The Sun.
London, England, 1847-03-25 00:00:00

Wilts and Dorset Banking Company, Salisbury 73,302
West Riding Union Banking Company, Hud•
dersfield
Whitchurch and Ellesmere Banking Company,
Whitchurch . .
Worcester City and County Banking Company,
'Worcester. . .
York Union Banking Company, York 70.260
York City and County Banking Company, York 87,217
Yorkshire Banking Company, Leeds
P. DEANS, Registrar ef Bank Returns.
Stamps and Taxes, March 20, 1847.

ON THE TREATMENT OF
PICTURES.
(From the Pharmaceutical Times.)
.

Those of our readers who are interested in the fine
arts—and who is not?—will be not unthankful to ac-
quire some information on the best methods of treating,
preserving from injury, or restoring paintings, whether
in oil or water. Let us commence with the latter,
not that we are senseless enough to consider them
of the most value, but because of their greater
prevalence and their more perishable nature. We
need only appeal to the chemical knowledge of
our readers to substantiate the assertion that few,
very few, of the vegetable tints used in water-
colour painting are capable of withstanding the
protracted agencies of light and atmospheric in-
fluences; hence pictures which, when first executed,
were all that the artist could desire, become worn, faded,
and dingy—unsatisfactory alike to artist and purchaser.
Can this be prevented? Yes, to a great extent, by
proper management; and the precautions we are about
to mention partly relate to the original period of the
picture's formation, and partly to subsequent means
used for its preservation. Water colours, it is well
known, require the intervening agency of some
tenacious material to enable them to adhere
to paper. The materials usually employed are
gum and isinglass, and by some artists to
such a pernicious extent, that no sooner are the pic-
tures dry than they begin to crack in a most unsightly
and destructive manner. This may be prevented to a
great extent by mixing with the gnm or isinglass em-
ployed a little sugar, a material which, in virtue of the
hygrometric properties which it possesses, attracts suffi-
cient moisture from the atmosphere to keep the gum or
isinglass always in st somewhat damp condition. Our
other remarks apply to the after treatment of the picture,
and have for their obj( ct the enclosing it in a perfectly
air-tight case; to accomplish which we proceed thus:—
We first free the picture from all adherent dust,
dry it thoroughly, and put it aside. We now
take a frame, and adapt to it, by means of white-
lead, a sheet of plate glass common glass, on
account of the irregularity of its surface, is not effica-
cious, and, indeed, if a picture be worth framing at all,
it is surely worth a square of plate glass. This sheet of
glass being properly secured and wiped dry, the picture
is inserted, and a backboard attached by means of a
cement of copal varnish and white lead. The picture is
now enveloped in a case which is almost air-tight, and
it may be made perfectly so by painting its surface with
several successive coats of copal varnish. A picture thus
treated will remain after a lapse of years as fresh and
perfect as when it was first inserted.
As it regards oil paintings, we will confine our remarks
to their restoration and preservation. With respect to
the operation of oil Painting, we shall only make one
remark, which is, that whatever vehicle besides oil
be used for mixing the colours, it should possess the pro-
perty of ultimately drying. Painters commit many
errors by not comprehending this remark or attending to
it ; hence we hear of eyes dropping out of pictures, &c.—
calamities which might easily have been avoided by a little
common precaution. But suppose an oil painting to have
been executed with ever so much care ; time and chemical
agencies will exert their injurious influence, the picture
will become dull, and lose, therefore, much of its former
attraction. A great deal of this dulness is attributable
to the deposition of impurities on the varnished surfaces
of pictures, and which may generally be removed by
smearing its surface with wheat-flour paste, allowing the
latter to dry, and then rubbing it by means of a flannel
away. Frequently the varnish itself must be removed,
and a new layer put on, which may be accomplished by
the cautious use of alcohol with friction. This opera-
tion, although simple to describe, is nevertheless limited
in its application by the circumstance that the varnish
with which the face of a picture is covered, obstinately
attaches itself to the coloured surface below, which
latter is sometimes injured by removing the former.
This limitation to the use of flour paste might al-
together be obviated by covering the picture when
finished with a thin coat of isinglass and sugar, which
acts by completely screening the picture from contact
with the varnish, and permits the latter's removal by
alcohol and friction without at all interfering with the
former.

Unfortunately the most usual kind of white paint is
carbonate of lead (white lead), a material which blackens
when exposed to sulphuretted hydrogen gas, from which
the atmosphere of crowded towns, and sitting-rooms in
general, is never free. Much has been said of the action
which the peroxide of hydrogen possesses in restoring
this black sulphate of lead to a white condition by in-
stantaneously imparting oxygen, and changing it to a
sulphate ; however, the peroxide of hydrogen is far too
expensive a material ever to come into general use for
that, or, perhaps, any other, purpose.
A. great deal of injury is inflicted on oil paintings by
hanging them at an angle far advantageous optical
effects, and thus allowing them to bag out totally un-
supported, owing to which they crack, and become dis-
figured. This may be prevented by cementing their
backs to a board.

Our readers who delight in the fine arts may rely upon
finding these few remarks of service, and ere long we
mean to revert to this subject again.

SALT.

Common salt is unquestionably one of the greatest
agents in the preservation of the world that we possess.
Of all minerals it is the most serviceable to mankind,
for all the others would be useless without it, and ac-
cordingly we find it has always been held in high esti•
mation. By the early nations salt was considered of
such indispensable importance that the poorest person
kept it in a precious vessel ; and mention of the value of
this commodity continually occurs amongst the writers of
antiquit
antiquity. The
ofhestiPendium militare consisted partly of
an allowance salt to each Roman soldier, and was
thus called salarium, whence we derive our English word
" salary," as a recompense for services performed. The
temple of Jupiter Ammon was built in the deserts of
Libya, in the immediate neighbourhood of vast pillars of
salt, which were considered as natural indications of the
sanctity of the spot. To eat salt with a stranger is to
this day an assurance amongst the Arabs that the rights
of hospitality will not be violated; and to sit below the
salt at a dining table is now, as formerly, considered
amongst the nations of the South of Europe as a place
of inferior dignity. The spilling of salt, without propi-
tiating the angry deities by throwing a grain over the left
shoulder has been for ages held a bad omen; and even
in our own land, amongst the lovers of traditional lore,
this superstition maintains its place with the unlucky
crossing of knives and passage beneath ladders. With
the effects of salt upon the human body we are all fami-
liar • we are told how unwholesome, and we know how
unplatable fresh meat and vegetables are without it. The
reason why this general saline appetite exists appears to
be simply this : the muriate of soda that is put upon our
table so regularly in the shape of common salt, and
which is justly held to be a necessary article in our daily
nourishment, is the principal saline ingredient in the
blood ; and it is no less curious than true that every
article we use contains either salt or the basis of saline
matter, a hich after a time is converted into neutral salts
and enters the circulating current. The salt used for
domestic purposes is extracted from the waters of the
ocean [and the earth—En. j, and is also found on land
in mines. The marine salt preserves every kind of
animal food from putrefaction much better than any
other salt, as it does so without destroying their taste
and qualities ; but it must not be forgotten that when
applied in too small a quantity decomposition is pro-
moted instead of prevented. Mines of salt have long
been discovered and worked in England, Spain, Poland,
Germany, Hungary, and other countries of Europe.
In several parts of the world there are huge mountains
which consist entirely of fossil salt : of this kind there
are two in Russia, near Astracan; several in Africa, near
Tunis and Algiers ; some in Asia ; and the island of
Ormus, in the Persian Gulf, is merely one mighty mass
of fossil salt. The New World is likewise stored with
treasures of this useful mineral ; but the sea affords such
abundance that without other sources mankind might
thence be more than sufficiently provided. Rock salt is
that which is dug out of the earth and has not under-
gone any artificial preparation. Bay salt is that which
is extracted by evaporation from the sea. The English
fossil salt is unfit for the uses of the kitchen until it has
been freed from impurity, and reduced into white salt.
About eighteen miles to the east of Aleppo, is Syria,
there is a valley of salt, which is a lake in winter, but in
summer the moisture is evaporated by the heat of the
sun, and the salt is left in beds of about an inch in thick
ness, being afterwards purified for service. Medical men
are universally agreed that it is the most useful of all
condiments; for without it the culinary preparations of
civilised life would be little less than poisonous. It is
even the valuable adjunct to the food of the lower animals
horse, cows, sheep, and poultry especially. The mineral
waters derive their greatest value from the admixture of
this commodity. The springs of Aix la Chapelle contain
what chemists call a notable quantity of common salt ;
and, in our own country, the fashionable spa of Lea-
mington is, in fact, little more than a strong brine, in
which the said muriate of soda is the predominating in-
gredient. It is owing to this astringent property that
sea bathing is so exhilarating and beneficial in its
effects, and that long voyages have been frequently
known to produce the most wonderful recoveries.—
People's Press.

CWMBRAIN BAR AND BOILER PLATE WORKS.—
We are happy to hear that the result of the experiment
made at these works, for the manufacture of boiler
plates, is no longer problematical. Mr. John Hughes,
the engineer of Pillgwenlly, has made several boilers
with the Cwmbrain plates, and speaks of their quality
in the highest terms. It is a singular circumstance, that
the two buoys
put down near the new South \Vales
Railway bridge, over the river Usk, at Newport, were
made by Mr. Elughes, with some of the first plate manu-
factured at the Cwmbrain works; and if a date were now
put upon them, they would offer a lasting record of the
year in which these works were established. We hear
that the plates have already been successfully introduced
into the markets of London, Liverpool, Glasgow, and
Bristol.—Monmouthshire Merlin.
AN EXPERIENCED BRIDE.—An old woman, named
Wigan, 87 years of age, residing at Eve-hill, Dudley,
was on Monday last taken to the hymeneal altar, for the
fourth time, each of her husbands being pensioners.
The last husband died about six weeks ago, and the
present one was at the funeral, immediately after which
She match was made.—Tex Towns' Messenger.