14 NATURE 
[May 1, 1902 
only at a distance greater than that at which the vapours can 
act, no corresponding effect is produced in the image, which 
gradually weakens up to its borders by insensible gradations 
until it disappears altogether. 
Practically in spite of the softness of the details and the out- 
lines, the impressions produced by vapour are far from consisting 
of simple shadows ; if the object is in strong relief, the image 
is energetic and well marked ; it appears simply as if the object 
were seen through transparent gauze, or as if it had half emerged 
from a fog. 
Negative images have also been obtained by acting with 
ammoniacal vapours upon cloths impregnated with a mixture 
of powdered aloes and olive oil ; it is known that aloes contains 
a principle which turns brown and is oxidised under the in- 
fluence of alkalies in moist air. A plaster hand covered with a suede 
glove which has been moistened with a solution of ammonium 
carbonate acts similarly. There is obtained in this way a sort of 
print of the hand, a negative softened at the edges and wanting in 
proportion in so far that the points where the hand is too far from 
the cloth are too faint, the points of contact of the hand and cloth, 
on the other hand, being too strongly marked. The fermenta- 
tion of urea, easily brought about by the addition of a little 
urine, leads to the formation of ammonium carbonate and thus 
causes the browning of the aloes. The fermentation of a 
febrile sweat, rich in urea, leads to the same result, as is 
already well known. 
The extension of Dr. Russell’s researches on the 
photographic activity of certain bodies in the dark, con- 
tained in the above paper communicated to the Paris 
Academy by M. Vignon, has given rise to a most 
curious discussion. 
There is a so-called “Holy Shroud” at Turin in 
which tradition states the body of Christ was wrapped 
after the Crucifixion. An article in the Z7zmes thus 
refers to it and its connection with M. Vignon’s work :— 
“Tt is said to have been brought from the East in the four- 
teenth century, and in the following century it passed into the 
hands of the House of Savoy, and was deposited at Chambéry. 
Finally, it was transferred in 1578 to its present resting-place by 
Duke Emmanuel Philibert, who wished to spare Carlo Borromeo, 
the sainted Archbishop of Milan, the fatigue of a pilgrimage to 
its distant Savoyard shrine. The Shroud bears upon it, traced 
in hues of brown, what is alleged to be a double impression of 
the figure of Our Lord, the outlines both of the face and back 
of which have reproduced themselves with wonderfully distinct 
exactness. So seldom, however, is it exposed to view that this 
remarkable characteristic had almost been forgotten when, in 
May, 1898, some photographs specially taken of it by Signor 
Secondo Pia, of Turin, with the consent of its possessor, the 
King of Italy, once more drew attention to this strangely living 
likeness. Eighteen months ago these photographs came under 
the notice of M. Vignon, who, recognising their exceptional 
importance, at once began that inquiry of which the results were 
made public in a paper communicated to the Académie des 
Sciences.” 
In Paris, therefore, it has been generally accepted that 
a demonstration has been given by science of the 
authenticity, not only of the so-called shroud, but of all 
the historical events connected with it, and a much closer 
rapprochement between science and theology is predicted 
for the future. 
Here, however, difficulties have been raised. Father 
Thurston, a learned Jesuit, writes to the TZzmes as 
follows :— 
‘* Before we can profitably discuss the value of Dr. Vignon’s 
scientific explanation of the marks on the ‘Holy Shroud’ a 
serious difficulty of quite another order has to be cleared up. 
The Abbé Ulysse Chevalier claims to have proved to demon- 
stration that the linen winding-sheet exhibited at Turin is a 
spurious relic manufactured in the fourteenth century, and, as 
the writer believes, with fraudulent intent. M. ?PAbbé Chevalier 
is a scholar of distinction, and of his perfect loyalty to the 
Catholic Church there can be no possible question. Moreover, 
his essay (‘* Itude Critique sur Origine du S, Suaire,” Paris, 
Picard, 1900) has been warmly welcomed by the more critical 
journals devoted to hagiography. In the Bollandist periodical, 
NO. 1696, VOL. 66] 
the Analecta Bollandiana, for instance, its Jesuit editors state 
(vol. xix., 1900, p. 350) that the Abbé Chevalier’s discussion 
of the subject is final, and that ‘il ne reste plus qu’a proclamer 
‘«4 haute et intelligible voix,’ comme le voulait le Pape 
Clément VII. : ‘‘ Hac figura... non est verum sudarium 
Domini Nostri Jesu Christi.”’ 
“‘They go on to state that the story of the ‘image of the 
shroud’ given by Geoffroy de Lirey to the college founded by 
him in 1353 is not lost in the mist of ages, and does not happen 
to present any of those obscurities by which the historian who 
wishes to impart his own laboriously-acquired conviction to 
others must at times find himself baffled. We have, for in- 
stance, the document addressed to the Pope by Bishop Peter 
d’Arcis, in which he denounces the fraudulent dealing of the 
Chapter of Lirey, who for motives of avarice pretended that 
miracles were worked by this shroud, whereas his predecessor 
in the see of Troyes had officially investigated the matter and 
proved it to be a forgery. ‘Et probatum fuit eciam per 
artificem qui illum (pannum) depinxerat, ipsum humano opere 
factum, non miraculose confectum vel concessum.’”’ 
There is also another difficulty. It is stated that there 
is at least one other Holy Shroud in another holy place. 
NOTES. 
THE governing body of the Jenner Institute of Preventive 
Medicine has appointed Major Ronald Ross, F.R.S., whose 
name is well known in connection with his researches on 
malaria, to be head of a new department in the Institute at 
Chelsea, 
WE learn from the British Medical Journal that the Legisla- 
ture of New Jersey has passed a Bill which sets aside 10,000 
dollars for the support of an experiment station where scientific 
investigations are to be made into the habits and breeding-places 
of mosquitoes and their relations to public health. 
WE regret to see the announcement of the death, at the age 
of sixty, of M. Henri Filhol, professor of paleontology at the 
Jardin des Plantes, Paris; and also of Prof. I. L. Fuchs, pro- 
fessor of mathematics in the University of Berlin. 
THE council of the Royal Institute of Public Health has con- 
ferred the Harben Gold Medal for the year 1902 upon Prof. 
W. R. Smith, late medical. officer of the School Board for 
London, in recognition of his eminent services to the public 
health, 
THE Washington correspondent of the Zzmes reports that 
Lord Kelvin and Mr. Westinghouse both gave evidence on 
April 24 before a committee of the House of Representatives 
appointed to consider the present system of coinage and weights 
and measures. Lord Kelvin advocated the passing of a Bill to 
substitute the metric system for the standard now employed in 
the United States. Mr. Long, Secretary of the Navy, expressed 
the hope that England would take the lead in this change, but 
said that if England did not the United States should, and 
England would then follow. Mr. Westinghouse supported the 
Bill; but declared that it would take ten years for the people to 
learn to use the metric system. 
IN connection with the second International Congress of 
Medical Electricity and Radiography, to be held at Bern on 
September 1-6, there will be an exhibition of apparatus re- 
lating to electro-physiology, electro-therapy and radiography. 
The physiological apparatus will be exhibited in the Physio- 
logical Institute, and will be in charge of Prof. Kronecker, 
director of the Institute, to whom communications relating to it 
should be addressed. The induction coils, contact-breakers, 
vacuum tubes and other apparatus connected with the produc- 
tion and uses of Rontgen rays in medicine will be in charge of 
Herr O, Pasche, chief of the Rontgen Institute of the Bern 
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