act as a support for
others to be afterwards inserted. The same attention in kind and amount
will mostly bring about a satisfactory result, but frequently with this
class of fracture minute pieces may have been lost past recovery,
leaving a small gap here and there to be filled up somehow. These places,
if large enough, should have pieces let in according to the manner
before described. If they are too small for this treatment--a little
experience will enable the eye to judge at a glance--then the only
course will be to fill them up with some kind of paste or improvised
mixture. For this purpose a good "stopping" must be made. This has,
in olden times as well as the present, been a difficulty to meet. Many
kinds of material have been used, most of them having some
objectionable quality; some repairers keeping some kind, others
generally making further experiments. Among the various materials
plaster of Paris or common chalk worked up in glue has been frequently
used; it is certainly strong for some time after use, but gradually,
as age creeps on, contraction takes place towards the central portion,
and a small fissure all round is seen more and more evident, and which
gets filled with grime causing a very distinct black line, which draws
attention to the spot, the substance also being so much harder than
the surrounding wood, gets polished with a little friction and usage
and declares its unsympathetic nature; further, it is difficult to
colour successfully, or even well, and for these objections it should
never be used. Wax is another material that has been extensively in
use among the older English repairers, but it has very little to
recommend it except handiness, and that quality ought not to be placed
in the balance against much more important ones. It is not easily
colourable; with usage the top surface gets wiped off, leaving a hollow.
Powdered wood with shellac, or the latter with some heterogeneous
materials have also failed, as the alcoholic solution destroys the
surrounding varnish.

[Illustration: DIAGRAM 18.]

Sealing wax has also in turn been used with no better result. Other
substances are met with whose precise nature is not known, odd mixtures
made up in a hurry at the moment of requirement, but no material or
mixture has been found to excel that made with wood and glue. Many,
perhaps the majority of instances in which this has been used, have
also been failures; not from any inherent defect in the s