O¢-4 ON THE RELATION OF NATURAL SCIENCE TO ART. 
Mr. Muybridge himself in his *‘zoopraxiscope,” and with us in the 
electric stroboscope by Mr. Ottomar Anschiitz, a most skillful handler 
of instantaneous photography. In both instruments we see men and 
horses reduced to their natural mode of walking, running, or jumping— 
with one exception. The speed with which the slits of the dedaleum 
pass before the eye, or the period during which each picture is illumi- 
nated, being exactly the same for the whole series, the general effect 
produced is somewhat different from what it would be in real life. 
On the whole, however, the position in which both feet are touching 
the ground, prevails, because the motion of the legs slackens when 
approaching this position, so that the pictures follow each other more 
closely and almost coincide. 
The series of instantaneous photographs taken by Mr. Muybridge 
and Mr. Ansehiitz from an athlete, during tbe performance of a mus- 
cular effort, are an inexhaustible source of instruction to students of 
the nude. Mr. Anschiitz’s stroboscope exhibits a stone and a spear- 
thrower in all the different stages of their violent action; their muscles 
are seen to swell and slacken, until finally the missile is represented 
after its discharge, as it can not move any faster than the hand in the 
act of hurling it. Animal painters will find equally useful the instan- 
taneous photographs which Mr. Muybridge and Mr. Anschiitz have ob- 
tained from domestic and wild animals. 
Even on breakers in a stormy sea the camera has been employed 
with surprising success. In making use of these photographs, painters 
should, however, remember that the human eye can not see the waves 
as a rapid plate does, and beware of producing a picture which in cer- 
tain respects would be quite as incorrect as the clock which appears to 
have been stopped, or the man stumbling over his own feet. 
Finally, the traditional representation of lightning in the shape of a 
fiery zigzag has been recently proved by My. Shelford Bidwell, on the 
evidence of two hundred instantaneous photographs, to be just as 
wrong as the traditional picture of a racing horse. Mr. Erie Stuart 
Bruce endeavors to vindicate the zigzag by taking it for a reflection on 
eunulus clouds; * it is, however, difficult to understand how its sharp 
angles can be accounted for in this way. 
Prof. von Briicke has devoted a special essay to the rules for the 
artistic rendering of motion, which, together with the laws on the com- 
bination of colors, have at all times been unconsciously followed by the 
great masters. 
A cultivated and artistically gifted eye, supported by sufficient tech- 
nical knowledge, was always able to compose genuine works of art in 
photography, as Mrs. Cameron long ago proved. In our days, Dr. Vi- 
anna de Lima has shown how this branch of art has been advaneed 
and extended by instantaneous photography. It contributes a solution 
* Nature, vol. XLi, pp. 151 and 197. 
