The Preservation of Antiquities

The Preservation of Antiquities is a handbook for curators, translated from the German of Friedrich Rathgen. Part I covers the changes undergone by antiquities in earth and in air.

The text says that the greater number of those objects of antiquity which are composed of inorganic materials, such as limestone, earthenware, and metals, owe the commencement of any alteration in their character to the situation in which they are discovered. Salts occur especially in the fine pores of Egyptian antiquities, and their presence is readily explained by the fact that the land of Egypt was originally a sea-bottom. The methods of Hartwich and Jacobi hold an intermediate place between the above methods and those which will be subsequently explained, and they require the use of linseed oil. The text advises that, where the burette is not closed by a cork, a few drops be let out first to wash away crystals of silver nitrate which may have formed at the mouth.