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registered pharmaceutical chemists now commences to take effect. The limitation will doubtless be productive of some inconvenience to photographers, and also to photographic dealers. It is a pity that the latter class did not make some attempt to get an exemption from its operation, similar to that secured for quack medicine vendors. That deadly poisons like corrosive sublimate and cyanide should be sub ject to special conditions in their sale, cannot be disputed ; and it is to be hoped that the effect of stringent conditions in their sale may have some effect in securing more care in their storage and use. How few photographers carefully label such things I Use breeds indifference ; familiarity breeds contempt; and indifference to, or contempt of, immi nent risk, too often issues in fatal results. It is whispered in some quarters that the new Pharmacy Bill was devised less to secure public safety than to obtain a monopoly for the members of the Pharmaceutical Society, and that a certain class of general practitioners having a licence from the Apothecaries’ Company to dispense medicines will now be debarred, unless they register in accordance with the pro visions of the Act. These will be greater sufferers than photographic dealers, Mr. Graves has pounced upon a somewhat prolific nest of pirates, and, it seems, has resolved to charge them with con spiracy as well as piracy. I do not know what additional penalty that may involve; but I am always glad to see those who so degrade a beautiful art brought to condign punishment. I do not like to see. however, foul means employed to effect fair purposes. I do not like to see an informer employed to worm himself into a man's confidence by offering to become a partner, solely for the purpose of making evidence against him. I am old-fashioned enough to believe in the force ot an injunction in an old book which says we may not do evil that good may come. Mr. Graves has been very deeply wronged, and the provocation to put down piracy by all and every means is very great; but I wish that the means employed to remedy this wrong were such as could command the sympathy of everyone. The Societies have been active and interesting. At the London Society a capital paper on photography in connec tion with the Abyssinian Expedition was read by Mr. H. Baden Pritchard, who paid a high tribute to the efficiency of Serjeant Harrold. Mr. Pritchard’s account of the diffi culties to be encountered, and the promptness and resource required in grappling with them, was very graphic and interesting. Considerable interest was excited also by the distribution of Mr. Robinson’s charming picture, “Watching the Lark,” which was universally admired. Mr. Spiller, the new Secretary, entered on the duties of which he will take formal and official charge in February next. At the South London Society an hour was agreeably spent in the examination of various fine pictures brought by different members; and in examining Mr. Browning’s new electric lamp, which is ingenious and convenient, but, as exhibited, did not yield a very powerful light. Mr. Fox exhibited a novelty in mounts which in many cases will be very effective. Mr. Sebastian Davis introduced a subject selected from the “ Question-Box,” in which the cause of pinholes in dry plates was sought. The discussion was in teresting, but by no means exhaustive. Mr. Davis confined his observations to one or two phases of the subject which have generally been overlooked in dealing with the question, and made some important suggestions. The annual dinner of that Society, which followed a day or two after, was one of those rare successes which, by good luck, at times arise out of a happy combination of circumstances. Such annual social reunions are well worthy of the attention of other societies. At present, so far as I know, the Oldham Society is the only Society besides the South London which indulges in this pleasant institution, and I believe that whilst these Echoes are preparing for press the Oldham photographers are hold ing their annual festival. At the North the proceedings were chiefly of a conversa tional character. Mr. Wm. Bedford exhibited some very fine plain paper prints taken on the back of albuminized paper, to illustrate the value of the suggestion recently made in the News. The exhibition of these prints gave rise to a desultory conversation, j ust as the meeting was being adjourned, on the value of plain paper printing, a subject worthy of a fuller and more formal discussion. The Amateur Photographic Society appears to be flourish ing, from the interesting account of the number and excel lence of the pictures contributed, and the large number of prizes awarded. The Edinburgh Society had a paper of unusual excellence and value. The subject was art; a few of the leading prin ciples of the art of drawing, most copiously illustrated by examples, having been brought before the members by Mr. Norman Macbeth, a portrait painter. Papers of this class are too rare in photographic societies. The Liverpool Society, the Manchester Society, and some other societies, held interesting meetings, but the pro ceedings do not invite special notice. PROPOSED RETURN TO THE USE OF PLAIN PAPER IN PRINTING. BY A. DE CONSTANT. It was with much pleasure that I read the remarks which were made at the meeting of the North London Photo graphic Association, held on the 4th December last, relative to the advantages possessed by the old process of printing upon salted paper. I myself have shared and expressed this opinion on many occasions, and the results I have obtained, after employing plain salted paper in the ordin ary way of practice during a very considerable period, prove it to possess several advantages, even in the face of its great rival, albuminized paper ; for, besides the promptness with which the paper is printed, and the facility with which it is toned, it moreover appears that the prints are endowed with good, keeping qualities. In the report of the proceedings of the first exhibition of the French Photographic Society (ten or twelve years ago), M. Figuier remarked my prints upon plain paper, and made special mention thereof, predicting for the same a long life. M. Figuier, I am happy to say, has turned out a good pro phet, for these specimens are still in my possession, and as fresh as in the first days of their production, the whites having retained their pristine purity. The process I then employed is that with an ammoniacal silver bath, and paper simply salted, without any supplementary coating whatever. The difficulty attending this method was to find a suitable paper, for too often the material was unequally and imper fectly sized in the manufactory, and, according to the de scription of sizing used, whether starch or gelatine, so the tones of the pictures varied. Sometimes a yellowish brown tint was produced, which blackened only with great diffi culty, or tones of a deep black were at once obtained before it was possible to stop the process, so as to obtain prints of a lighter tint. In general it was the stout papers which were the most suitable for the purpose. M. Leighton Pine more recently suggested the addition of a small quantity of gelatine to a dilute salt solution, and the employment of a neutral silver bath of 8 per cent, strength, followed by am moniacal fumigation. This modification appeared to me an improvement, and I employed it for some time with success, the surface of the paper being rendered by its means more equal. But the addition of gelatine defiled the silver bath, and the aversion I entertain for the use of animal matter (gelatine, albumen, &c.) caused me to prefer a paper coated with arrowroot or some other material of that description, which may now be had of good quality in commerce. The employment of a weak sensitizing bath and the fumigation of the prints with ammonia vapour I still retained, finishing my prints by giving them a coating of varnish by means of a camel-hair brush. In the production of the specimens exhibited by Mr. Bed ford at the North London Society, the reversed side of albu-
