Part 5 (1/2)

”At the conversazione of the Royal Society much interest was excited by Mr.

Eadweard Muybridge's lecture. The ZOOPRAXISCOPE afforded the spectator an opportunity of studying by synthesis, the facts of motion which are also demonstrated by a.n.a.lysis.”--_Ill.u.s.trated London News._

[Ill.u.s.tration: 14. BOYS PLAYING LEAP-FROG.]

”A really marvellous series of plates.”--_Nature, London._

”Artistic people are all talking about Mr. Muybridge, who has come hither with that rare desideratum--_something new_.”--London CORRESPONDENCE, _Philadelphia Times._

”It is impossible to do justice in this short time to the extraordinary exhibition given by Mr. Muybridge at the Inst.i.tute of Technology.... The interest they excite in the mind of the spectator is indescribable.”--_Sunday Gazette, Boston._

[Ill.u.s.tration: 16. CHILDREN RUNNING.]

”The photographs have solved many complicated questions as to animal locomotion.”--_Art Journal, London._

”The effect was weird, yet fascinating. Plaudit followed plaudit. A better pleased a.s.semblage of people it would be difficult to find.”--_Boston Journal._

”... Mr. Muybridge then gave his famous lecture and demonstration on Animal Locomotion. The hall (St. James') was crowded, and many were unable to obtain seats.”--Report of the Photographic Convention, _British Journal of Photography_.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 17. ELEPHANT AMBLING.]

”A demonstration that vividly interests all the world.”--_L'Ill.u.s.tration, Paris._

”Many of these pictures have great--indeed, astonis.h.i.+ng--beauty. The interest which they present from the scientific point of view is three-fold:--(_a_) They are important as examples of a very nearly perfect method of investigation by photographic and electrical appliances. (_b_) They have also a great value on account of the actual facts of natural history and physiology which they record. (_c_) They have, thirdly, a quite distinct, and perhaps their most definite, interest in their relation to psychology.”--PROF. E. RAY LANKESTER, F. R. S., in _Nature_.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 18. LION WALKING.]

”Mr. Meissonier's critical guests were evidently sceptical as to the accuracy of many of the positions; but when the photographs were turned rapidly, and made to pa.s.s before the lantern, their truthfulness was demonstrated most successfully.”--_Standard, London._

”Meissonier, devoting himself to his friends, evidently cared little for personal compliments; he was anxious for the well-deserved distinction of his _protege_ Muybridge.... 'C'est merveilleus.e.m.e.nt arrange!' said Alexandre Dumas. 'C'est que la nature _compose_ cranement bien!' replied Meissonier.”--_Le Temps_, Paris.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 20. EGYPTIAN CAMEL RACKING.]

”The sensation of the day, and the topic of popular conversation.”--_Boston Daily Advertiser._

”The rapid movements by different animals were most interesting: and hurdle-racing by horses--the very whipping process being visible--brought down the house.”--_Boston Herald._

”On revolving the instrument, the figures that have been derided by so many as impossible absurdities, started into life, and such a perfect representation of a racehorse at full speed as was never before witnessed was immediately visible.”--_The Field, London._

[Ill.u.s.tration: 21. BABOON WALKING.]

”Mr. Muybridge showed that many of our best artists have been in the habit of depicting animals in positions which they never a.s.sume in nature.”--_Chambers' Edinburgh Journal._

”The large school-room (Clifton College) was crowded. The head master presided. Loud applause and frequent laughter greeted the life-sized photographs from nature, which by a rapid revolution of the ZOOPRAXISCOPE, showed among other actions, the ambling of an elephant, the gallop of a race-horse, the somersault of a gymnast and the flight of a bird.”--_Bristol Mercury._

[Ill.u.s.tration: 22. KANGAROO JUMPING.]

”The lecture theatre of the ROYAL ACADEMY OF ARTS was filled to overflowing.”--_Athenaeum, London._

”The Royal Dublin Society's Theatre was filled to its utmost capacity yesterday afternoon, when Mr. Muybridge resumed his course of Lectures. The demonstration is simply marvellous.”--_Daily Express, Dublin._