514 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 161. 



As a matter akin to the above, Can you or your 

 correspondents inform me whether any further 

 light has been lately thrown on the vexed ques- 

 tion respecting the Eastern origin of maize f 

 There is, of course, no doubt that the kinds now 

 mostly cultivated in Spain, and perhaps in other 

 parts of Europe, were introduced on the discovery 

 of America ; but that does not necessarily exclude 

 the proposition which I am inclined still to main- 

 tain, although, I believe, abandoned by the best 

 informed men of the day, that other kinds had 

 been from the earliest times grown in the coun- 

 tries around the Mediterranean Sea. It appears 

 to me, on a more correct interpretation of a text 

 in Job than rendered in our version, to be plainly 

 referred to in that splendid old record, and that 

 the ears of corn seen by Pharaoh in his dream are 

 not those of mummy wheat, but maize. Has the 

 plant or its ear, either stript or "in the husks 

 thereof," been yet detected in any Egyptian, Ni- 

 nevehite, or other ancient painting or sculpture ? 

 Long gives drawings of what he states would be 

 taken for ears of Indian corn, but for the assumed 

 fact that maize was first introduced from the West 

 by Christopher Columbus ; whilst the learned op- 

 posers of its Asiatic origin press, as one of their 

 strongest arguments against tradition and other 

 testimony, the assertion, that no part of the plant 

 has been ever found on any of the old-world 

 monuments of antiquity. Put together, the chain 

 makes a very complete circle of reasoning ; but I 

 venture to dispute its cogency, and to ask, in aid 

 ■of a contrary conclusion, the question with which 

 I commenced this paragraph. A. H. B. 



Penn, 



PHOTOGRAPHIC NOTES AND QUERIES. 



Improvement of Collodion Negatives. — Having 

 used the collodion extensively in the open air, I 

 have met with tolerably good success ; and, upon 

 the whole, I am quite satisfied that it has advan- 

 tages over the other modes of photographic ope- 

 rations. But upon printing my pictures, I find it 

 difficult to obtain a sufficient density in the light 

 parts, especially the sky : this has much increased 

 during the autumn. With what success you have 

 succeeded in drawing the attention of antiquaries 

 to photogi'aphy in aid of their pursuits, I do not 

 know ; but that " N. & Q." is a requisite to all 

 lovers of the photographic art, is beyond dispute ; 

 for every photographic acquaintance speaks of the 

 pleasure obtained from perusing your communi- 

 cations. I hope, therefore, that frem amongst 

 your numerous readers I may be informed if 

 they have met with similar failure ; and if they 

 have been able to remedy it with any change of 

 their chemicals in natui-e or qualities? And if 

 they have resorted to mechanically "stopping out," 

 which is but a poor substitute for the law of 



nature, what preparation have they used for that 

 purpose? A solution of Indian ink in gum-water 

 was recommended to me, but it peeled off and 

 destroyed my pictures. A. 



Fixation of Colours. — We learn from The Athe- 

 nceum of Saturday last, that M. Niepce de Saint- 

 Victor laid before the Paris Academy of Sciences, 

 at the sitting of the 8th of November, daguerreo- 

 types upon which he had succeeded in fixing, in 

 a manner more or less permanent, colours by the 

 camera obscura. M. Niepce states, that the pro- 

 duction of all the colours is practicable, and he is 

 actively engaged in endeavouring to arrive at a 

 convenient method of preparing the plates. " I 

 have begun," he says, " by reproducing in the 

 dark chamber coloured engravings, then artificial 

 and natural flowers, and lastly dead nature — a 

 doll, dressed in stuffs of different colours, and al- 

 ways with gold and silver lace. I have obtained 

 all the colours ; and, what is still more extraordi- 

 nary and more curious is, that the gold and the 

 silver are depicted with their metallic lustre, and 

 that rock crystal, alabaster, and porcelain are re- 

 presented with the lustre which is natural to them. 

 In producing the images of precious stones and of 

 glass, we observe a curious peculiarity. We have 

 placed before the lens a deep green, which has 

 given a yellow image instead of a green one ; 

 whilst a clear green glass placed by the side of 

 the other is perfectly reproduced in colour." The 

 greatest difficulty is that of obtaining many colours 

 at a time; it is, however, possible, and M. Niepce 

 has frequently obtained this result. He has ob- 

 served, that bright colours are produced much 

 more vividly and much quicker than dark colours: 

 that is to say, that the nearer the colours approach 

 to white the more easily are they produced, and 

 the more closely they approach to black the greater 

 is the difficulty of reproducing them. Of all others, 

 the most difficult to be obtained is the deep green 

 of leaves ; the light green leaves are, however, re- 

 produced very easily. After sundry other remarks 

 of no peculiar moment, M. Niepce de Saint- Victor 

 informs us, that the colours are rendered very 

 much more vivid by the action of ammonia, and at 

 the same time this volatile alkali appears to fix the 

 colours with much permanence. These results 

 bring much more near than hitherto the deside- 

 ratum of producing photographs in their natural 

 colours. The results are produced upon plates of 

 silver which have been acted upon by chloride of 

 copper, or some other combination of chlorine. 

 The manipulatory details have not been published, 

 but we understand they are very easy. 



Black Appearance of some Collodion Pictures. 

 — T. L. (Ashby de la Zouch) is informed that the 

 black appearance of which he complains in his col- 

 lodion pictures depends upon an wtsufficient ex- 



