Osborne.] 4-86 [December. 



from the surface of the paper; and after the print is washed off and 

 dried, the inky picture is found to rest, as it were, upon a sheet of 

 alburaenized paper. This is damped slightly before laying it upon 

 the stone, and, when the heavy pressure of the press is brought to 

 bear upon it, the albumen shows an amount of adhesiveness sufficient 

 to make it stick fast, and prevent any shift, or doubling of the lines, 

 until the stone and print have been carried through the press as often 

 as the operator thinks necessary. 



The latest application which has been made of this process, is one 

 to which I attach much importance ; I refer to the illustration of a 

 Prussian Government work, descriptive of the expedition which that 

 state sent a few years ago to Japan, China, and Siam. I am happy in 

 being able to lay the plates belonging to the first part of this work be- 

 fore the members of your Society. They consist of twelve small views 

 and six large ones, besides two maps, and are reproductions of pen- 

 and-ink drawings, made by the landscape painter, Mr. A. Berg, who 

 was sent with the expedition. Two of the larger plates are printed 

 in colors, in imitation of water-color drawing, a combination of chronio- 

 with photo-lithography, which is here made for the first time. On the 

 worth of a process of this kind, whereby every touch and every feel- 

 ing which the artist puts into the creations of his genius, is repro- 

 duced in permanent printing-ink, or by means of which rare and 

 costly engravings can be given to the public at a nominal cost, I do 

 not require to dilate. Mr. Berg, whose connection with the Japanese 

 work naturally makes him a severe critic, has expressed his opinion 

 to me in a letter which I value very highly, and I feel that I cannot 

 conclude my remarks better than by quoting the portion of his com- 

 munication which bears upon this subject. He says : 



" The President of the Royal Commission, appointed to superintend 

 the publication of the East- Asiatic Travels, has requested me to ex- 

 press to you his grateful acknowledgments of your great services 

 and disinterested exertions in this work. It gives me the greatest 

 pleasure to be enabled to make this communication to you ; and I 

 avail myself of the opportunity to express to you also, my own sincere 

 thanks for your assistance in this work. You have solved the most 

 difficult problems in this field, — problems, the solution of which I my- 

 self despaired of, until the successful result was placed before my 

 eyes. The question, whether pen-and-ink drawings can be multiplied 

 by photo-lithography, and thus made valuable to the artist, is de- 

 termined by this work." 



