186 



terials, was liable from damp and other accidents, 

 had been long known, and various expedients 

 were adopted to provide a remedy. Pliny says 

 it was difficult to efface ink which had been made 

 with vinegar ; and it appears, that at a later 

 period, some $) reparation of iron was added for 

 the same purpose, as both of these ingredients 

 sink into the parchment. In either of those 

 cases, the lamp-black, or colouring matter, could 

 be only partially removed by washing; so that it 

 was necessary to scrape the surface, in order to 

 obliterate the characters, or to rub it with pumice 

 stone, in the same manner that it had been ori- 

 ginally prepared for writing on ; and to such a 

 parchment or manuscript the name of palim- 

 psest was given, from a Greek word signifying 

 twice scraped. But though the process that I 

 have described apparently removed the writing, 

 it could not draw out the infusion of iron which 

 had been absorbed by the parchment; and as 

 you all know that ink is nothing but a combina- 

 tion of iron with a solution of galls, it will 

 readily occur to you, that by applying that so- 

 lution with a light brush, to any of the palim- 

 psest manuscripts, the original writing would be 

 revived, provided there had been any iron in 

 the composition of the ink." 



" What a beautiful discovery!" exclaimed 

 Caroline. " And when generally known, how 

 zealously will all our antiquaries attack the 



