452 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 266. 



degli incogniti, Venice, 1647, 4to,, which is con- 

 fined to authors. In order to draw a line, those 

 works only should be included which confine 

 themselves to living authors : those which also 

 include deceased authors, may form a separate 

 inquiry. If every person who has one such dic- 

 tionary would describe it distinctly, with some 

 short comment from his own reading, the indices 

 of your volumes would soon show a much better 

 article than exists at present on the subject. M. 



PHOTOGRAPHIC CORRESPONDENCE. 



Collodionized Glass Plates in a Sensitive Condition. — The 

 details of my preservative process having been published 

 verbally at the Photographic Society, the report of the 

 same, which appeared in the Journal, was nothing more 

 than a condensed abstract ; consequently it is not so easy 

 for an operator to follow out the principles enunciated, 

 from merely reading that report, as would be the case 

 from having heard what was said ; I am therefore the 

 more gratified to find, from the communication (Vol. x., 

 p. 411.) of Dr. Mansell, which has just appeared in 

 " N. & Q.," that he has singularly followed out the prin- 

 ciple, though his modus operandi has considerably differed 

 from that adopted by myself. Amongst astronomers, in 

 noting the time of an occurrence, a quantity is sometimes 

 taken into the account called a " personal equation," 

 which it is requisite not to neglect before comparing the 

 observations of different individuals. In like manner 

 with photographers, there ai-e certain peculiarities of 

 manipulation that each individual operator naturally 

 adopts in preference (and reasonably so far as he himself 

 is concerned), that is not necessarily the best that can be 

 adopted by every individual ; but a principle, if correct, 

 should not be departed from. Now one of the chief points 

 insisted on by me, in the preservative process, was the 

 washing away all but a mere trace oifree nitrate of silver, 

 a portion of which must however be restored previously 

 to developing a picture. Now Dr. Mansell, in his 

 manipulation, has acted precisely upon this principle; 

 and though I am of opinion that he has done it at the 

 expense of a very unnecessary waste of syrup, he appears 

 to have been successful, with the exception of certain 

 drawbacks to which he refers: one of the two, at least, 

 being to my mind accountable to the use of horizontal 

 instead of vertical baths ; because there is a greater sur- 

 face exposed to dust, &c., which is less easily removed in 

 one case than the other. I generally keep my bath of 

 distilled water (with about one grain nitrate of silver) in 

 my operating room, simply with a sheet of paper over it ; 

 but with its glass dipper always immersed in it; and just 

 before operating, I remove it in such a way as, by a little 

 dexterity, to take with it all particles of reduced silver, 

 dust, or other impurities on the surface, then wash and 

 wipe the dipper previously to using it. If the dipper be 

 not kept in the bath, the surface impurities will adhere to 

 it on its first immersion, but will for the most part quit 

 it again on its withdrawal ; hence the object of leaving 

 the dipper in the bath. With the precaution above stated, 

 I never find my negatives spotted, provided the fault is 

 not traceable to the collodion being too recently iodized. 

 With regard to the unequal development of the picture 

 complained of, I never had hut one case ; and here again 

 the vertical bath may be the cause of my success on this 

 point, as the plate can be left for any length of time, 

 gravity aiding in the removal of the syrup, which may 



be farther assisted by gently lifting it up and down in the 

 bath. The case alluded to, in which I did experience an 

 unequal development, was when I rather hastily pre- 

 pared my plate, and placed it in the sliding frame without 

 properly drawing off the s\'Tup at first. In all the above 

 observations, plates 8i by 6^ are alluded to ; I am there- 

 fore in hopes that Dr. Mansell will be kind enough to 

 test the mode of operating as amended in Vol. x., p. 372., 

 and I am confident he will not have cause to repent so 

 doing. I may as well remark that, if practicable, I pre- 

 fer to keep the preserved plates either in a racked box or 

 plate-holder in a horizontal position, with the collodion 

 side downward ; placing them so, as soon as they have 

 assumed what Dr. Mansell most appositely terms a 

 " perfectly nitrated surface." 



My principal reason for washing the plate in distilled 

 water previously to the application of the syrap, was the 

 experience that in a very elevated temperature the honey 

 commenced the reduction of the silver, if kept long, even 

 without exposure to light. The temperature is always a 

 point of far greater importance than is usualh' attached 

 to it. Geo. Shadbolt. 



^afjiItciS to ^tnor <!aucrteS. 



Dryden and Addison (Vol. x., p. 423.). — There 

 is no " mistake," I apprehend, in the first mention 

 of Dryden in the lines quoted by C. from Addison's 

 versified account of the greatest English poets : 



" But see Avhere artfid Dryden next appears. 

 Grown old in rhyme, but charming ev'n in years — 

 Great Dryden next " 



Does not the repetition of the poet's name, as 

 nearest in fame and time to those who preceded 

 him, give strength and emphasis to these lines ? 

 In this poem, it is rather singular how frequently 

 Addison repeats, as in the present instance, in the 

 compass of two or three lines, the name of the 

 poet of whom he is speaking. Mark the following 

 instances, which, we must admit, are prosaic 

 enough : * 



" The courtly Waller next commands thy lays : 

 Muse, tune thy verse, with art, to Waller's praise." 



" Harmonious Congreve 

 Congreve ! whose fancy's unexhausted store 

 Has given already much, and promised more, 

 Congreve shall still," &c. 



" To Dorset he directs his artful Muse, 

 In numbers such as Dorset's self might use." 



In confirmation of the opinion here expressed, 

 I may observe that the second line doubtless refers 

 to the various works which Dryden gave to the 

 world in his later years f, and the epithets or terms 

 "artful" and "charming," used in the first two 

 lines, are thus adverted to in the ninth and tenth. 



* Still Bishop Hurd remarks, that the poetry is better 

 than the criticism. 



t " The Account of the English Poets " was written in 

 1694 ; in the preceding year, in a poem addressed by 

 Addison to Dryden himself, he says : 



" Can neither injuries of time or age. 

 Damp thy poetick heat, and quench thy rage?" 



