This process of Dr. Wood's is capable of producing pictures of superior excellence. Owing to the inconstancy of the iodine compounds, it is a little uncertain, but, care being taken to insure the same degree of strength in the solutions, a very uniform good result may be obtained. The process and its modifications are thus described by the inventor.

"Let well-glazed paper (I prefer that called wove post) be steeped in water to which hydrochloric acid has been added in the proportion of two drops to three ounces. When well wet, let it be washed over with a mixture of syrup of iodide of iron half a drachm, water two drachms and a half, tincture of iodine one drop.

" When this has remained on the paper for a few minutes, so as to be imbibed, dry it lightly with bibulolus paper, and being removed to a dark room, let it be washed over evenly, by means of a camel-hair pencil, with a solution of nitrate of silver, ten grains to the ounce of distilled water. The paper is now ready for the camera. The sooner it is used the better ; as when the ingredients are not rightly mixed it is liable to spoil by keeping. The time I generally allow the paper to be exposed in the camera varies from two to thirty seconds ; in clear weather, without sunshine, the medium is about fifteen seconds. With a bright light, the picture obtained is of a rich brown colour ; with a faint light, or a bright light for a very short time continued, it is black. For portraits out of doors, in the shade on a clear day, the time for sitting is from ten to fifteen seconds.

" If the light is strong, and the view to be taken extensive, the operator should be cautious not to leave the paper exposed for a longer period than five or six seconds, as the picture will appear confused from all parts being equally acted on. In all cases, the shorter the time in which the picture is taken the better.

" When the paper is removed from the camera no picture is visible. However, when left in the dark, without any other preparation being used, for a period which varies with the length of time it was exposed, and the strength of the light, a negative picture becomes gradually developed, until it arrives at a state of perfection which is not attained, I think, by photography produced by any other process.* It would seem as if the salt of silver, being slightly affected by the light, though not in a degree to produce any visible effect on it if alone, sets up a catalytic action, which is extended to the salts of iron, and which continues after the stimulus of the light is withdrawn. The catalysis which then takes place has induced me to name this process, for want of a better word, the Catalysotype. Sir J. Herschel and Mr. Fox Talbot have remarked the same fact with regard to other salts of iron, but I do not know of any process being employed for photographic purposes, which depends on this action for its development, except my own.

* The picture, when developed, is not readily injured by exposure to moderate light; it ought, however, to be fixed, which may be done by washing it with a solution of bromide of potassium, fifteen or twenty grains to the ounce, iodide of potassium, five grains to the ounce. It may either be applied with a camel-hair-pencil or by immersion. The picture must then be well washed in water to remove the fixing material, which would cause it to fade by exposure to light.

" My reason for using the muriatic solution previous to washing with the iodide of iron is this : I was for a long time tormented by seeing the pictures spoiled by yellow patches, and could not remedy it, until I observed that they presented an appearance as if that portion of the nitrate of silver which was not decomposed by the iodide of iron had flowed away from the part. I then recollected that Sir J. Herschel and Mr. Hunt had proved that iodide of silver is not very sensitive to light, unless some free nitrate be present. I accordingly tried to keep both together on the paper, and after many plans had failed, I succeeded by steeping it in the acid solution, which makes it freely and evenly imbibe whatever fluid is presented to it. I am sure that its utility is not confined to this effect, but it was for that purpose that I first employed it.

" My reason for adding the tincture of iodine to the syrup is, that having in my first experiments made use of, with success, a syrup that had been for some time prepared, and afterwards remarking that fresh syrup did not answer so well, I examined both, and found in the former a little free iodine ; I therefore added a little tincture of iodine with much benefit, and now always use it in quantities proportioned to the age of the syrup.

" The following hints will, I think, enable any experimenter to be successful in producing good pictures by this process. In the first place, the paper used should be that called wove post, or well-glazed letter paper. When the solutions are applied to it, it should not immediately imbibe them thoroughly, as would happen with the thinner sorts of paper. If the acid solution is too strong, it produces the very effect it was originally intended to overcome ; that is, it produces yellow patches, and the picture itself is a light brick colour on a yellow ground. When the tincture of iodine is in excess, partly the same results occur; so that if this effect is visible, it shows that the oxide of silver which is thrown down is partly re-dissolved by the excess of acid and iodine, and their quantities should be diminished. On the contrary, if the silver solution is too strong, the oxide is deposited in the dark, or by an exceedingly weak light, and in this case blackens the yellow parts of the picture, which destroys it. When this effect of blackening all over takes place, the silver solution should be weakened. If it be too weak, the paper remains yellow after exposure to light. If the iodide of iron be used in too great quantity, the picture is dotted over with black spots, which afterwards change to white. If an excess of nitrate of silver be used, and a photograph immediately taken before the deposition of the oxide takes place, there will be often after some time a positive picture formed on the back of the negative one. The excess of the nitrate of silver makes the paper blacker where the light did not act on it, and this penetrates the paper; whereas the darkening produced by the light is confined to the surface. The maximum intensity of the spectrum on the paper, when a prism of crown glass is used, lies between the indigo and blue lay. The difference of effect of a strong and weak light is beautifully shown in the action of the spectrum: that part of the paper which is exposed to the indigo ray is coloured a reddish brown, and this is gradually darkened towards either extremity, until it becomes a deep black.

" I have not had many opportunities of experimenting with the catalysotype, but it certainly promises to repay the trouble of further investigation. The simplicity of the process, and the sensibility of the paper, should cause it to be extensively used. It has all the beauty and quickness of the calotype, without its trouble, and very little of its uncertainty ; and, if the more frequent use of it by me, as compared with other processes, does not make me exaggerate its facility of operation, I think it is likely to be practised successfully by the most ordinary experimenters." Dr. Woods subsequently made the following addition :—

" Since the preceding paper was written, I have been experimenting with the catalysotype, and one day having had many failures, which was before quite unusual with me, I am induced to mention the cause of them, for the benefit of subsequent experimenters. The paper I used was very stiff and highly glazed, so that the solution first applied was not easily imbibed. The blotting paper was very dry and biblulous. When using the latter, I removed nearly all the solution of iron from the first, and, of course, did not obtain the desired result.

" While varying the process in endeavouring to find out the cause just mentioned, I discovered that the following proportions gave very fine negative pictures, from which good positive ones were obtained :—Take of syrup of iodide of iron, distilled water, each two drachms ; tincture of iodine, ten to twelve drops : mix. First brush this over the paper, and after the few minutes, having dried it with the blotting paper, wash it over in the dark (before exposure in the camera) with the following solution, by means of a camel-hair pencil:—Take of nitrate of silver one drachm; pure water one ounce : mix. This gives a darker picture than the original preparation, and consequently, one better adapted for obtaining positive ones; it also requires no previous steeping in an acid solution. To fix the picture let it be washed first in water, then allowed to remain for a few minutes in a solution of iodide of potassium (five grains to the ounce of water) and washed in water again. The paper I use is the common unglazed copy-paper, but such as has a good body. I have tried the same paper with the original preparation, and find it to answer exceedingly well; it does not require in this case, either, an acid solution. The same precautions and hints apply to the amended as to the original process; such as, when it blackens in the dark, there is too much caustic used ; when it remains yellow, or that it is studded with yellow spots, too much iodine; when marked with black spots, too much iron. It is necessary to mention these, on account of the varying strength of the materials employed".