188 



EECREATIA^E SCIENCE. 



was accustomed to mark them with his 

 initials. To effect this he was in the habit 

 of gumming on to the surface his initials cut 

 in small paper characters, and which, under 

 the action of the autumn sun, left their im- 

 pression on the ripening fruit. 



Photogeaphic Effects of Lightning. 

 —The first authentic mention of this sin- 

 gular natural phenomenon was made by 

 Pranklin in 1796, who states that a man who 

 was standing opposite a tree that had just 

 been struck by a thunderbolt, had on his 

 breast an exact representation of the tree. 

 On August 26, 1823, a little girl was standing 

 at a window, before which was a young 

 maple-tree. After a brilliant flash of light- 

 ning, a complete image of the tree was found 

 imprinted on her body. M. Easpail records 

 that in 1855 a boy climbed a tree to rob a 

 bird's-nest. The tree was struck, and the 

 boy thrown to the ground, and on his breast 

 the image of the tree, with the bird and nest 

 on one of its branches, appeared very plainly. 

 Signor Orioli brought before the scientific 

 congress at Naples the following cases of 

 impressions made by lightning : — In Sep- 

 tember, 1825, the lightning struck the fore- 

 mast of the brigantine, St. Buon Servo, when 

 a sailor under the mast-head was struck dead, 

 and an impression of a horse-shoe, like that 

 fixed at the mast-head, was found upon his 

 back. On another occasion a sailor standing 

 in a similar position had on his breast the 

 impression 44, with a dot between the two 

 figures, corresponding with the figure 44 at 

 the mast-head. On October 9, 1856, a young 

 man was found struck by lightning. He 

 had on a girdle with some gold coins in it, 

 and they were imprinted on his skin in the 

 same manner as they were placed in the gir- 

 dle. In 1836 an Italian lady of Lugano was 

 at a window in a thunder-storm, and a flower 

 that happened to be in the path of the elec- 

 tric current was perfectly reproduced on her 

 leg, and there remained permanently. On 

 July 24, 1852, a poplar-tree in a coffee planta- 



tion was struck by lightning, and on one of the 

 large dry leaves was found an exact repre- 

 sentation of some pine-trees that lay at a 

 distance of 367 yards. 



The above cases, were they not clearly ex- 

 plainable on scientific grounds, would almost 

 appear to be incredible; but they are not 

 one-half so difficult of belief as that alleged 

 marvellous discovery by Dr. Conyers, who, 

 it is said, on anatomizing a gentleman who 

 died for love, found an impression of the 

 lady's face upon his heart. 



Theoretical Explanation of Light- 

 ning Impeessions. — M. Poey, director of 

 the Observatory at Havana, is of opinion 

 that these impressions are produced in the 

 same manner as the curious electric images 

 obtained by Karslen, Grove, and Fox Tal- 

 bot, either by statical or dynamic electricity, 

 of different degrees of intensity. The fact 

 that impressions are made through garments, 

 is accounted for when we remember that their 

 rough texture does not prevent the lightning 

 passing through them with the impression it 

 has received. 



Oil - painted Photogeaphs. — Photo- 

 graphs have been produced by Mr. Parris, 

 the artist, painted in oil, so as to have aU the 

 effect of the most finished miniatures. The 

 oil process removes those over-strong mark- 

 ings which photography, at its best, produces 

 in portraits. 



CuEioTJS Halo Light bound Poe- 

 teaits and Piotukes. — This curious ap- 

 pearance is found to arise from the reflected 

 light in and from the lens. The positive pic- 

 ture is found to have a sort of halo of light 

 about the centre of the picture, and the same 

 appears in the negative, but reversed, i.e., 

 black. 



Photogeaphic Effects of one Leaf 

 ON Anothee. — Mr. Piesse has called atten- 

 tion to the delicate shading or finishing of 

 leaves produced by the photographic touch 

 of the sun, in the case of geranium and 

 other leaves, where one leaf produced a shade 



