ving the acid by a weak solution of ammonia, and smooth finishing by
rolling the sheets over a heated cylinder. Vegetable parchment is used to
bind many booklets which it is desired to dress in an elegant or dainty
style, but is highly unsuitable for library books. Vellum proper is a
much thicker material, made from the skins of calves, sheep, or lambs,
soaked in lime-water, and smoothed and hardened by burnishing with a hard
instrument, or pumice-stone. The common vellum is made from sheep-skin
splits, or skivers, but the best from whole calf-skins. The hard, strong
texture of vellum is in its favor, but its white color and tendency to
warp are fatal objections to it as a binding material.

Vellum is wholly unfit for the shelves of a library; the elegant white
binding soils with dust, or the use of the hands, more quickly than any
other; and the vellum warps in a dry climate, or curls up in a heated
room, so as to be unmanageable upon the shelves, and a nuisance in the
eyes of librarian and reader alike. The thin vegetable parchment lately
in vogue for some books and booklets is too unsubstantial for anything
but a lady's boudoir, where it may have its little day--"a thing of
beauty," but by no means "a joy forever."

Sheepskin--once the full binding for most school-books, and for a large
share of law and miscellaneous works for libraries, is now but little
used, except in its disguised forms. It is too soft a leather for hard
wear and tear, and what with abrasion and breaking at the hinges (termed
by binders the joints), it will give little satisfaction in the long run.
Under the effect of gas and heated atmospheres sheep crumbles and turns
to powder. Its cheapness is about its only merit, and even this is
doubtful economy, since no binding can be called cheap that has to be
rebound or repaired every few years. In the form of half-roan or bock,
colored sheep presents a handsome appearance on the shelf, and in volumes
or sets which are reasonably secure from frequent handling, one is
sometimes justified in adopting it, as it is far less expensive than
morocco. Pig-skin has been recently revived as a binding material, but
though extremely hard and durable, it is found to warp badly on the
shelves.

Calf bindings have always been great favorites with book-lovers, and
there are few things more beautiful--_prima facie_, than a volume
daintily bound in light French calf, as smooth as glass, as fine as silk,
with elegant g