192 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVEIIY. 



of clu'iiiieal effect upon tlio paper. From wreatlis of le.ives he 

 went to ferns, arninireil in various artistic forms, and as mottoes. 

 By a siniriilar eoiucicicnce, the first motto thus printed was, ** God 

 is h)ve," and he was thus al)le to make Nature herself proclaim in 

 letters of li<2:lit, i)y the voice of the humble ferns, and in the lan- 

 g-n.-iofc of llowers, the essential ])rinciple of Christianity. The 

 work is done as follows : IIavin<^ procured Nour desig'u, 

 place it under the glass of your pressure frame; if a motto, it 

 must be written backwards. Place your ferns, with mucilaLi:e, 

 upon th(! glass within the lines of your design; put yonr sensitive 

 paper on the glass, press the back boanl down, and ex))ose to 

 the sunlight until you get a dark impression, llave tiiis print 

 washed, toned, fixed, and mounted by some photographic friend, 

 if you have not a workroom for the purpose at home. The time 

 of exposure varies with the seasons, the hour of the day, and the 

 state of the sunlii2:ht. In five or ten minutes, in a bright summer 

 day, he has obtained a good impression. This dark background 

 l^rint, No. 1, is used as a negative to produce No. 2, or a print 

 with a white background, and in which all the lights and shades 

 of No. 1 are rever^ed; from No. 2, used as a negative. No. 1 can 

 be reproduced, although the lines are not quite so sharp, nor the 

 effect so good, as in the print taken directly from the ferns. By 

 the aid of a camera any of these interesting pictures may be re- 

 produced of any required size. Many of these were exhibited. 

 From leaves tmd ferns, he successfully experimented with deli- 

 cate algiB from the shore, the bright feathers of birds, and bril- 

 liant wings of insects; making thus the sun portray, with its 

 l^owerful pencil, some of the most beautiful oijjects of tln^ land, 

 and sea, and air. These designs were of singular delicacy and 

 beauty. What he had thus been able to accomplish in the midst 

 of a bus3' life, he believed was sufficient to show that very impor- 

 tant results might be expected from the further development of 

 this process, especially in the illustration of tiie works of nature, 

 by the most ethereal and at the same time most powerful agency 

 of sunlight. 



Photoyraplis of NoherVs Bands. — In *' Silliman's Journal" we 

 have a ])aper by Dr. Woodward, who has so distinguished him- 

 self b}- his miero-photogruphic results, describing his success in 

 photograpiiing a new plate by Nobert, containing ID bands with 

 a one-sixteenth objective, by Powel & Leland. No lens, previ- 

 ously, had been able to resolve the lines on these bands beyond 

 the loth. 



Photographing without a Lens. — The method adopted by Mr. 

 James Thomson, of Glasgow, to photograph the bodily organs 

 of fossil corals: Each of these fossil corals is nearly as large as 

 a hen's (^^^g^ and Mr. Thomson, it will be remembered, cut a 

 thin slice out of the centre of each coral, and then ground down 

 and polished the stone slice till it became thin and translucent 

 enough to be used as a negative from which to take photographic 

 prints on paper. When he exhibited these valuable photographs 

 lit the British Association at Norwich, last year, Mr. W. 11. Har- 

 rison recommended him to have them copied in future by the 



