The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-06-19
TEE LIFE OF ANUSCRIPTS
RECENT INVESTIGATIONS. INTO
 THE LASTING

Qualities of Various Papers and Ink
 Important RecOrds of the Past
 Which Have Been Enaced in the
 Course of Ttme-supertor Quality of
 the Writing Materials Made In Form-
 Years,
 The Pope at one time invited chemists and librarians from every part of Flu rope to meet at Einsiedlen Abbey in Switzerland, and talk about paper and ink To the uninitiated it may have seemed tremendous machinery for such an object, but, in fact, the matter is very grave, The records If this genera tion will disappear in time which can be estimated unless the materials for writing be improved-and the time is not distant either It is stated that the Pope submitted a number of documents from the archives of the Vatican which are scarcely decipherable, though dated in the present century. Perhaps things are worse in Italy than elsewhere even for it was an incident at Rome which first called public attention to the evil; those concerned had long been aware of it, of course Certain returns were demanded in Parliament, referring to the condition of the army in 1870; when the War Omce produced them they were illegible. In twenty-five years or so the ink had faded and the paper decomposed. This was an extreme case as it turned out after inquiry but all the records had deterlorated in an alarming manner.
 In some countries, perhaps greater care has been used in selecting the quality of paper and ink, but it Is ad- mitted that the best will not endure the writings of old. This is a rebuke to our conceit This age is scientific in nothing. As Sir Archibald Geikie re- minded us the other day, it confidently estimated the age of the solid trma- ment whereon we live. One faction, indeed, puts it at four hundred mill lien years, and another at score of only, but both are equally con- fdent. They reach their conclusions by weighing the sun and computing its heat in past ages, reckoning the friction of the tides and the effect thereof from
 
 the men who can work out these awful problems-not to speak of wireless and the Rontgen rays cannot make paper equal to that of five thousand years ago, nor ink such as was used in the Dark Ages.
 To the unlearned it seems very cu- rious. Paper manufacturers try every substance they can hear of which makes pulp. In earlier times they were content with one, the papyrus; when that supply failed with rags. There with. by the simplest process, they pro- duced a material with which our best cannot compare, though we search the for aid. But the case of ink is still more remarkable. There are no secrets of competition in the ancient article. so far as we have heard. Oak trees still bear gals in abundance and acids have not changed their nature.
 It may be concluded that the men of old were more careful in the prepara- tion when each made his own ink; or they had simple secrets which our lack patience to discov er--if they trouble about it. The brightness and dura bilty of painters colors are lost in the same way. Sir | Joshua Reynolds pictures, little more than a hundred years old, cannot be 1 made to last much longer, unless re- | painted; those masterpieces at St. Pet arsburg which have not been touched | are covered with great brown lines q quarter of an inch wide, as by a net | work But the visitor to Bruges sees works, of the fifteenth cen | ,ury, as clear and as bright absolutely | IS when they left the easel. The savants 'ound q notable specimen of the antique ! skill at Einsiedlen-one which points 1 Inc moral with peculiar force, An in- livdual whose name, nationality occu- patton, and even date, are not recorded, | once travelled to Rome, He had the | of a born archaeologist and | m infinite capacity for taking pains. 1 And SO the good man employed himself | n measuring and describing the edi- ices of the city-above all. in copying he inscriptions, And thus he left an nestimable register of facts, for the though already ruined of 'ourse, might be called perfect by com oarison with their state at the present y4va loJ e |