GENERAL NOTES 



this plan is the facility it affords for scratch- 

 ing the gelatine film. Very frequently the 

 plate wanted proves to be the bottom one 

 in the box, necessitating the removal and 

 replacing of all the others in obtaining it. A 

 careless movement might seriously mar the 

 perfection of a valuable negative in a mo- 

 ment. This danger, however, can be greatly 

 lessened by coating the film with a hard 

 varnish. 



The second method which I would suggest 

 as being altogether preferable, is to place 

 each negative in an envelope of stout manila 

 paper, sold by all stock dealers under the 

 name of negative preservers, with its number 

 plainly written on the face. These are stood 

 on end upon a shelf in numerical succession, 

 where they are fully protected from injury, 

 and are instantly accessible. As their number 

 increases it will become more and more diffi- 

 cult to pick out a desired one from the note- 

 book. At this point recourse to card cata- 

 loguing, as with a library, will effectually 

 remove all trouble and greatly facilitate the 

 finding of any desired negative. 



Varnishing Negatives. In a dry climate like 

 ours the varnishing of gelatine negatives is 

 not at all necessary, unless very large num- 



