ade (the club picture being
a collodion transfer tinted in oil or varnish colors), there are
literally thousands of pictures for which thirty shillings or more has
been paid, and of which the bare frame is all that remains at the
present day; the gilt of the frames has vanished, and the picture in
disgust, perhaps, has followed it. In short, I believe a collodion
transfer cannot be made even comparatively permanent, unless an amount
of care be taken in the making of it which is neither compatible nor
consistent with the popular price and extensive output. How now stands
the case with an argentic enlargement? Of course it may be said that
there is scarcely time yet to make a fair comparison--that the argentic
enlargements are still only on their trial.

I will give you my own experience. I mentioned at the outset that seven
or eight years ago I had tried Kennet's pellicle and failed, but got one
or two results which I retained as curiosities till only a month or two
ago; but up to that time I cannot say they had faded in the least, and I
have here a specimen made three years ago, which I have purposely
subjected to very severe treatment. It has been exposed without any
protection to the light and damp and all the other noxious influences of
a Glasgow atmosphere, and although certainly tarnished, I think you will
find that it has not faded; the whites are dirty, but the blacks have
lost nothing of their original strength. I here show you the picture
referred to, a 12 by 10 enlargement on artist's canvas, and may here
state, in short, that my whole experience of argentic enlargements leads
me to the conclusion that, setting aside every other quality, they are
the most permanent pictures that have ever been produced. Chromotypes
and other carbon pictures have been called permanent, but their
permanence depends upon the nature of the pigment employed, and
associated with the chromated gelatine in which they are produced, most
of pigments used, and all of the prettiest ones, being unable to
withstand the bleaching action of the light for more than a few weeks.
Carbon pictures are therefore only permanent according to the degree in
which the coloring matter employed is capable of resisting the
decolorizing action of light. But there is no pigment in an argentic
print, nothing but the silver reduced by the developer after the action
of light; and that has been shown by, I think, Captain Abney, to be of a
very stable and not eas