Note AW — Chapter X
Reading edition
When left to time the process is a tedious one, and, ere its accomplishment, the beauty of the masonry is always in some degree destroyed. The following passage, from a popular work, points out a mode by which it might possibly be anticipated, and the waste of surface prevented:—"A hall of which the walls were constantly damp, though every means were employed to keep them dry, was about to be pulled down, when M. Schmithall recommended, as a last resource, that the walls should be washed with sulphuric acid, (vitriol.) It w T as done, and the deliquescent salts being decomposed by acid, the walls dried, and the hall was afterwards free from dampness."—(Recreations in Science.)