wenty-six years ago--photography has made
great strides since then. What wonderful results have been obtained! The
skeleton of the human body seen through the flesh! The instantaneous
photograph! The kinetoscopic views! Man's voice registered for eternity
in the phonograph! The mysterious dragged forth into the light of day!
Many hitherto unknown secrets become common property! The invisible,
even the invisible, the occult, placed before our eyes, as a spectacle!

"One does not know all that may be done with a kodak," murmured
Bernardet.

As he ascertained, in re-reading Dr. Vernois's report on "The
Application of Photography to Medical Jurisprudence," the savant
himself, even while denying the results of which Dr. Bourion spoke in
his communication, devoted himself to the general consideration upon the
role which photography ought to play in medical jurisprudence. Yes, in
1869, he asked that in the researches on poisonous substances, where the
microscope alone had been used, photography should be applied. He
advocated what in our day is so common, the photographing of the
features of criminals, their deformities, their scars, their tattooings.
He demanded that pictures should be taken of an accused person in many
ways, without wigs and with them, with and without beards, in diverse
costumes.

"These propositions," thought Bernardet, "seem hardly new; it is
twenty-six years since they were discovered, and now they seem as
natural as that two and two make four. In twenty-six years from now, who
knows what science will have done?

"Vernois demanded that wounds be reproduced, their size, the instruments
with which the crime was committed, the leaves of plants in certain
cases of poisoning, the shape of the victim's garments, the prints of
their hands and feet, the interior view of their rooms, the signature
of certain accused affected with nervous disorders, parts of bodies and
of bones, and, in fact, everything in any way connected with the crime.
It was said that he asked too much. Did he expect judges to make
photographs? To-day, everything that Vernois demanded in 1869, has been
done, and, in truth, the instantaneous photograph has almost superseded
the minutes of an investigation.

"We photograph a spurious bank note. It is magnified, and, by the
absence of a tiny dot the proof of the alteration is found. On account
of the lack of a dot the forger is detected. The savant, Helmholtz, was
the discoverer of this me