164 Intelligence and Miscellanies. 
ings which I found in a state of rapid decay, I trust I have ° 
left in security; and the great room, which was a perfect 
nuisance from dampness and cold, is now warm as a green- 
house, the thermometer being easily kept at or near 60°. 
enclose to you a copy of the report which I made to the 
House, which [ will thank you to insert in your Journal of 
Science, if yon think it deserves a place there. It may 
important to future artists, to know what has been done, in 
order that, if time should prove my means effectual, they 
may be, in future, adopted in similar cases ; or be avoided, if 
they should be proved by that only sure test, to be unsuc- 
cessful 
It is a serious misfortune for their successors, that so few 
of the ancient artists have left written explanations of the 
mechanical part of their systems. The Venetian coloring 
for instance, is proved by the test of three hundred years, to 
be superior to all other works of equal age, in freshness, bril- 
liancy and solidity ; but no one now knows what the vehicle 
was with which they prepared their colors, yet a short me- 
moir would have explained the system. 
u. Letter from John Trumbull to the Speaker of the House 
of Representatives, on the subject of the National Paintings 
in the Rotundo of the Capitol—December 9, 1828— Read, 
and laid upon the table 
To the Hon. the Speaker of the House of Representatives, U. S. 
Str: On the 30th of May last, I received from the Com- 
missioner of the Public Buildings a copy of the resolution of 
the honorable the House of Representatives, dated the 26th 
of May, authorizing him to take, under my direction, the prop- 
er measures for securing the paintings in the Rotundo from 
the effect of dampness. 
I had always regarded the perpetual admission of damp 
air into the Rotundo from the crypt below, as the great cause 
eft in the centre of the floor as an indispensable part of 
the remedy. [had communicated my opinions on this subject 
