TALBOT3804

Dear Sir,

Many thanks for your kind attention in sending me your Photogenic specimens¹ which I shall return in a few days after shewing them to Lord Gray ² and some of my friends here who have felt a deep interest in the new art. They are very interesting especially the Lace one.³

I got your Initials⁴ free of Expence. Our Scotch Postmasters could not comprehend the art of valuing three Letters at 12 shillings.

I must now in return for your kindness, make you acquainted with another new Art namely that of Painting Pictures upon Blood which reached me by the same post which brought me your specimens of the black art. The following is an extract from a letter from Sir John Robison ⁵ on the subject.

“A curious circumstance has been pointed out here by D^r Abercromby ⁶ & by Sir P^k Newbiggings Sen ⁷ viz, that if Blood drawn from the veins of a person in an inflammatory condition, & received in China Cups having patterns containing Green flowers, or ornaments of which some portions are Green, be allowed to coagulate, and then be turned out with the bottom upward, it will be found that while the general mass of the coagulum has assumed the dark colour of clotted blood, those portions of the surface which have been in contact with the green portions of the pattern will be of a bright vermillion, and the representation of the pattern will be so correctly given that a person who has not seen the Cup is able to draw an outline from the vermillion representation on the Coagulum”. – Is not this done by light? For the enamel between the China Cup & the Green colouring matter must interrupt any Chemical action.

I should like much to learn your secret; but you must fix the time when I may break silence.⁸

Have you not made a Map of the Solar Lines on your prepared paper? This is surely practicable. I shall repeat to you the exp^ts which I may make.

I am Dear Sir Ever Most Faithfully yrs
D Brewster

S^t Leonard’s
S^t Andrews
Feb^y 12^th 1839

Henry Fox Talbot Esq^r
44 Queen Ann Street
London