A new photographic discovery.

— Several newspapers reported the following fact:

“Mr. Badet, who died on the 12th of last November after an illness of three months — says the newspaper Union bourguignonne, of Dijon — was accustomed, every time his strength permitted, to station himself at a window on the first floor, with his head constantly turned toward the side of the street, in order to distract himself by watching the passers-by who went by. A few days ago Mrs. Peltret, whose house is opposite the residence of the widow Badet, perceived on the pane of that window Mr. Badet himself, with his cotton cap, his emaciated face, etc., in short, just as she had seen him during his illness. Great was her emotion, to say the least. She summoned not only the neighbors, whose testimony might be suspect, but also serious men, who perceived quite distinctly the image of Mr. Badet on the pane of the window where he was accustomed to remain. This image was also shown to the family of the deceased, who immediately made the glass disappear. “It was, however, well established that the pane had taken the impression of the sick man's face, which was as if daguerreotyped upon it, n a phenomenon that we could explain if, on the side opposite the window, there had been another one, through which the solar rays could have reached Mr. Badet; but there was nothing: the room had only a single window. Such is the truth, naked and crude, about this striking fact, whose explanation must be left to the learned.”

We confess that, upon reading this article, our first impulse was to classify it as vulgar, as one does with apocryphal news, attaching to it not the least importance. A few days later, Mr. Jobard, of Brussels, wrote to us as follows:

“Upon reading the fact that follows — the one we have just cited — which took place in my country, with one of my relatives, I shrugged my shoulders on seeing the newspaper that relates it refer its explanation to the learned, and that worthy family remove the pane through which Badet watched the passers-by. Evoke him to learn what he thinks of it.”

— This confirmation of the fact, on the part of a man of Mr. Jobard's character, whose merits and honorability are known to all, in addition to the particular circumstance that the hero is one of his relatives, could leave us no doubt as to its veracity. Consequently, we evoked Mr. Badet at the session of the Parisian Society of Spiritist Studies, on June 15, 1858, a Tuesday. Here are the explanations that followed:

I pray Almighty God to permit the Spirit Badet, who died in Dijon last November 11, to communicate with us.

Answer. – I am here.

Is the fact that concerns you and that we have just recalled true?

Answer. – Yes, it is true.

Could you give us its explanation?

Answer. – There exist physical agents, for now unknown, which later will become common. It is a rather simple phenomenon, similar to a photograph, combined with forces that you have not yet discovered.

By your explanations could you hasten the moment of that discovery?

Answer. – I should indeed like to, but that is the task of other Spirits and of human labor.

Could you reproduce, for a second time, the same phenomenon?

Answer. – It was not I who produced it, it was the physical conditions, of which I am independent.

By whose will, and with what purpose did this fact occur?

Answer. – It was produced when I was living, and independently of my will; a particular state of the atmosphere revealed it afterward.

A discussion having arisen among those present about the probable causes of this phenomenon, and various opinions being expressed without other questions being directed to the Spirit, the latter said spontaneously: “And do you not take into consideration electricity and electroplating, which also act upon the perispirit?”

We were told recently that Spirits have no eyes; now, if this image is the reproduction of the perispirit, how was it possible to reproduce the organs of vision?

Answer. – The perispirit is not the Spirit; the appearance, or perispirit has eyes, but the Spirit does not possess them. I have indeed already told you, speaking of the perispirit, that I was living.

Observation. – While we await this new discovery being made, we shall give it the provisional name of spontaneous photography. Everyone will lament that, through a sentiment difficult to understand, they destroyed the pane upon which the image of Mr. Badet was reproduced; so curious a monument could facilitate the research and the observations proper for the study of the question. Perhaps they saw in this image a work of the demon; in any case, if the demon has anything to do with this matter, it is surely in the destruction of the pane, because he is the enemy of progress.

CONSIDERATIONS ON SPONTANEOUS PHOTOGRAPHY.

It results from the above explanations that, in itself, the fact is neither supernatural nor miraculous. How many phenomena are in the same case, which in times of ignorance must have struck imaginations all too prone to the marvelous! It is, then, a purely physical effect, which foreshadows a new step in photographic science.

As is known, the perispirit is the semimaterial envelope of the Spirit; it is not only after death that the Spirit finds itself clothed in it; during life it is united to the body: it is the bond between the body and the Spirit. Death is only the destruction of the coarsest envelope; the Spirit preserves the second, which affects the appearance of the first, as if it had kept the impression of it. Generally invisible, in certain circumstances the perispirit condenses and, combining with other fluids, becomes perceptible to sight and, at times, even tangible; it is this that is seen in apparitions.

Whatever the subtlety and imponderability of the perispirit, it does not for that cease to be a kind of matter, whose physical properties are still unknown to us. Since it is matter, it can act upon matter; this action is evident in magnetic phenomena; it has just revealed itself in inert bodies, by the impression that the image of Mr. Badet left on the pane. This impression occurred when he was living; it was preserved after his death, but was invisible; it was necessary, it seems, the fortuitous action of an unknown agent, probably atmospheric, to make it apparent. What would there be astonishing in that? Is it not known that we can, at will, make the daguerreotyped image appear and disappear? We cite this as a comparison, without claiming to establish an analogy of processes. In this way, it would be the perispirit of Mr. Badet that, exteriorizing itself from the body of the latter, would have, with the passage of time and under the dominion of unknown circumstances, exercised a veritable chemical action upon the vitreous substance, similar to that of light. Incontestably, light and electricity must play a great role in this phenomenon. It remains to be known what the agents and those circumstances are; that is what will probably be learned later, and it will not be one of the least curious discoveries of modern times. If it is a natural phenomenon, those who deny everything will say, why is it the first time that it is produced? For our part, we shall ask them why daguerreotyped images were only fixed after Daguerre, although it was not he who invented light, nor the copper plates, nor the silver, nor the chlorides? The effects of the camera obscura have long been known; a fortuitous circumstance favored the path of fixation; then, aided by genius, from perfection to perfection one arrived at the masterpieces that we see today. It will probably be the same with this strange phenomenon that has just revealed itself; and who knows whether it has not already been produced and whether it has not passed unnoticed for lack of an attentive observer? The reproduction of an image upon a glass is a vulgar fact, but the fixation of that image under conditions other than that of photography, the latent state of that image, its reappearance afterward, this is what must be marked in the annals of Science. If we believe in the Spirits, we must expect many other marvels, several of which are pointed out to us by them. Honor, then, to the learned ones modest enough not to believe that Nature, for them, has already turned the last page of its book. If this phenomenon was produced once, it must be able to reproduce itself. That is what will probably occur when we have the key to it. While we wait, here is what one of the members of the Society recounted, at the session of which we spoke:

— He said: “I was living in a house in Montrouge; it was summer, the sun was sparkling through the window. On the table there was a bottle full of water and, beneath it, a small mat; suddenly, the mat caught fire. Had someone not been there, a fire could have occurred without anyone knowing its cause. I tried to reproduce the same phenomenon hundreds of times and never succeeded.” The physical cause of the combustion is well known: the bottle produced the effect of a burning glass. But why could the experiment not be repeated? It is that, independently of the water bottle, there was the concurrence of circumstances that operated in an exceptional manner the concentration of the solar rays: perhaps the state of the atmosphere, of the vapors, of the water, the electricity, etc., and probably all this, in certain required proportions; hence the difficulty of reproducing exactly the same conditions and the futility of the attempts to arrive at a similar effect. Here, then, is a phenomenon entirely within the domain of physics, of which we know the principle, but which, nevertheless, we cannot repeat at will. Will it occur to the mind of the most hardened skeptic to deny the fact? Surely not. Why, then, do these same skeptics deny the reality of Spiritist phenomena — we speak of manifestations in general — simply because they cannot manipulate them at will? Not to admit that beyond what we know there may be new agents, governed by special laws; to deny these agents, because they do not obey the laws that we know, is to give proof of very little logic and to reveal a mind all too limited.

— Let us return to the image of Mr. Badet. Like our colleague and his bottle [item 4], numerous fruitless attempts will certainly be made, before obtaining any success, until a happy chance, or the effort of a powerful genius, may give the key to the mystery. Then, this will probably be transformed into a new art, with which industry will be enriched. Already we can hear numerous persons saying: but there is a much simpler means of having that key: why do they not ask it of the Spirits? This is the occasion to highlight an error into which most of those who judge the Spiritist science without knowing it fall. Let us recall, first of all, this fundamental principle: the Spirits, contrary to what was formerly thought, are far from knowing everything.

The Spiritist scale gives us the measure of their capacity and morality, and daily experience confirms our observations in this regard. The Spirits, then, do not know everything, being in many respects quite inferior to certain men: this is what we can never lose sight of. The Spirit Badet, involuntary author of the phenomenon with which we are occupied, by his answers demonstrates a certain elevation, but not a great superiority; he himself acknowledges his lack of skill to give a complete explanation; as he had said, this is “the task of other Spirits and of human labor.” These last words contain an entire teaching. Indeed, it would be quite convenient to have only to interrogate the Spirits in order to make the most extraordinary discoveries; where, then, would be the merit of the inventors, if a hidden hand came to facilitate their task and spare them the labor of research? Surely, more than one person would have no scruple about registering a patent of invention in his own personal name, without mentioning the true inventor. Let us add that such questions are made with a view always to interests and in the hope of easy fortune, things very ill recommended with the good Spirits; besides, they never lend themselves to serving as an instrument of traffic. Man must have his own initiative, without which he will be reduced to the condition of a machine; he must perfect himself through labor: it is one of the conditions of his terrestrial existence. It is necessary, also, that each thing come in its time and by the means that it pleases God to employ, for the Spirits cannot divert the ways of Providence. To wish to force the established order is to place oneself at the mercy of the mocking Spirits who flatter ambition, cupidity, and vanity, in order then to laugh at the disappointments they cause. Very little scrupulous by their nature, they say everything that one wishes, give all the recipes that are asked of them and, if necessary, will support them with scientific formulas, without caring in the least whether they will have the value of the recipes of charlatans. They are deceived, then, all those who believed that the Spirits could open mines of gold to them: their mission is more serious. “Work, strive; this is what you truly need,” said a celebrated moralist, of whom we shall soon give a remarkable conversation from beyond the tomb. To this wise maxim, the Spiritist Doctrine adds: It is to these that the serious Spirits come to assist, by the ideas they suggest to them or by direct counsel, and not to the lazy, who wish to enjoy without doing anything, nor to the ambitious, who wish to have merit without effort. Help yourself and heaven will help you. [1] The daguerreotype is a photographic process made without a negative image. It was created by the Frenchman Louis Daguerre in 1837 and announced in 1839. It was declared by the French Government to be in the public domain. — Source