January 15, 190.3] 



NA TURE 



! 43 



unwary to think that Dr. Vignon has established his 

 case. As his work professes, however, to be an etude 

 scientifique, and as he unhesitatingly lays down the con- 

 clusion that the shroud is the real article (Popes, Bishops 

 and Jesuits notwithstanding) and that the image is a 

 " vaporograph " produced in the manner described, it is 

 of considerable importance that his evidence should be 

 critically considered. 



In order to clear the ground, we will make a most 

 liberal advance in Dr. Vignon's favour and concede for 

 the sake of argument that such ammoniacal vapours may 

 be emitted as required by hypothesis, and further, that 

 the shroud may have been impregnated with some 

 sensitive colouring-matter or colour generator capable of 

 receiving an impression in three days. What kind of 

 impression could be expected in these circumstances? 

 Stretching the hypothesis to its utmost limit, certainly 

 only a blurred human figure in outline. Now look at 

 the image on the shroud ; features with a recognisable 

 expression, hair in detail and (as per description) blood 

 stains, wounds and stripes. Surely, as the author him- 

 self says (p. 43), "There is no limit to hypothetical 

 ingenuity." 



A scientific witness must, however — whether his 

 hypothesis be reasonable or otherwise — be expected to 

 give some substantial evidence for a hypothetical belief, 

 and the more unlikely the hypothesis, a priori, the 

 stronger must that evidence be. Here is what Dr. 

 Vignon has to offer : — 



■ " We took the plaster cast of a hand and covered it 

 with a glove of suede kid. We then poured some of the 

 ammoniacal solution ammonium carbonate in water) 

 along the wrist so that it penetrated the plaster without 

 completely saturating the glove. The vapours were 

 given off very regularly through the pores of the kid 

 without staining the linen bv too much water or letting 

 the oil penetrate the damp glove. 



"Working in this way we got an excellent impression 

 of the back of the hand (on linen impregnated with olive 

 oil and aloes). The tips of the fingers have the square 

 aspect due to the glove having been too long. On the 

 inside of the thumb the seams of the glove are plainly to 

 be seen, while on the outside the image fades away 

 rapidly and regularly. The print is sufficiently definite to 

 s/wili the likeness of a finger, but too diffuse to mark the 

 actual outlines, and this may be said of all the fingers. 

 (Italics ours. Compare with the hands on the figure on 

 the shroud where the fingers are distinct.) . . . 



"The print which we have obtained of this hand 

 justifies us in asserting that under special conditions 

 ammoniacal vapours may produce as distinct impressions 

 of an object as those shown on the Holy Shroud" 

 (p. 167). 



Dr. Vignon's scientific conscience must really be very 

 easily satisfied. This is the only scrap of experimental 

 support that he furnishes. No illustration of the "vaporo- 

 graphed" hand is given. It is confessed that the experi- 

 ment is so delicate that an attempt to repeat it gave a 

 worse result than thefirst. A plaster bust of Michael Angelo 

 refused to furnish any recognisable impression. Yet with 

 these inconclusive results, the author virtually claims to 

 have settled the whole history and origin of the relic. Just 

 when he comes to the very point where scientific evidence 

 becomes possible, he meets with what appears to the 

 reviewer to be a failure, and then naively remarks : — 

 ' We shall continue these experiments if desirable, though 

 NO. 1733, VOL. 67] 



they only present a limited interest " (p. 167). The 

 magnitude of the conclusions based on such lame experi- 

 mental evidence justifies the condemnation of the whole 

 work as an e'tude scientifique. To the reviewer, it reads 

 like an antiquarian dissertation ending in a pseudo- 

 scientific anti-climax. The conditions required by the 

 hypothesis are not difficult to realise experimentally. 

 There are many organic colouring-matters sensitive to 

 ammonia gas. The fever hospitals would surely furnish 

 the author with subjects for experiment if inanimate 

 models of the human figure are considered unsatisfactory. 

 If by ammoniacal or any other vaporous emanation Dr. 

 Vignon can succeed in producing an impression as dis- 

 tinctly recognisable as a likeness as the image on the 

 shroud in all its details, we will waive the question of 

 twenty centuries' permanence and go so far as to admit 

 that there is at any rate some justification for " vaporo- 

 graphic " portraiture. As the " explanation " stands now, 

 it is purely in the region of hypothesis, and pending that 

 rigorous verification required by science, we consider that 

 the author's case is "not proven." If there are any 

 scientific readers who are convinced that the conclusions 

 in this work are satisfactorily established, we shall be 

 disposed to credit the shroud with having wrought a 

 greater miracle than was ever ascribed to it by the 

 Chapter of Lirey in the fourteenth century. 



R. Meldola. 



IRISH FOLKLORE. 

 Traces of the Elder Faiths of Ireland. A Folklore 

 Sketch. By W. G. Woods-Martin, M.R.I. A. Vol. i., 

 pp. xix + 405 ; vol. ii., pp. xv + 43S. (London : 

 Longmans and Co., 1902.) Price y>s. net. 

 " l\/I ^^Y readers may have read works treating of 

 ■LV-l some one or more epochs included in the past 

 of which Ireland has been the scene, but up to the 

 present," says the author, "this lengthened period has 

 not been treated as a whole." Such a complaint can no 

 longer be made after the publication of this able and 

 comprehensive work, which is, as its second title indicates, 

 "A Handbook of Irish Pre-Christian Traditions." 



The consideration of the main subject of the book, the 

 faiths of Ireland, is preceded by about 120 pages of 

 introductory matter concerning the geographical shape of 

 the island, the Great Ice Age and the nature of the 

 earliest inhabitants. Excellent illustrations are given of 

 the effects of the Great Ice Age in moulding the sides of 

 the hills, &c. In the enumeration of the various theories 

 as to the causes of the Ice Age, a suggestion is made as 

 to the significance of the sun being a variable star. This 

 fact may possibly explain the whole mystery. Though 

 not often mentioned by the theorists, namely by those 

 who are in favour of Sir C. Lyell's geographical ex- 

 planations or of Croll's astronomical arguments based on 

 the variability in the shape of the earth's orbit, it cannot 

 have been outside their views. If, for instance, it be true 

 that, in the time of Ptolemy, a Geminorum (Castor) was 

 the brighter, and, therefore, presumably the hotter, star 

 than /3 (Pollux), we may suppose that the inhabitants of 

 the planetary dependents of the former are now ex- 

 periencing a glacial or those of the latter a torrid epoch. 

 Ireland seems to have been the home of the gigantic 



