n that alleged against the quality of plates in general use.
Although the greatest diversity of opinion exists upon this subject,
nevertheless the plates of every manufactory share in this universal
condemnation.

To be sure it cannot be denied but that this necessary article of
utility in the photographic art has undergone a sad deterioration in
quality owing to the increasing demand and great reduction in
price--the plates of the present day being by no means so heavily
coated with silver as formerly--but the complaint alluded to is not
predicated so much upon the thinness of silver as upon a mysterious
something which has conferred upon the plates the epithet of not good.

That this complaint is in a great measure groundless appears evident
from the fact that while, with the same brand of plates one operator
can work successfully, another encounters the greatest difficulty;
while one is able to produce beautifully clear and altogether
satisfactory results, the other labors under the troublesome annoyance
of innumerable specks, large dark insensitive patches and brown
map-like portions, together with divers other blemishes, sufficient to
prevent him from obtaining anything like a tolerable impression.

From this wide difference in the results of the two operators using
identically the same article, it is but reasonable to conclude that the
complaint is founded in error; while the inference is no more than
just, that the fault may be traced to a want of practical skill on the
part of the complaining operator himself; rather than to the inferior
quality of the plates.

The question, then, whether the plates are unfit for use, or whether
those who pronounce them so understand how to use them, appears to be
satisfactorily answered. It therefore becomes a matter worthy of
investigation, to ascertain what superior judgment and skill one
operator possesses over another which enable him to work successfully a
quality of plate, pronounced by the other entirely useless.

Suppose we make a critical examination of one of the repudiated plates.
From its external appearance we have little hesitation in pronouncing
it to be French; indeed, this presumption is strongly corroborated by
the fact that it is ornamented upon one of its corners with a brand to
designate the manufactory from which it emanated.

Upon close inspection we cannot fail to notice a striking peculiarity
upon the surface; the roughness is very remarkable; th