A spot of ordinary black ink upon morocco, sheepskin, calf or smooth parchment, loses its color when touched with a few drops of sorrel salt or oxalic acid; but I will repeat here the advice already given that these substances may alter certain colors and that it is best to first try them on extra pieces of leather. If the tint lightens or changes only slightly, the spot can be retoned and brightened simply with properly mixed water-colors, after having neutralized, with an alkali, the traces of the acid.

The yellowish spot which remains after the black ink has disappeared is not very noticeable upon brown or yellowish skins, but on vellum or parchment it is more or less apparent. How can this be removed? For if one is obliged to prolong the action of the oxalic acid on the iron oxide which causes it, this portion of the skin not only loses its gloss, but also becomes subject to a more or less rapid process of dissolution. (*)

(*) Bonnardot, at this point, discusses in considerable detail various opinions as to the removal of these iron oxide stains, but without coming to any definite conclusion except that they are "of all stains, the most tenacious." Experiments in chemistry, especially upon any binding of value, should not be lightly undertaken. The use of water-colors for retinting the spot of yellowish bleach might be tried with more safety and a greater possibility of success. M. S. B.

When the spots are of Chinese ink, old or recent, and have sunk into the texture, as sometimes happens, they resist all known agents.

Most of the old bindings which have been long exposed for sale on the parapets of our quays, have been at one moment roasted by an ardent sun and at the next distended by a damp atmosphere; they have, therefore, contracted "skin troubles" more or less curable according to the duration of their ordeal. The gentler regimen of the bookshelves, placed in a room where the temperature is more nearly uniform, sometimes suffices to restore their warped covers; but when the surface of the leather has fallen off in scales, carrying away the gold tooling, it is better, if they are worthy of it, to deliver them to the binder for new covers; that is, of course, when the paper, the essential organ of their existence, is not musty beyond recovery. If the paper is in bad shape, the book is lost or, at least, is beyond giving pleasure to a bibliophile; it resembles a very old man attacked by an incurable disease; it is useful only for reference.

Some books, placed in less rude conditions, have only the skin stripped here and there by contact with rougher neighbors trimmed with nails or clasps, with hard boards or with wicker work, but movement against these objects might ruin an entire library in a single day. The library of the Louvre, it might be mentioned, was being moved last spring to a new location, by means of these wicker baskets so formidable despite the straw or oakum with which they were lined. Some of my own books have passed several times through this fatal ordeal and have suffered greatly from it. Now when I change my residence I use, with rather tardy precaution, well planed boxes.

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