172 INSECTS AND II1:RKI)ITY 



ago. It is not creditable to have left to our ariist brethren 

 a subject of such paramount importance to ourselves; for 

 to them belongs the honour of having made the only 

 serious attempts to imi)rove our practice and to call 

 attention to the evil. 



To the trades concerned I would sa)- that it is strange 

 want of enterprise to ccMUinue methods and use materials 

 which only require to be thoroughly understood to ensure 

 a swift and sudden collapse for all but the most ephemeral 

 purposes. I know no producer, scientific or other, whose 

 self-respect would suffer the employment of materials, 

 however eood the effect, however low the cost, which 

 would not last over so brief a period as five-and-twenty 

 years. 



I desire to thank Mr. Horace Hart, Controller of the 

 Oxford Tniversity Press, and Mr. J. W. North, A.R.A., 

 for the kind manner in which they have freely given 

 information on this most important matter. 



