"MURDER WILL OUT."

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIV, Issue 176, 25 July 1879, Page 4

" MURDER WILL OUT."

Some sixteen or more years ago, a Very greet sensation was caused by the announcement tbat a wonderful discovery had been made in Italy — at Florence, I believe — which promised to do more for Ihe cause of justice, in dealing with murder, tban all ihe laws heretofore enacted, or police arrangements organised. The alleged discovery was quite a wonderful and sensational affair, yet, like all great discoveries, simple wilha). As the tale, waa told and widely repeated, tt created .ft thrill of excitement all over the world, aod even this remote colony nay be said (o have throbbed response to the sensation. The tale went tbat a certain learned Italian profeßßor, whose namo at the time was not stated, bad been called in to investigate a mysterious cose of murder. A beautiful yooog woman had been found foully ■..angled in ber bed, with evidence to show that an outrsge, worse, if possible than the murder, had also been committed. The details were given at some length. Suspicion, as the tale went, soon pointed lo one person, a rejected suitor of the lady, a sort of Don Joan, who might be supposed as ready to murder as to defame a heroine. Bot there was nothing to connect this person with tbe crimes committed. It could not be shown that he could have had access, without being seen, to tbe lady's chamber, nor did it seem possible that a desperate straggle, such as had evidently occurred, could have taken place without the noise being heard by an attendant, who slept ie an adjoining room. But in a short time tbe attendant with some reluctance, confessed that oo the night of the murder she bad slept a deep, heavy, sleep, aod had only woke op at a very late hour the next morning, feeling as though she _.ad recovered from the effects of some powerful opiate, wbich ba.) rendered her dead to all sounds for tha time being. The suspected man, however, proved what appeared to be bu un- . doubted alibi, aod be was about to be acquitted, when a certain Florentine profefeeor appeared upon the scene, and announced tbat be would show, if he was permitted, who was the real morderer. He s.id tbat for years he had been engaged in tbe study of optic., on which be was an authority of European fame, aod he had been investigating tbe images known to be thrown upon the eyes of animals as images are thrown upon the glass of a camera obscur a. He had found means of fixing these ____£es, even after death, and by looking in the eye of one bollock, be had picked put of a large crowd, the man who had killed it. He proposed to do the same with tbe eye of the young UNy. Permission was accorded, and by means of chemicals be hardened the retina, and had •' developed " tbe image upon it, and the image, ' enlarged by .means of a camera, was then aod there produced, amidst a state of excitement never seen io a court of justice before ; aod the murderer (the young man who , was a, first suspected) confessed his orime and was executed for it ; whilst ttis servant, as an accomplice before the fast, was sent to the galleys for life. Thus tbe ta'e was repeated all over the world, but never verified, and never fully believed. After a while it was \ forgotten. By a recent mail, however, after ail hid beeo forgotten, comes the startling announcement th .t the printing of external figures on tbe retina is not a fiction, but a fact, and that tbe fact bad been verified by more than one man of high scientific attainments. Indeed, one re. pectable London paper was so enthusiastic over tbe discovery tbat it gave an aocount of tbe experiments three times over in one ieeup, acd announced that the images so obtained were to be called " optograms." Euhoe, a German professor, seems to have beeo the first to have recently tried the experiment, and he held a rabbit's eye to a bole in tbe shutter, and after ex posing it three minutes to the light, cut eff tbe animal's bead. Then, by keeping the retina always in yellow light, and treating it wi.h alum to moke it firm, he succeeded in developing a clear and distinct image of the ho'e in the shutter, jaSt as it would bave come out on a photographic plate properly treated. Tbe London Medical Record states that tbe " beautiful " experiment was repeated by Dr Gamgee, F.8.5., of Birmingham, who, to (he preseoce of Professor Bonsen, verified the results obtained by Kubne aud got a distinct imtfge on a fine red-colored ground of toe opening in tbe shutter. But Pro fosor Gamgee went something further. He not only got an image of the retina with the eye of alive rabbit recently killed, though the latter image was not quite so distinct as the former. It seems, therefore, to be proved that the retina receives and retains, for a time ' at least, tbe image last impressed upon ' it before death, and also retains any imago which may be impressed , for sbilie-few minutes at least, after life is extinct. These are, it seems, sob.r facts. The image is there, and can, with proper care and appliances, be developed, but that is about the extent tf which, as far as can be judged at pi-ef^pt^ this discovery pan go.