324 THE APPLICATIONS OF PHYSICAL FORCES. [BOOK in. 



the arrangement of pose, the study of the most favourable conditions 

 of light for a really artistic reproduction, presuppose faculties which 

 education may develop, if the real feeling pre-exists, but which are 

 not given to all photographers, however familiarised they may be with 

 all the necessary manipulations. 



As to the services rendered by photography to the arts and sciences 

 they are, we repeat, incontestable. Thanks to this discovery, the pro- 

 ductions of art in every country in the world are reproduced with an 

 irreproachable fidelity. This is clearly evident in views of monu- 

 ments of architecture, as well as in works of sculpture. All objects 

 in relief present a clearness of detail, an accuracy of drawing, which 

 engravings can rarely equal, and never surpass. Moreover, photo- 

 graphic views of this description are the most useful auxiliaries to 

 the draughtsman, the engraver, or the painter. It is not quite the 

 same for painted pictures, because the different colours have not the 

 same photogenic action on the impressible substances : thus the blues 

 come out lighter, the yellows and greens are often black ; so that the 

 reproduction of a painted picture, however satisfactory in drawing, is 

 generally mediocre as regards colour. Copies of this description have 

 no less the charm of a fidelity which painted copies cannot equal 

 as regards the drawing and the general effect. 



Facsimiles of ancient or rare engravings, of which the original 

 blocks have disappeared or are worn out, are admirably reproduced 

 by photography, and, here again, this discovery renders and will 

 still render signal services to artists and amateurs. The exceptions 

 which we must make, in a purely artistic point of view, exist no 

 longer if we pass on to the applications of photography to the 

 positive physical and natural sciences. 



Geography, ethnology, anthropology profit most. The reproduc- 

 tion of sites, of mountains, of their outline, of their relative posi- 

 tions, that of towns, monuments, harbours, inhabitants of divers 

 countries, their costumes, objects of every description, implements, 

 weapons, &c., are henceforth secure from the unskilfulness of artists, 

 the incorrectness, sometimes involuntary, sometimes wilful, of nar- 

 rators and travellers, and they prevent all exaggeration, flattery, or 

 calumniation. What a valuable resource, above all, for anthropolo- 

 gists, who can thus collect the true types of all the human races, and 

 of their innumerable varieties. 



