60 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 194. 



seventeenth century, is to be found in the Plain 

 Dealer, a comedy by Wychei'ley. 



One of the principal characters in the play is 

 the Widow Blackacre, a petulant, litigious woman, 

 always in law, and mother of Jerry Blackacre, " a 

 true raw squire under age and his mother's go- 

 vernment, hred to the law." 



In Act I. Sc. 1., I find the following stage di- 

 rections : 



" Enter Widow Blackacre with a mantle and a green 

 bag, and several papers in the other hand. Jerry 

 Blackacre, her son, in a gown, laden with ^reew bags, 

 following her." 



In Act III. Sc. 1. the widow is called Imper- 

 tinent and ignorant by a lawyer of whom she 

 demands back her fee, on his returning her brief 

 and declining to plead for her. This draws from 

 her the following reply : 



" Impertinent again and Ignorant to me ! Gadsbo- 

 dikins, you puny upstart in the law to use me so, you 

 green bag carrier, you murderer of unfortunate causes," 

 &e. 



Farther on, in the same scene, Freeman, a 

 gentleman well educated, but of a broken fortune, 

 a compiler with the age, thus admonishes Jerry : 



" Come, Squire, let your mother and your trees fall 

 as she pleases, rather than wear this gown and carry 

 green bags all thy life, and be pointed at for a tony. 

 But you shall be able to deal with her yet the common 

 way. Thou slialt make false love to some lawyer's 

 daughter, whose father, upon the hopes of thy marrying 

 her, shall lend thee money and law to preserve thy 

 estate and trees." 



A. W. S. 



Temple. 



PHOTOGEAPHIC CORRESPONDENCE. 



j]By the courtesy of our valued cotemporary The 

 Athenceum, we are permitted to reprint the following 

 interesting communication, which appeared in that 

 journal on Saturday last.] 



"new photographic process. 



" Henley Street, July 6. 

 " Your insertion of the annexed letter from my 

 brother-in-law, Mr. John Stewart, of Pau, will 

 much oblige me. The utility of this mode of 

 reproduction seems Indisputable. In reference to 

 its concluding paragraph, I will only add, that the 

 publication of concentrated microscopic editions of 

 works of reference — maps, atlases, logarithmic 

 tables, or the concentration for pocket use of pri- 

 vate notes and MSS., &c., &c., and innumerable 

 other similar applications — is brought within the 

 reach of any one who possesses a small achromatic 

 object-glass of an inch or an inch and a half in 

 diameter, and a brass tube, with slides before and 

 behind the lens of a fitting diameter to receive the 

 plate or plates to be operated upon, — central or 



nearly central rays only being required. The de- 

 tails are too obvious to need mention. — I am, &c. 

 " J. F. W. Herschel. 



" Pau, June 11. 



" Dear Herschel. — I sent you some time ago a 

 few small-sized studies of animals from the life, 

 I ►singly and in flocks, upon collodionised glass. The 

 great rapidity of exposition required for such sub- 

 jects, being but the fraction of a second, together 

 with the very considerable depth and harmony 

 obtained, gave me reason to hope that ere tins 

 I should have been able to produce microscopic 

 pictures of animated objects. For the present, I 

 have been interrupted. Meantime, one of my 

 friends here, Mr. Heilmann, following the same 

 pursuit, has lighted on an Ingenious method of 

 taking from glass negatives positive impressions of 

 different dimensions, and with all the delicate mi- 

 nuteness which the negative may possess. This 

 discovery is likely, I think, to extend the resources 

 and the application of photography, — and with 

 some modifications, which I will explain, to In- 

 crease the power of reproduction to an almost un- 

 limited amount. The plan is as follows : — The 

 negative to be reproduced is placed in a slider at 

 one end (a) of a camera or other box, constructed 

 to exclude the light throughout. The surface pre- 

 pared for the reception of the positive — whether 

 albumen, collodion, or paper — is placed in another 

 slider, as usual, at the opposite extremity (c) of 

 the box, and intermediately between the two ex- 

 tremities (at h) is placed a lens. The negative at 

 a is presented to the light of the sky, care being 

 taken that no rays enter the box but those travers- 

 ing the partly transparent negative. These raya 

 are received and directed by the lens at b upon 

 the sensitive surface at c, and the impression of 

 the negative is thei-e produced with a rapidity pro- 

 portioned to the light admitted, and the sensibility 

 of the surface presented. By varying the distances 

 between a and c, and c and b, any dimension re- 

 quired may be given to the positive impression. 

 Thus, from a medium-sized negative, I have ob- 

 tained negatives four times larger than the original, 

 and other impressions reduced thirty times, ca- 

 pable of figuring on a watch-glass, brooch, or ring. 



" Undoubtedly one of the most Interesting and 

 Important advantages gained by this simple ar- 

 rangement is, the power of varying the dimensions 

 of a picture or portrait. Collodion giving results 

 of almost microscopic minuteness, such negatives 

 bear enlarging considerably without any very per- 

 ceptible deterioration in that respect. Indeed, as 

 regards portraits, there is a gain instead of a loss ; 

 the power of obtaining good and pleasing likenesses 

 appears to me decidedly increased, the facility of 

 subsequent enlargement permitting them to be 

 taken sufficiently small, at a sufficient distance 

 (and therefore with greater rapidity and certainty) 



