The Materia Medica of the Hindus, compiled from Sanskrit Medical Works c4.s7.t2.5

c4.s7.t2.5

“The manuscripts examined have mostly been written on country paper sized with yellow arsenic and an emulsion of tamarind seeds, and then polished by rubbing with a conch-shell. A few are on white Kásmiri paper, and some on Palm-leaf. White arsenic is rarely used for the size, but I have seen a few codices sized with it, the mucilage employed in such cases being acacia gum. The surface of ordinary country paper being rough, a thick coating of size is necessary for easy writing; and the tamarind-seed emulsion affords this admirably. The paper used for ordinary writing is sized with rice gruel; but such paper attracts damp and vermin of all kinds, and that great pest of literature, “the silver-fish” thrives luxuriantly on it. The object of the arsenic is to keep off this insect, and it serves the purpose most effectually. No insect or worm of any kind will attack arsenicised paper, and so far the MSS. are perfectly secure against its ravages. The superior appearance and cheapness of European paper has of late induced many persons to use it instead of the country arsenicised paper in writing puthis; but this is a great mistake, as the latter is not near so durable as the former, and is liable to be rapidly destroyed by insects. I cannot better illustrate this than by referring to some of the MSS. in the Library of the Asiatic Society. There are among them several volumes written on foolscap paper, which dates from 1820 to 1830, and they already look decayed, mouldering, and touched in several places by silver-fish. Others on John-letter paper which is thicker, larger and stouter, are already so far injured that the ink has quite faded, and become in many places illegible, whereas the MSS. which were originally copied on arsenicated paper for the College of Fort William in the first decade of this century, are now quite as fresh as they were when first written.