THE "HOLY SHROUD."

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 11986, 7 June 1902, Page 5 (Supplement)

THE "HOLY SHROUD."

m ALLEGED AUTOMATIC PHOTOGRAPHS. [FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.] London, April 25. A considerable sensation has been created by the statement as an alleged scientific fact that the " Holy Shroud" —a garment which is preserved at Turin as the traditional shroud in which the Redeemer was buried by Joseph of Arimathea—has been found to have automatically printed on it a species of photographs of the sacred corpse. With reference to this discovery the Lancet says : —"The remarkable description which appears in our Paris notes of the photographs taken by M. Vignon and exhibited by him of the winding-sheet preserved at Turin and traditionally said to be that of Christ seems to justify the belief that the human body is either radio-active or that itgives off 'vapours' which exhibit a similar action to light upon sensitive surfaces. We have frequently recorded in our columns the fact deduced in an elaborate research by Dr. W. J. Russell, F.R.S., that almost all substances are able in the dark to act on the photographic plate and to produce a picture. The phenomenon would appear to be established always in the presence of an oxidising process," and Dr. Russell at length came to the conclusion that peroxide of hydrogen was the main factor concerned. In the case of the sheet in which tradition says that the dead Christ was wrapped we have the analogue probably of a photographic plate or sensitised film. The cloth was impregnated with oils and aloes. It is well known that fixed oils are sensitive to oxidation and aloes contain constituents, allied to the pyrogallic acid series, which would probably turn brown in the presence of an oxidising process. The action by which, therefore, the image of the dead Christ was recorded on the cloth would appear tc be due to chemical change rather than to the effect of light. On this explanation an exact image, even to minute details, such as wounds produced by the thorns and the marks of the blood drops and of flagellation by whips of a definite kind, is not by any means beyond the bounds of probability. " It is an intensely remarkable and interesting instance of the light which the very latest developments of scientific research may throw on traditions and controversial matters in history. We are face to lace undoubtedly with a set of new phenomena, giving distinct indications of the existence of emanations hitherto not recognised from both animate and inanimate bodies. The discovery of these emanations has been due to the fact that they affect the very large number of substances also which are affected in a similar way, though not to the same degree as silver in the presence of albuminous substances. "' Natural photographs appear on all sides, as is proved by. the simple experiment of placing an opaque object on grass or on fresh gravel exposed to the light. An exact outline of the shape of the object will be found on removing it after a time. The property of radio-activity is different, the substance in this case actually emitting radiations itself. The images due to the emanation of vapour are yet another but not less interesting phenomenon, as is abundantly manifested in the case of the traditional winding-sheet of Christ." All this is, of course, most interesting to every member of any Christian Church; but it merely amounts to the apparent establishment of the fact that a shroud will receive an automatic picture of the corpse it has enwrapped. For the rest the real interest of the 'matter depends" upon the evidence which ' may exist that the " Holy Shroud" of Turin is in reality that which enwrapped the buried Saviour.