pert. In the year 1826 J. B. Vuillaume was in want of
a talented workman and wrote to his brother, who was established in
Mirecourt, to find him one. The result of these enquiries was that
Dominique Peccatte came to Paris and remained for eleven years with
Vuillaume. In 1837 Francois Lupot died and Peccatte took over the
business. Ten years later he returned to his native place, though
retaining his business connexion with Paris until his death, which
took place in 1874. Many of his bows are unstamped, or bear the stamp
of Vuillaume, but great numbers of them are stamped "PECCATTE,"
occasionally with the word "PARIS" on the opposite side of the stick.

Much confusion has arisen from the fact that in some specimens the
stamp has only a single "T," the result, probably, of illiteracy on
the part of the maker.

The third in Plate VIII. is a bow by Panormo. His work is quite
distinct from that of any other maker; but one must not run away with
the idea that he affected an unjustifiable singularity, for the flat
sides and angular facets of the Panormo heads have a logical basis,
being in point of fact the natural continuation of the octagonal
stick.

Indebted as we are to the makers and scientists of France for
bringing the indispensable "fiddlestick" to such a degree of
perfection, we must not overlook the claims of certain of our own
countrymen for recognition in the same field of art.

The late mathematician and musical amateur, W. S. B. Woolhouse, no
less than Fetis, contributed greatly to a full understanding of the
essential properties of a bow on the part of those whose office it is
to produce the actual instrument. Woolhouse laid great stress on a
point overlooked by many other students of the subject, the same
being that the success of a bow depends quite as much on its purity
as a vibrating body as does the violin.

Unless the bow is so adjusted in its weight and proportions that it
vibrates with absolute uniformity throughout its entire length it is
useless to an artist.

Bows are "false" frequently in the same way that strings are.
Inequalities of finish, imperceptible to our ordinary senses, will
render a perfect "_staccato_" from end to end impossible, just as it
is impossible to obtain true fifths in every part of a violin's
compass if one of the strings be slightly wanting in absolute
cylindricity. I speak specially of "_staccato_," as that form of
bowing suffers perhaps more than any other from fault