MICROGRAPHY AND MICROPHOTOGRAPHY 145 



graphs of well-known pictures and statues which com- 

 manded the universal attention of the microscopists of that 

 day, and for a time formed the center of attraction at all 

 microscopical exhibitions. They have now, however, be- 

 come so common that they receive no special notice. Mr. 

 Dancer and other artists also produced copies -of the Lord's 

 Prayer, the Creed, the Declaration of Independence, etc., 

 on such a scale that the Lord's Prayer might be covered 

 with the head of a common pin, and yet, when viewed 

 under a very moderate magnifying power, every letter was 

 clear and distinct. I have now before me a slip of glass, 

 three inches long and one inch wide, in the center of 

 which is an oval photograph which occupies less than the 

 i-2OOth of a square inch. This photograph contains the 

 Declaration of Independence with the signatures of all the 

 signers, surrounded by portraits of the Presidents and 

 the seals of the original thirteen States. Under a moder- 

 ate power every line is clear and distinct. In the same 

 way copies of such famous pictures as Landseer's " Stag 

 at Bay," although almost invisible to the naked eye, come 

 out beautifully clear and distinct under the microscope, so 

 that it has been suggested that one might have an exten- 

 sive picture gallery in a small box, or pack away copies of 

 all the books in the Congressional Library in a small hand- 

 bag. With such means at our command, it would be a 

 simple matter to condense a bulky dispatch into a few 

 little films, which might be carried in a quill or concealed 

 in ways which would have been impossible with the origi- 

 nal. If Major Andre had been able to avail himself of 

 this mode of reducing the bulk of the original papers, he 

 might have carried, without danger of discovery, those re- 

 ports which caused his capture and led to his death. And 



