e already mentioned, and
have studied it as has been suggested above. Mr. Zaehnsdorf's work also
contains a chapter on this subject.

The paraphernalia required are not numerous or expensive, for they
consist merely of three or four wide-mouthed glass-stoppered bottles in
which to store your chemicals, and a few photographer's developing dishes
(the _deep_ ones, of white porcelain) of a suitable size for octavo,
quarto, or folio leaves.

Obviously the first thing to do is to remove from the book the leaf or
leaves that require cleaning. Unless, like Gerard de Leew, the Antwerp
printer, you are 'a man of grete wysedom in all maner of kunnyng,' you
will not attempt to clean the leaves of a book _in situ_. In fact he
would be a very brave (or foolish) man who, without great experience,
tried to remove any sort of stain from a page without removing the leaf
first of all. Our own experience is that it is better to pull the whole
book to pieces--or rather _take_ it to pieces, for the word 'pull' in
this connection makes one shudder. Carefully cut the threads that hold
the quires to the bands, and little by little remove each quire. If the
book is in an old leather binding, with a solid back, your task will be
no easy one, for it is necessary to scrape away the glue from the back
after it has been damped. A cloth dipped in very hot water and wrung out
_tightly_ is sometimes of use here, but you must use the greatest
caution.

Having removed the leaf, or rather sheet of four pages (we will suppose
that the volume has been 'cut') that requires cleaning, you have now to
diagnose its complaint and prescribe the correct remedy, which you will
have learnt from the text-books we have mentioned. But if the leaf is not
merely stained in part, but altogether brown and discoloured, the
following treatment probably will prove efficacious. Put half an ounce of
permanganate of potash in a jug that holds about a pint and a half, and
fill it up with hot water. Stir with a piece of wood until the
permanganate is dissolved. Then lay your sheet in a developing dish and
pour the hot solution in gently, taking care that there are no bubbles
and that the leaf is completely covered. At the end of five minutes (or
ten if the paper is thick and heavily sized) pour back the liquid into
the jug, and, holding the dish over a sink, let cold water run across it
in a gentle stream until _all_ the permanganate is washed away.

The leaf will now be staine