34 
different temperatures, as it does by chemical solution. Water is 
absorbed, a frost sets in, the liquid breezes and expands, the result is 
that portions are mechanically, by the expansive force of the water, 
detached, or the entire face of the stone peels off. Practically, then, 
the great agent in the destruction of building stones is the water of 
the atmosphere, and the efforts of those who seek to prevent this 
destruction must be directed to this primary source of evil. It is a 
singular fact that in numerous instances modem structures have 
rapidly decayed, whilst ancient ones, built of the same stones, have 
stood for centuries but little affected. Perhaps the rapidity with 
which stone at the present time is obtained from the quarry, sent to 
its destination, and placed in a building without time for drying or 
weathering, may serve to explain this discrepancy. 
January 7, 1862. — The Rev. J. Kenrick announced that the 
Dean and Chapter had kindly consented, on the application of the 
Council, to deposit in the Museum some Roman and mediaeval an¬ 
tiquities, hitherto kept in the Minster and the Library. * Of these 
the most remarkable is the small altar to the Deae Matres or Matronae, 
which was found in Micklegate in 1752, and figured in the late Rev. 
C. Wellbeloved’s Eburacum, Plate x, p. 87. As the inscription has 
given rise to several readings and interpretations, which may be seen 
in that work, it has been thought desirable to insert a lithograph of 
it, made from a rubbing of the stone. Mr. Kenrick remarked that 
Guber. in the fourth line had created some difficulty, as Guberna- 
TOR, which the abbreviation must represent, was not the name of any 
legionary officer. He suggested, however, that as the Sixth Legion 
was so long settled at York, on the banks of a navigable river, the 
word might bear the ordinary sense of pilot or steersman ; and that 
the dedicator of the tablet may have had the charge of the vessels, by 
means of which the legion communicated with places on the Ouse or 
the rivers which fall into it. 
W. Procter, Esq., F. C. S., read the second part of his paper 
“ On the Decay of Building Stones, and the means proposed for 
its prevention.” He commenced by reference to the chief causes of 
decay, which he considered in detail last month, and stated that on 
this occasion he proposed to consider the remedies. The great object 
is to render the stone non-absorbent, and this has been attempted to 
See List of Douatious. 
