be proved by the following extract 

 from a work written by John Baptista de Porta, in 1558, upon " Natur- 

 al Magick" ; and translated into English in 1582. 



It says : " How we may see in a chamber things that are not I 

 thought this an artifice not to be despised ; for we may in any chamber, 

 if a man look in, see those things which were never there ; and there is 

 no man so witty that will think he is mistaken : Wherefore to describe 

 the matter. Let there be a chamber whereinto no other light cometh 

 unless by the door or window where the spectator looks in ; let the 

 whole window or part of it be of glass, as we used so to do to keep out 

 the cold ; but let one part be polished, that there may be a looking-glass 

 on both sides, whence the spectator must look in ; for the rest do nothing. 

 Let pictures be set over against this window, marble statues and such 

 like ; for what is without will seem within, and what is behind the 

 spectator's back he will think to be in the middle of the house, as far 

 from the glass inward as they stand from it outwardly, and so clearly 

 and certainly that he would think he sees nothing but truth. But lest 

 the skill should be known, let the part be made so where the ornament 

 is that the spectator may not see it, as above his head, that a pavement 

 may not come between above his head ; and, if an ingenious man do 

 this, it is impossible that he should suppose that he is deceived." 



PHOTOGRAPHY IN CONNECTION WITH ART. 



The following is an abstract of a lecture on the above subject, recent- 

 ly read before the Cornwall Polytechnic Society, of England, by Col. 

 "VVortley : The lecturer began by alluding to photographic portrait- 

 ure, as carried on in the present day ; and asked his hearers to disa- 

 buse their minds of a common error into which most people fall, namely, 

 that a photograph, because it is taken as it were by machinery, must 



