Fiddle and harp strings

—These require the greatest care and dexterity on the part of the workmen. The treble strings are peculiarly difficult to make, and are best made at Naples, probably because their sheep, from their small size and leanne , afford the best raw material. The first scraping of the guts intended for fiddle-strings must be very carefully performed; and the alkaline lyes being clarified with a little alum, are added, in a progre ively stronger state from day to day, during 4 or 5 days, till the guts be well bleached and swollen. They must then be pa ed through the thimble, and again cleansed with the lixivium; after which they are washed, spun, or twisted and sulphured during two hours. They are finally polished by friction, and dried. Sometimes they are sulphured twice or thrice before being dried, and are polished between horse-hair cords. It has been long a subject of complaint, as well as a serious inconvenience to musicians, that catgut strings cannot be made in England of the same goodne and strength as those imported from Italy. These are made of the peritoneal covering of the intestines of the sheep; and, in this country, they are manufactured at White chapel, and probably elsewhere in considerable quantity; the consumption of them for harps, as well as for the instruments of the violin family, being very great. Their chief fault is weakne ; whence it is difficult to bring the smaller ones, required for the higher notes, to concert pitch; maintaining at the same time, in their form and construction, that tenuity or smallne of diameter, which is required to produce a brilliant and clear tone. The inconvenience arising from their breaking when in use, and the expense in the case of harps, where so many are required, are such as to render it highly desirable to improve a manufacture which, to many individuals may, however, appear sufficiently contemptible. It is well known to physiologists, that the membranes of lean animals are far more tough than of those animals which are fat or in high condition; and there is no reason to doubt that the superiority of the Italian strings arises from the state of the sheep in that country. In London, where no lean animals are slaughtered, and where, indeed, an extravagant and usele degree of fattening, at least for the purpose of food, is given to sheep in particular, it is easy to comprehend why their membranes can never afford a material of the requisite tenacity. It is le easy to suggest an adequate remedy; but a knowledge of the general principle, should this notice meet the eyes of those interested in the subject, may at least serve the purpose of diminishing the evil and improving the manufacture, by inducing them to choose in the market the offal of such carcases as appear least overburthened with fat. It is probable that such a manufacture might be advantageously established in those parts of the country where the fashion has not, as in London, led to the use of meat so much overfed; and it is equally likely, that in the choice of sheep for this purpose, advantage would arise from using the Welch, the Highland, or the South down breeds, in preference to those which, like the Lincoln, are prone to exce ive accumulations of fat. It is equally probable, that sheep dying of some of the diseases accompanied by emaciation, would be peculiarly adapted to this purpose. That these suggestions are not merely speculative is proved by comparing the strength of the membranes in question, or that of the other membranous parts, in the unfattened Highland sheep, with that of those found in the London markets.