9. The application of this "gallo-nitrate" to the paper is a matter of some nicety. It will be found best to apply it in the following manner:—Pour out the solution upon a clean slab of plate-glass, diffusing it over the surface to a size corresponding to that of the paper. Holding the paper by a narrow upturned margin, the sensitive side is to be applied to the liquid upon the slab, and brought in contact with it by passing the fingers gently over the back of the paper, which must not be touched with the solution.

10. As soon as the paper is wetted with the gallo-nitrate, it ought instantly to be removed into a dish of water; five or ten seconds at the most is as long as it is safe at this stage to leave the paper to be acted upon by the gallo-nitrate; in that space of time it absorbs sufficient to render it exquisitely sensitive. The excess of gallo-nitrate must immediately be washed off by drawing the paper gently several times under the surface of water, which must be perfectly clean; and being thus washed, it is finished by drawing it through fresh water, two or three times, once more. It is now to be dried in the dark, in the manner described in § 7; and, when surface-dry, it may either be placed, while still damp, in the camera, or in a portfolio, among blotting-paper, for use. If properly prepared, it will keep perfectly well for four-and-twenty hours at least, preserving all its whiteness and sensibility.

11. The light of a single candle will not injure the paper at a moderate distance; but the less the paper, or the exciting solution, is unnecessarily exposed, even to a feeble candle-light, the better. Common river or spring water answers perfectly to wash the paper, distilled water being required for the silver solutions only.

Stains of "gallo-nitrate," while recent, may be removed from the fingers by a little strong ammonia, or by the cyanide of potassium.

The third process is that of:

12. The Exposure in the Camera, for which, as the operator must be guided by his own judgment, few directions can be given, and few are required. He must choose or design his own subject; he must determine upon the aperture to be used, and judge of the time required, which will vary from a few seconds to three or four minutes. The subject ought, if possible, to have a strong and decided effect; but extreme lights, or light-coloured bodies, in masses, are by all means to be avoided. When the paper is taken from the camera, very little, or more commonly no trace whatever, of a picture is visible until it has been subjected to the fourth process, which is:

13. The Bringing-out of the Picture, which is effected by again applying the " gallo-nitrate" in the manner directed in

9. As soon as the paper is wetted all over, unless the picture appear immediately, it is to be exposed to the radiant heat from an iron, or any similar body, held within an inch or two by an assistant. It ought to be held vertically, as well as the paper ; and the latter ought to he moved, so as to prevent any one part of it becoming dry before the rest.

As soon as the picture is sufficiently brought out, wash it immediately in clean water to remove the gallo-nitrate, as directed in § 10; it may then be placed in a dish, by itself, under water, until you are ready to fix it. The most perfect pictures are those which "come out" before any part of the paper becomes dry, which they will do if sufficiently impressed in the camera. If the paper be allowed to dry before washing off the gallo-nitrate, the lights sink and become opaque; and if exposed in the dry state to heat, the paper will embrown; the drying, therefore, ought to be retarded, by wetting the back of the paper; or the picture may be brought out by the vapour from hot water, or, what is better, a horizontal jet of steam. The fifth and last process is:

14. The Fixing of the Picture, which is accomplished by removing the sensitive matter from the paper. The picture, or as many of them as there may be, is to be soaked in warm water, but not warmer than may be borne by the finger; this water is to be changed once or twice, and the pictures are then to be well drained, and either dried altogether, or pressed in clean and dry blotting-paper, to prepare them to imbibe a solution of the hyposulphite of soda, which may be made by dissolving an ounce of that salt in a quart (forty ounces) of water. Having poured a little of the solution into a flat dish, the pictures are to be introduced into it one by one; daylight will not now injure them; let them soak for two or three minutes, or even longer if strongly printed, tinning and moving them occasionally. The remaining unreduced salts of silver are thus thoroughly dissolved, and may now, with the hyposulphite, be entirely removed by soaking in water and pressing in clean white blotting-paper alternately; but if time can be allowed, soaking in water alone will have the effect in twelve or twenty-four hours, according to the thickness of the paper. It is essential to the success of the fixing process that the paper be in the first place thoroughly penetrated by the hyposulphite, and the sensitive matter dissolved; and next, that the hyposulphite compounds be effectually removed. Unless these salts are completely removed, they induce a destructive change upon the picture; they become opaque in the tissue of the paper, and entirely unfit it for the next, which is:

15. The Printing Process

The picture being thus fixed, it has merely to be dried and smoothed, when it will undergo no further change. It is, however, a negative picture, and if it have cost some trouble to produce it, that trouble ought not to be grudged, considering that you are now possessed of a matrix which is capable of yielding a vast number of beautiful impressions. I have had as many as fifty printed from one, and I have no doubt that as many more might be obtained from it.

16. The manner of obtaining these impressions have been so often described, and there are so many different modes of proceeding, that it may be sufficient to notice very briefly the best process with which I am acquainted. Photography is indebted for it to Dr. Alfred Taylor. His solution is made by dissolving one part of nitrate of silver in twelve of distilled water, and gradually adding strong liquid ammonia until the precipitate at first produced is at length just redissolved.