17 



prey. These diurnal and nocturnal species will he iound scattered 

 among maiunials, birds, and insects; they are, however, so un- 

 important and few in number as not seriously to affect the truth 

 of the general principle that liffhf jjromotes life. 



The perfecting of the electric light and the means of so 

 dividing its current as to enable the light to be used in domestic 

 life, is not uninteresting considered with reference to life and 

 health. It may thus, at some future day, be possible for our 

 descendants to obtain an illuminating agent free ft'om the yellow 

 glare of our ordinary artificial light ; to live in well lighted rooms 

 free from the sulphurous and poisonous vapours, now so liberally 

 supplied by gas companies together with their gas, and to breathe 

 during the evening working hours an unburnt and purer 

 atmosphere. 



Our Society concerns itself with Photography, and we were, 

 in April, favoured with a very interesting Paper on " Photo- 

 graphy," illustrated by experiments. Mr. Webster produced 

 some examples of instantaneous photographs, and very fully 

 described the advance made in the science of photography owing 

 to recent improvements in the gelatine method. At our summer 

 meeting, notwithstanding the weather was very wet and the sky 

 leaden, he succeeded in taking a very admirable and sharp nega- 

 tive. The plates are now made so sensitive that the exposure is 

 of very short duration. An express train passing at full speed 

 through Chislehurst, on its way to Dover, has been jAotographed. 

 The " Flying Dutchman" was photogi'aphed as it passed through 

 Twyford Station at a speed of sixty miles an hour. All the details 

 of the engine were distinctly pourtrayed, although the exposure 

 could not have been more than a fraction of a second. The 

 rapidity of photographic action is more marked by the photo- 

 graphing of a lightning flash by its own light, recently accom- 

 plished by Mr. Crosse, of Liverpool. "With his camera, situate at 

 Dingle, he succeeded in getting an excellent portrait of a long 

 zig-zag flash, which leapt out from a cloud over St. Philemon's 

 Church at the moment the bell tower was rent in pieces. 



Experiments patiently continued have resulted in the dis- 

 covery of means of obtaining positive photographs which retain, 

 in some degree, the colour of the objects photographed. The 

 process is yet in its infancy, and the specific materials used in the 

 composition of the sensitive medium are not made known. 



