Lincoln's Inn.
I think that J. B. will find in Blackstone, or any elementary book on the law of real property, all the information which he requires. The case which he puts was, I suppose, the common case
of subinfeudation before the statute of Quia Emptores, 18 Edw. I. A., the feoffor, reserved to himself no estate or reversion in the land, but the seignory only, with the rent and services, by virtue of which he might again become entitled to the land by escheat, as for want of heirs of the feoffee, or by forfeiture, as for felony. If the feoffment were in tail, the land would then, as now, revert on failure of issue, unless the entail had been previously barred. The right of alienation was gradually acquired; the above statute of Quia Emptores was the most important enactment in that behalf. With this exception, and the right to devise and to bar entails, the lords of manors have the same interest in the land held by freeholders of the manor that they had in times of subinfeudation. (Blackstone's Comm., vol. ii. ch. 287., may be carefully consulted.)
H. P.
Lincoln's Inn.
PHOTOGRAPHIC CORRESPONDENCE.
Spots on Collodion Pictures, &c.—The principal difficulty I experience in the collodion process is occasioned by the appearance of numberless very minute spots or points over the whole extent of the picture. These occurring on the whites of my pictures (positives) give them a rough, rubbed, appearance and want of density, which I should feel obliged if any of your correspondents can teach me how to overcome.
One of your photographic querists inquires the remedy for his calotype negatives darkening all over before the minor details are brought out. I had for a long time been troubled in the same way, but by diminishing the aperture of my three-inch lens to half an inch, and reducing the strength of my sensitising solution to that given by Dr. Diamond, and, in addition, by developing with gallic acid alone until the picture became tolerably distinct in all its parts, and then applying the gallo-nitrate, I have quite succeeded in obtaining first-rate negatives. It is well to prepare only a small quantity of aceto-nitrate at once, as the acetic acid is of a sufficiently volatile nature to escape from the solution, which is a not unfrequent cause of the general darkening of the picture. It would be well to substitute a more fixed acid for the acetic if this be practicable, as it is in the collodion process, where tartaric is recommended.
H. C. Cowley.