252 Report of the Committee respecting the unrolling 



inittfe having, in the mean time, been assisted, in the t^aniina- 

 tioii of the result of his hiboms, by the advice and opinions of Sir 

 Ciiarles Ijlagdon, Mr. Taylor Coombe of the British Museum, 

 and of Sir WilHam Druminond and Sir William A'Court ; the 

 two latter of which gentlemen, from their residence at Naples 

 as His Majesty's ministers, had had ample o|)portunities of 

 watching the operations which were carried on there, for the 

 purpose of unrolling the Herculaneuni manuscripts, and were 

 also familiar with the external appearance of the rolls in the 

 places where they are preserved. 



The system of operation l)y Dr. Sickler may be considered 

 under three distinct heads : — 



1 . As to the improvement of the machine made use of by him; 



2. As to the hquid applied to the rollj — and, 



3. As to his mode of manipulation. 



With regard to the first, the Committee have lieen favoured 

 with the observations, which they have recorded in their mi- 

 nutes, of Sir William A'Court; and it appears that the general 

 principle of the machine made use of by Dr. Sickler is nearly si- 

 milar to that ill use at Naples, as far as respects the manner of 

 plachig the roll for operation, and the means of turning it for 

 the purposes of examination. The material diiference appears 

 to consist in the process of detaching the layers of the papyrus ; 

 Dr. Sickler performing that operation with the hand, after at- 

 taching to the back of the part to be unrolled a piece of thin 

 linen, or cotton cloth, and the Neapolitans by the rotatory move- 

 ment of a piece of machinery, placed immediately over the roll, 

 and connected with the lining of the part to be separated (which 

 lining consists of narrow slips of goldbeaters' skin) bv a number 

 of silk threads, acting with equal and simultaneous force upon 

 the whole surface. 



Upon the second point, the Committee, in an early stage of 

 their proceedings, viz. at their third meeting, on the 4th of July, 

 judged it expedient that the liquid made use of, in order, as Dr. 

 Sickler stated, as well to attach a lining to the surface of the 

 roll, as to facilitate the separation of the layers, should be sub- 

 ject to the examination of their distinguished member, Sir Hum- 

 phry Davy; whose opinion of its composition satisfied the Com- 

 mittee that no injury could accrue to the papyrus, from the use 

 of such liquid : but Sir Humphry Davy, at the same time, ex- 

 pressed his conviction, that it did not possess any power to help 

 the separation of the layers ; a point which the Committee had 

 been led to consider as the principal feature in this part of Dr. 

 Sickler's discovery. 



As to the mode of manipulation, the Committee have also biefen 

 assi&ted, by the knowledge and experience of Sir William A'Court, 



in 



