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May 15, 1885.] THE PHOTOGRAPHIC NEWS 313 a proper light it is very distinct. 2. A view 7} inches by 6 ins. longways, on a pewter ylate 8 by 6} inches; it is stated on the back to have been M. Niepce’s first successful experiment of fixing permanently the image from nature. The view is of a court yard seen from an upper window. It is less distinct than the former ; the outlines of the black portions are bordered by a white fringe, whiter than the adjacent parts. Our further notice of the exhibits at South Kensington must stand over for this week. There are one or two points in a concisely-written article on photography in this month’s Coimhill worth noting. The writer points out that in spite of the boasted rapidity of dry plates, all these surprising achievements have been equalled in the past. “ Breese and Blanchard long ago secured upon ‘ wet ’ plates those surprising effects of breaking waves and fleeting clouds which we are apt to believe have only recently been obtained,” while in 1851 “ Talbot successfully photographed a page of print attached to a revolving wheel by the light of the electricspark from a Leyden jar; the duration of such a spark being less than the twenty-thousandth part of a second." The progress of the art iswell indicated by the Census returns, which, in 1881, showed that there were in Great Britain 7,614 photo graphers, only 51 having been recorded in 1851. The Tree Church Synod of Lothian and Tweedale is terribly exercised over the conduct of one of its ministers, the Rev. Dr. Stuart Moir. The rev. gentleman, besides being charged with other offences, is accused of having committed the heinous sin “ of being photographed in priestly attire, and holding a crucifix in his hands.” This is truly awful! But what would the Synod have said if Dr. Moir had been taken after the style of a photo graph we noticed the other day in a shop window in Holborn of a well-known catholic clergyman, who is re presented in his robes wtth a crucifix on the table beside him, and holding a picture of the interior of his church, at which he is gazing with evident admiration ? A lady, accompanied by three children, went the other day to a suburban photographer. While the latter was talking to her in the reception room, the printer came in and said in a low voice, “ I wish you’d come and look at these prints on the new paper. The measles, if possible, are worse than with the sample we tried the other day.” There was nothing in the remark, but the lady, over hearing it, took alarm at once. “ Have you measles in your establishment, Mr. ? Really, you ought to have told me. I must take my children away at once, for they have not had them.” In vain the photographer tried to explain what a “ measly print ” meant ; he only made matters worse, for the lady triumphantly pointed out that measles might be communicated by contaminated paper, and gathering up her skirts and her children under her wing, she precipitately fled! Vanity Fair makes a scathing onslaught on the pictures at the Royal Academy. It remarks ; “ The plain truth is that of these two thousand pictures, drawings, and statues, a large proportion are utterly bad, and ought to be broken up or burned by the common hangman.” The “hanging committee ” is probably what our contemporary means. However, we are inclined to agree with him when he says “ there are scores and scores of big pictures which, though good as portraits, are utterly uninteresting,” but not when he observes that “ British artists are rapidly developing into something not much better that amateur photo graphers.” Rather rough this, on the amateurs ! Photographers ought to be interested in everything that concerns the sun. Perhaps they will be grateful to Mr Swinton, author of The Almanack of Solar Physics, who says, " Spots on the left-hand side of the sun’s disc mean fine weather, spots on the right-hand mean foul.” Now that collodion is no longer an essential to every photographer, and alcohol only a factor in a minority of photographic processes, the photographer is not so deeply interested in the extra duty of two shillings a gallon on spirits as he otherwise might have been. A well-known firm of wholesale druggists gives the advance in price as follows:—Spirits of wine, 58 O.P., 3s. 2d. per, gallon; absolute alcohol, 6d. per pound ; tinctures, 6d. per pound ; chloroform, and ether from pure spirit, 6d. per pound ; French essences, 6d. per pound. It was stated a short time ago that the Blenheim Raffaelle and the Vandyck purchased for the Nationa Gallery had been photographed by Mr. Morelli. It would be interesting to compare Mr. Morelli’s work with that of Messrs. Braun. So far aS we are aware, Mr. Morelli does not use a secret process. A voluminous report on colour blindness has just been presented to Parliament, together with details as to the tests used in examining candidates for nautical certifi cates, and a chromo-lithographic test-card. Considering that so very many persons are colour-blind, one can hardly be surprised at the fact that much difference of opinion should exist as to the extent to which photography repro duces colours in the relative order of their intensity. Out of the detailed reports on nearly a hundred cases it is interesting to quote from a few :— “ C. K. ” named the black card green, and the red card green and brown. Also described the dark green glasses as red and yellow. “ W. J. ” described the dark green and yellow glasses as red, and the light blue glasses as green. “ W. E. M. ” described the dark green glasses as red, the light blue glasses as green, and the yellow glasses as red. “ A. R. ” named the red card green, the green card yellow, and the black card green or brown. Also described the dark green glasses as red, the light blue glasses as green, and the yellow glasses as red. Photographs of Abdul Rahman, taken at Rawul Pindi, are on their way to this country. His Highness, as we staled a week or two since, did not at first fall in with