f judgment can
be cut out to shape, and as in manner pointed out before, be placed
over the aperture of the fracture. Care must be taken that it quite
covers the part, while being likely to fit sufficiently well as regards
figure or curl and direction of grain. The sides cleanly cut should
not be quite vertical with the general plane, the inner surface being
a shade smaller than the outer, thus enabling the operator, with a
little pressure, to insert it, when glued, quite neatly. No
instructions or suggestions with regard to fitting will counterbalance
clumsiness of handling. In operations of this kind, delicacy of
handling equal to anything required in watch repairing will be
obligatory, that is if restoration of a high class is intended.

It would be impossible to deal with, touch upon, or even to recount
every possible injury to a violin that might be repaired without the
removal of the upper table, but there are still some remaining that
will be worth considering, if only for the purpose of restraining the
tendency to open the instrument upon too trivial a pretext. One
instance occurs to memory at the present moment, in which a violin,
the constant companion and closest friend of its owner, met with an
accident that seemed to him well-nigh total destruction, at any rate,
necessitating much renewal with undoing and plastering up of fractures.
To the fiddle physician it was promptly taken, carefully scanned, and
the owner told that it would be all right in a few days. Will it have
to be taken all to pieces? asked the anxious owner. Not if it can be
possibly helped, was the reply. The violin was called for in due time,
and in answer to inquiries it was fetched and seen to be in as good
going order as before the time of the accident. There was no apparent
evidence of damage, no sign of fracture or any neatly-laid patches,
there were the ribs as sound as when new, no cracks to be seen. How
did you manage that? said the owner, and you say there was no necessity
to take the front off? Easier far, replied the repairer, the more there
is left undisturbed the more assistance will these parts give you
during the progress of restoration, and as you seem curious and
desirous of solving the mystery of this renovation I will relate how
it was accomplished. You are no doubt fully aware that your violin is
of a size and shape well-known in the trade as a "Strad pattern;" well,
there are thousands of violins in any number of degrees