156 Sir Juhn Robison on Dagucrre's Photography. 



mulation of dust in a hollow moulding of a distant building, 

 when they exist in the original, are faithfully copied in these 

 wonderful pictures. 



The subjects of most of the numerous specimens which I 

 saw, were views of streets, boulevards, and buildings, with a 

 considerable number of what may be termed interiors with 

 still life ; among the latter -were various groups made up of 

 plaster-casts and other works of art. It is difficult to express 

 intelligibly a reason for the charm ^vhich is felt in behold- 

 ing these pictures ; but I think it must arise, in some mea- 

 sure, from finding that so much of the eifect which we attri- 

 bute to colour, is preserved in the picture, although it consist 

 only in light and shade ; these, however, are given with such 

 accuracy, that, in consequence of different materials reflect- 

 ing light differently, it is easy to recognise those of which 

 the different objects in the groups are formed. A work in 

 ■white marble is at once distinguished from one in plaster-of- 

 Paris by the translucency of the edges of the one, and the 

 opacity of the other. Among the views of buildmgs, the fol- 

 lowing were remarkable : A set of three pictures of the same 

 !.;roup of houses, one taken soon after sunrise, one at noon, and 

 one in the evening ; in these the change of aspect produced 

 i)y the variations in the distribution of the light, was exempli- 

 iied in a way which art could never attain to. 



One specimen was remarkable from its shewing the progress 

 made by light in producing the picture. A plate having 

 been exposed during 30 seconds to the action of the hght and 

 then removed, the appearance of the view was that of the 

 carUest dawn of day ; there was a grey sky, and a few cor- 

 ners of buildings and other objects beginning to be visible 

 through the deep black in which all the rest of the picture 

 v.'iis involved. 



The absence of figures from the streets, and the perfect 

 way in which the stones of the causeway and the foot-pave- 

 ments are rendered, is, at first sight, rather puzzUng, though 

 a little reflection satisfies one that passing objects do not re- 

 n.;iin long enough to make any perceptible impression, and 

 that (interfering only for a moment with the light reflected 

 fi om the road), they do not prevent a nearly accurate picture 

 oi' it being produced. 



