§ DR. FARQUHARSON (Aberdeenshire, W.)I beg to ask the First Commissioner of Works whether his attention has been called to some letters by Mr. James Orrock in The Westminster Gazette, in which the increasing deterioration of the British pictures in the National Gallery, more especially those in which asphaltum has been freely used, is described; and whether, in order to counteract the dry heat which hastens this decay and causes the panel pictures to shrink, he can arrange some convenient process by which the air may be moistened by steam?
§ *THE FIRST COMMISSIONER OF WORKS (Mr. SHAW LEFEVRE,) Bradford, CentralI am informed by the Director of the National Gallery that it is not correct to say that certain British pictures in the National Gallery show increased deterioration. He states that the evil effects of the use of asphaltum by Sir Joshua Reynolds and other painters of that period could not be averted by additional moisture in the atmosphere. As to the heating, the temperature of the rooms in winter is not allowed to exceed 56 deg. or 58 deg. Fahr. In the galleries containing the panel pictures of the old masters, the experiment of placing shallow water tanks over the hot-water pipes, in order to mitigate by evaporation any excess of dryness in the air, has long been tried. Although the late Dr. John Percy, after careful investigation of the hygrometric condition of the air, pronounced it to be normal, the use of the tanks has been continued, with other precautions.