I have made several other family portraits, which to my eye seem
great successes, but must candidly own that the persons whose
portraits are blended together seldom seem to care much for the
result, except as a curiosity. We are all inclined to assert our
individuality, and to stand on our own basis, and to object to being
mixed up indiscriminately with others. The same feeling finds
expression when the resident in a suburban street insists on calling
his house a villa with some fantastic name, and refuses, so long as
he can, to call it simply Number so and so in the street.

The last picture in the upper row shows the easy way in which young
and old, male and female, combine to form an effective picture. The
components consist in this case of the father and mother, two sons,
and two daughters. I exhibited the original of this, together with
the portraits from which it was taken, at the Loan Photographic
Exhibition at the Society of Arts in February 1882. I also sent
copies of the original of this same composite to several amateur
photographers, with a circular letter asking them to get from me
family groups for the purpose of experiments, to see how far the
process was suitable for family portraiture.

The middle row of portraits illustrates health, disease, and
criminality. For health, I have combined the portraits of twelve
officers of the Royal Engineers with about an equal number of
privates, which were taken for me by Lieutenant Darwin, R.E. The
individuals from whom this composite was made, which has not come
out as clearly as I should have liked, differed considerably in
feature, and they came from various parts of England. The points they
had in common were the bodily and mental qualifications required for