72 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[July 28. 1855. 



PHOTOGRAPHIC CORBESPONDENCB. 



Photographic Copies of Oil Paintings. — I shall feel 

 greatly obliged if any photographer -who has successfully 

 practised the copying of oil paintings, either by the glass 

 or paper process, will communicate the details of his mode 

 of manipulation through the medium of " N. & Q." 



I saw recently at Antwerp some exquisite photographs 

 taken from landscapes in oil, which had been taken by 

 the collodion process. Unfortunately I was unable to 

 learn the particulars of manipulation. Gallo-Niteate. 



Photography applied to Archceology. — It will be remem- 

 bered by our photographic, as well as our non-photo- 

 graphic readers, that we were led to introduce the subject 

 of that Art into our columns by our strong conviction of 

 its utility to antiquaries ; — we might have added, seeing 

 how easily accurate copies of manuscripts may be made by 

 it, to men of letters also. The point which we urged has 

 now been made the subject of a distinct pamphlet by the 

 Rev. F. A. S. Marshall, M.A., of Peterborough, to which 

 we recommend their attention. It is entitled Photography, 

 the Importance of its Application in preserving Pictorial 

 Records of History and Art, with an Appendix containing 

 a practical Description of the Talbotype Process as adopted 

 and practised by the Author during the last Seven Tears : 

 and is an earnest and eloquent appeal in favour of an Art 

 to the practical utility of which we really see no limits. 



Recovery of Silver from wasted Hypo. — I beg to add to 

 what I last wrote on the recovery of the silver from waste 

 hypo., an improved mode of proceeding by which complete 

 precipitation is always ensured. 



Take the old hypo., put it in a pan or capsule of porce- 

 lain, and heat it to boiling ; then add some liquor potassse, 

 and boil up for some minutes; then add to the boiling 

 liquid some syrup of glucose or of honey, no matter 

 which, — and immediately all the silver precipitates out. 

 If we omit this latter addition, we are not sure of precipi- 

 tating all the silver. The liquid had better be boiled up 

 for a few minutes more, before being filtered. Filter when 

 hot, as it passes more easily, and wash the residue on the 

 filter ; then, by treatment with aqua regia, it is converted 

 into chloride of silver ; and this is treated as usual, and 

 converted into nitrate of silver. F. Maxwell Lyte. 



Maison Ramonet, Bagnferes de Bigorre, 

 June 20, 1855. 



Large and small Lenses. — "The discussion on this 

 subject," observes the editor of the Liveipool Photographic 

 Journal in his July number, " continues, with more 

 courtesy than it commenced, between Mr. Sutton and 

 Mr. Grubb. Mr. Mascher of Philadelphia, in a paper read 

 before the Franklin Institute in that city, fancies he has 

 incidentall}' set the question at rest in favour of small 

 lenses, by the results of some experiments upon the dis- 

 tances which should be preserved between the two points 

 of view for a stereoscope. Considering that this required 

 to be more than the real distance between the two eyes, 

 because the eyes of the camera, the lenses, were so much 

 larger than human eyes, and that there must be a relative 

 proportion between the size of the eyes and the distance 

 between them, he began to reduce the aperture of his 

 diaphragm, and finding certain advantages arise in sharp- 

 ness and distinctness, he tried two holes one-sixtieth 

 of an inch in diameter, and two and a half inches apart, 

 and in twenty minutes during sunshine he obtained with- 

 out lenses two stereoscopic views of a house of very satis- 

 factory character, on the same plate, without moving the 

 camera. He refers to the distortion occasioned in small 

 objects by viewing them with such monstrous eyes as 

 lenses six inches in diameter, and the flatness given by 

 thus assuming a power of seeing round a corner ; and 

 No. 300.] 



states that in one of his views — a street — taken without 

 a lens, but through a minute aperture, the most promi- 

 nent (nearest) object was only one foot from the camera, 

 and the most distant a mile off, yet both equally in per- 

 fect focus. In conclusion, he suggests that we ' should 

 look to the perfection of small lenses, and chemicals that 

 will work instantaneously even with them. The human 

 eye produces instantaneous pictures.' The parallel is 

 daring and plausible, but we fear scarcely logical. The 

 pictures produced by the human eye have no chemical 

 effect to produce on the retina, but are as instantaneously 

 effaced by closing the lids or turning awaj' the eyes. Bu^ 

 they are active and thoughtful photographers in America, 

 and what secrets they may extort or coax from nature 

 no one can predict." 



3^tp\itg ta Minor <!SHitviti. 



Marriages made up in Heaven (Vol. xi., p. 486.). 

 — I sent, or purposed to send, to " N. & Q.," the 

 above question myself. All I have been able to 

 gather upon this subject is this : the saying has 

 been long common in our own country, but is not 

 confined to it. The Analysis Evangeliorum, 1631, 

 contains a German version of the proverb : 



« Es wird kein Eh auff Erd vollbracht, 

 Sie wird zuvor in Himmel gemacht." 

 " There is no marriage made upon earth : it was before 

 made in Heaven." 



or, in the author's words : 



"Connubia priusquam in terris fiant, in coelo defi- 

 niuntur." 



The cases of Adam, Isaac, and Jacob, &c. are 

 appealed to in proof of the correctness of the sen- 

 timent. 



There is another version of the German proverb :, 



" Die Ehen werden im Himmel geschlossen." 



" Marriages are arranged in Heaven." 



I have been wont to think the saying owed its 



origin to the words of our Lord in Matt. xix. 6. : 



"What therefore God hath joined together, let not man 

 put asunder." 



But it appears that a similar notion prevails in 

 China, as Davis relates. A little book on the' 

 Chinese by Rev. T. Phillips says (p. 73.) : 



" From the Buddhists, who say that those connected 

 in a previous existence become united in this, the Chinese 

 have borrowed the notion that marriage goes by destiny. 

 A certain deity, whom they style Yue-laou, the old man 

 of the moon, unites with a silken cord all predestined 

 couples ; after which, nothing can prevent their union." 



Perhaps the manifest importance of the marriage 

 contract very early led to its being invested with 

 a sacred character, and to its being regarded as 

 under the especial direction and ordination of the 

 Divine Being. B. H, C. 



General Braddock (Vol. xi., p. 283.). — I ob- 

 tained the following particulars from an old 

 man, a small farmer at Martham in this county, 

 the grand-nephew, and, as it would appear from 



