The stereoscope

by David Brewster

In treating of those objects of natural history which enter into the composition of landscape scenery, such as trees, plants, and rocks, we have pointed out the method of having them accurately drawn for the stereoscope; but it is to the importance of stereoscopic photography in natural history as a science that we propose to devote the present Chapter.

When we reflect upon the vast number of species which have been described by zoologists, the noble forms of animated nature, whether wild or domesticated, and the valuable services which many of them perform as the slaves of man, we can hardly attach too much importance to the advantage of having them accurately delineated and raised into stereoscopic relief. The animal painters of the present day,—the Landseers, the Cowpers, and the Ansdells, have brought this branch of their art to a high degree of perfection, but the subjects of their pencil have been principally dogs, horses, deer, and cattle, and a few other animals, with which they are well acquainted, and specimens of which were within their reach. To give accurate representations of giraffes, hyænas, and the rarer animals which are found alive only in zoological gardens and travelling caravans, is a more difficult task, and one which has been necessarily intrusted to inferior hands. In this branch of his art the photographer is perplexed with the difficulty of arresting his subject in a position of repose and in the attitude which he requires. But this difficulty will diminish as his materials become more sensitive to light; and means may be found for fixing, without constraint, certain animals in the desired position. We have seen the portrait of a dog taken with such minute accuracy that the slightest trace of any motion could not be perceived. Its master directed his attention to a piece of bread, and he stood firmly waiting for his reward. Considering truth as an essential element in all photographs, we are unwilling to counsel the artist to have recourse to a large lens for the purpose of accelerating his process by seizing his restless object in a single instant of time; but what cannot be tolerated in the human form may be permitted in animal portraiture as a necessary evil. The divine lineaments and delicate forms which in man the intellect and the affections conspire to mould, are concealed under the shaggy drapery of the world of instinct; and even if they existed and were perceived, could hardly be appreciated by those who have not studied its manners and submitted to its laws. But even in the present state of photography such a celerity of process has been attained that a distinguished amateur in Edinburgh has constructed a portable camera, which, by pulling a trigger, instantaneously records upon its sensitive retina the surf which is hurrying to the shore, or the stranger who is passing in the street. With such an instrument, in such hands, the denizens of the jungle or of the plains may be taken captive in their finest attitudes and in their most restless moods. Photographs thus obtained will possess a value of no ordinary kind, and when taken in the binocular camera and raised into relief by the stereoscope, will be valuable auxiliaries to the naturalist, and even to the painters and the poets whose works or whose lyrics may require an introduction to the brutes that perish.

In representing with accuracy the osteology and integuments of the zoological world—the framework which protects life, and to which life gives activity and power, the aid of the stereoscope is indispensable. The repose of death, and the sharp pencil which resides in the small lens, will place before the student’s eye the skeleton, clothed or unclothed, in accurate perspective and true relief, while he contemplates with wonder, in their true apparent magnitude, the gigantic Mastodon, the colossal Megatherion, and the huge Dinornis, or examines the crushed remains of the lengthened Saurian, or the hollow footsteps which ancient life has impressed on the massive sandstone or the indurated clay.

In the other branches of natural history, ichthyology, ornithology, conchology, &c., the stereoscope will be found equally useful. In entomology, where insects are to be represented, the microscopic binocular camera must be used; and in order to prevent the legs, the antennæ, and other small parts of the object from being transparent, and therefore spotted, with the images of objects or parts beyond them, as explained in a preceding chapter, the smallest lenses should be employed.

The roots and bulbs which are raised by the agriculturist and the horticulturist, the turnip, the beet, the carrot, and the onion; and the fruits raised in the orchard, on the wall, or in the hothouse, may be exhibited in all their roundness and solidity in the stereoscope; and as articles of commerce they might be purchased on the authority of their pictures in relief. The microscopic stereoscope will, in like manner, give accurate magnified representations in relief of grains and seeds of all kinds, and by comparing these with the representations of those of a standard form and quality, the purchaser may be enabled to form a better idea of their excellence than if he saw them with his own eyes, or had them in his own hands.

CHAPTER XIII.
APPLICATION OF THE STEREOSCOPE
TO EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES.

The observations contained in the preceding chapters prepare us for appreciating the value of the stereoscope as an indispensable auxiliary in elementary as well as in professional education. When the scholar has learned to read, to write, and to count, he has obtained only the tools of instruction. To acquire a general knowledge of the works of God and of man—of things common and uncommon—of the miracles of nature and of art, is the first step in the education of the people. Without such knowledge, the humblest of our race is unfit for any place in the social scale. He may have learned to read his Bible, and he may have read it after he had learned to read;—he may have committed to memory every sentence in the Decalogue;—he may have packed into the storehouse of his brain all the wisdom of Solomon, and all the divine precepts of a greater than Solomon, while he is utterly ignorant of everything above him, around him, and within him,—ignorant, too, of the form, the magnitude, and the motions of his terrestrial home,—ignorant of the gigantic structures which constitute the material universe,—ignorant of the fabrics which industry prepares for his use, and of the luxuries which commerce brings from the ends of the earth and places at his door,—ignorant even of the wonderful operations of that beneficent commissariat, which is every moment, while he sleeps and dreams, elaborating the materials by which he is fed and clothed.

Were we to say, though we do not say it, that in our own country the teachers, so penuriously endowed by the State, are not much in advance of their pupils, we should err only in stating what is not universally true; and yet there are men of influence and character insisting upon the imposition of sectarian tests, and thus barricading our schools against the admission of the wisest and the fittest masters! And while every civilized community in the world is eagerly teaching their people, irrespective of religious creeds, the same bigots, civil and ecclesiastical, in our own country, have combined to resist the only system of education which can stem the tide of vice and crime which is desolating the land.

Missionary labour and reformatory institutions, valuable as they are, presuppose an educated community. To instruct and reform a race that can neither read their Bible nor derive knowledge from books, is a task beyond human achievement. The dearest interests of society, therefore, call loudly for Secular Education,—the greatest boon which philanthropy ever demanded from the State. The minister who, in the face of sectarian factions, dares not identify himself with a large legislative measure for the education of the people, and resigns office when he fails to carry it, prefers power to duty, and, if he ever possessed it, divests himself of the character of a statesman and a patriot. He may be justified in punishing the law-breaker who cannot read his statutes, but he is himself the breaker of laws of a higher order, and sanctioned by a higher tribunal.

If the education of the people is to be attempted either by partial or comprehensive legislation, the existing system is utterly inefficient. The teacher, however wisely chosen and well qualified, has not at his command the means of imparting knowledge. He may pour it in by the ear, or extract it from the printed page, or exhibit it in caricature in the miserable embellishments of the school-book, but unless he teaches through the eye, the great instrument of knowledge, by means of truthful pictures, or instruments, or models, or by the direct exhibition of the products of nature and of art, which can be submitted to the scrutiny of the senses, no satisfactory instruction can be conveyed.[65] Every school, indeed, should have a museum, however limited and humble. Even from within its narrow sphere objects of natural history and antiquities might be collected, and duplicates exchanged; and we are sure that many a chimney-piece in the district would surrender a tithe of its curiosities for the public use. Were the British Museum, and other overflowing collections, to distribute among provincial museums the numerous duplicates which they possess, they would gradually pass into the schools, and before a quarter of a century elapsed, museums would be found in every proper locality.