428 Observations, &e, on the Papyri 
ferent folds of the MS. When the process of unrolling these 
papyri was performed in the common way, the result obtained. 
appeared, till it was examined minutely, a perfect column; but 
was in fact made up of the letters of different words.. I endea- 
voured to obtain the fragments of a single leaf attached to a- 
layer of membrane by applying a solution of caoutchouc in ether 
to the surface of a MS., so as to supply the parts of the leaf de- 
stroyed; but operating in this way, I obtained only a few cha- 
racters, and never an entire word; so that, after various unsuc- 
cessful ‘trials, I was obliged to give up the MSS. of this descrip- 
tion as hopeless; more than 5-6ths of their contents probably 
being always destroyed, and that in so irregular a way as to leave 
no entire sentences, or even words. 
On.two brown MSS., which were firm in their texture, and 
had the appearance of peat, and the leaves of which would not 
separate by common means, | tried the experiment of heating, 
after they had absorbed a small quantity of chlorine ; and I found 
that in both cases the leaves detached themselves from each 
other, and were easily unrolled; but these MSS. had been so 
penetrated by water, that there were only a few folds which con- 
tained words, and the letters were generally erased, and the 
charcoal which had composed them was deposited on the folds 
of the MSS. 
Of the black MSS., of which the layers were perfect and easily 
separated, all the best specimens had been unrolled or operated 
upon, so that fragments only of this description remained. By 
assisting the operation of detaching the layers by muriatic ether 
and the other processes mentioned in page 426, many parts of 
columns were obtained from several of the fragments, by which 
some idea of their contents may be formed. 
On the black compact and heavy MSS. which contained white 
earthy matter in their folds, I tried several experiments, with 
the hopes of separating them into single layers, both by the ac- 
tion of muriatic and nitric ether, and by the operation of chlo- 
rine and of weak hydrofluoric acid, assisted by heat; but ge- 
nerally the fibres of the papyrus had been so firmly cemented 
together, and so much earthy matter had penetrated them, that 
only a very imperfect separation could be obtained, and in parts 
where vestiges only of letters appeared, so that from MSS. of 
this kind only a few remains of sentences could be gained. 
During the two months that I was actively employed in ex- 
periments on the papyri at Naples, I had succeeded, with the 
assistance of six of the persons attached to the Museum, and 
whom T had engaged for the purpose, in partially unrolling 
twenty-three MSS., from which fragments of writing were os 
tained, 
