The Galaxy, April, 1877: Vol. XXIII.—April, 1877.—No. 4.Various
General
The Galaxy, April, 1877: Vol. XXIII.—April, 1877.—No. 4.
Various
American literature -- Periodicals
PHOTOGRAPHING FROM THE RETINA.
ONE of the first fruits of the daguerreotypic art was the suggestion
that unknown murderers could be detected by photographing the last
image left on the retina of the murdered person's eye. The idea
that this could be done seems to have taken strong hold of many
imaginations, and we believe this suggestion is repeated to the police
authorities of New York on the occurrence of every noticeable and
mysterious murder. That such a detective task will ever be accomplished
by photography is extremely doubtful, on account of the length of time
that usually passes before the discovery of a murder. But science has
now advanced so far that the image on the retina _has been fixed and
photographed_. This has been done by Prof. Kühne of Heidelberg, but not
with human subjects, as decapitation is one necessary part of the
process. Prof. Kühne placed a rabbit four and a half feet from a closed
window, in the shutter of which was an opening twelve inches square.
The animal's head was first covered by a black cloth for five minutes
and then exposed for three minutes. The head was then instantly cut
off, and one eye taken out in a room illuminated by yellow light. The
eyeball was opened and instantly plunged into a five per cent. solution
of alum. This occupied two minutes, and the other eye, still remaining
in the head, was then exposed at the window just as the first had been.
It was then taken out and placed in the alum solution like its fellow.
The next morning the two retinæ were carefully isolated, separated from
the optic nerve, and turned. On a beautiful rose red ground a sharp
image, somewhat more than one millimetre (one-twenty-fifth inch) square
was found. The image on the first retina--that which was exposed during
life--was somewhat reddish and not so sharply defined as that on the
other.
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