Apeil 23. 1853.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



415. 



probability, from my having used the contractions 

 20'' to 30". 



It may appear somewhat droll for any one to 

 answer a question on which he has not had expe- 

 rience ; but I beg to offer as a suggestion to Photo, 

 that if he wishes to use collodion pictures for the 

 purpose of dissolving views, he should first copy 

 them in the camera as transparent objects so as to 

 reverse the light and shade, then varnish them 

 with Db. Diamond's solution of amber in chloro- 

 form, when they will bear the application of trans- 

 parent colours ground in varnish, such as are used 

 for painting magic-lantern slides. 



Gbo. Shadbolt. 



Gutta Percha Baths (Vol. vii., p. 314.). — In 

 " N. & Q." for March 26, I ventured to recom- 

 mend to H. Henderson gutta percha, as a 

 material for nitrate of silver baths. I did this 

 from a knowledge that hundreds of them were in 

 use, but chiefly because I have found them answer 

 so well. In the same Number the Editor gives 

 Mb. Hendebson very opposite advice ; and, had 

 I seen his opinion before my notes appeared, I 

 should certainly have kept them back. But it is, 

 I think, a matter of some importance, especially 

 to beginners, to have it settled, whether gutta 

 percha has the effect of causing " unpleasant 

 markings" in collodion pictures or not. With all 

 due deference to the Editoi"'s opinion, I do not be- 

 lieve that gutta percha baths are injurious to the 

 finished picture. I have never any markings in 

 my glass positives now, but what may be traced 

 •with certainty to some unevenness in the film 

 or dirtiness on the glass. And I hope that the 

 number of beginners who are using gutta percha 

 baths, and who are troubled with these unplea- 

 sant markings (as all beginners are, whether they 

 use glass or gutta percha), will not, without some 

 very careful experiments, lay the fault upon the 

 gutta percha. In the Number for April 2, the 

 Editor thanks me for what he is pleased to call 

 " the very beautiful specimen of my skill." This 

 was a small glass positive, which I sent him in 

 accordance with an offer of mine in a former note. 

 Now, that was rendered sensitive in a gutta percha 

 bath, which I have had in use for months ; and I 

 think I may appeal to the Editor as to the absence 

 of all unpleasant markings in it. Probably it may 

 be a good plan for those who make the baths for 

 themselves to adopt the following simple method 

 of cleaning them at first. Fill the bath with water, 

 changing it every day for a week or so. Then 

 wash it with strong nitric acid, and wash once or 

 twice afterwards. Always keep the nitrate of 

 silver solution in the bath, with a cover over it. 

 Never filter, unless there is a great deal of extra- 

 neous matter at the bottom. If glass baths are 

 used, cemented together with sealing-wax, &c., I 

 imagine they might be as objectionable as gutta 



percha. The number of inquiries for a diagram 

 of my head-rest, &c., from all parts of the king- 

 dom — Glasgow, Paisley, Manchester, Leicester, 

 Leeds, Newcastle, Durham, &c. &c. — proves the 

 very large number of photographic subscribers 

 "N. & Q." possesses. I think, therefore, it can- 

 not but prove useful to discuss in its pages the 

 question of the advantage or disadvantage of gutta 

 percha. J. L. Sisson. 



Edingthorpe Rectory, North Walsham. 



^t^Xiti ta Minor ^iuttiei. 



Pilgrimages to the Holy Land (Vol. v., p. 289.). — 

 I beg to inform W.M.R.E. (Vol. vii., p. 341.) 

 that, though I have never met with a printed copy 

 of the " Itinerary to the Holy Land" of Gahriele 

 Capodilista (the Perugia edition of 1472, men- 

 tioned by Brunet, being undoubtedly a book of 

 very great rarity, and perhaps the only one ever 

 printed), I have in my possession a very beautiful 

 manuscript of the work on vellum, whicli appears 

 to have been presented by the author to the nuns 

 of St. Bernardino of Padua. It is a small folio ; 

 and the first page is illuminated in a good Italian 

 style of the fifteenth century. It is very well 

 written in the Venetian dialect, and commences 

 thus : 



" Venerabilibus ac Devotissimis DiTe Abbatissaa et 

 Monialibus Ecclesiae Sancti Bernarduii de Padua 

 salute in Dno. — Ritrovandomi ne U tempi in questa 

 mia opereta descripti, lo Gabriel Capodelista Cava- 

 lier Padoano dal sumo Idio inspirato et dentro al mio 

 cor conccsso fermo pro])osito di visitare personalraente 

 el Sanctissimo loco di Jerusalem," &c. 



This MS., which was formerly in the library of 

 the Abbati Canonici, I purchased, with others, at 

 Venice in 1835. 



If W. M. R.E. has any wish to see it, and will 

 communicate such wish to me through the medium 

 of the publisher of "N. & Q.," I shall be happy to 

 gratify his curiosity. I do not know whether there 

 is any MS. of Capodilista's Itinerary in the British 

 Museum. W. Sneyd. 



" A Letter to a Convocation Man " (Vol. vii., 

 p. 358.). — The authorship of the tract concerning 

 which Mb. Feaseb inquires, is assigned to Sir 

 Bartholomew Shower, not by the Bodleian Cata- 

 logue only, but also by Sir Walter Scott, in his 

 edition of the Somers' Tracts (vol. Ix. p. 411.), as 

 well as by Dr. Watt, in his Bibliotheca Britannica. 

 The only authorities for ascribing it to Dr. Binckes 

 which I have been able to discover, are Dr. Ed- 

 mund Calamy, in his Life and Times (vol. i, 

 p. 397.), and the Rev. Thomas Lathbury, In his 

 History «/" the Convocation of the Church of 

 England (p. 283.) ; but neither of those authors 

 gives the source from which his Information la 



