If the student were to ask ten middle-aged photographers whether they prefer a wet plate or a dry plate negative, nine out of ten would, without doubt answer, "Oh, a wet-plate negative." If the student is curious and asks, why? he will get a vague answer, in which the words "bloom" and "beauty" play conspiruous parts, the adjectives reminding him of an advertisement for patent balms for the skin. The fact is, not knowing the first principles of art, photographers have raised for themselves false gods, and they are still worshipping them. Let us at once and most emphatically state that wet plate negatives do not give so true an impression of nature as a gelatino-bromide plate, nor are the results so artistic. We have seen much of the best of Mrs. Cameron's work, and she obtained from collodion and silver some of the best results ever obtained from wet plates, for she had artistic insight, yet even in her work the tonality is not so true, and the "quality" and freshness is not so fine as can be obtained from gelatino-bromide negatives. The work by this process is hard, and incapable of expressing texture correctly, while the general impression is more or less artificial. This is fortunate for us, for the slowness of the wet-plate process would seriously handicap it, even if the artistic result were better than that of dry plates. The inadequacy of collodion plates is emphasized when we look at the work of the craftsmen who used them, and whose ideal was sharpness and "bloom." Such work will be found most unnatural and inartistic. Surely many of the false ideas current amongst photographers arose from the evolution of the art. Daguerreotypes, the first photographs, were shiny, and most of the subsequent processes followed in their wake, until one clear-sighted photographer, Blanquart-Eviard, tried to combat the evil tendencies. Considering, then, the poor artistic quality of collodion plates and their slowness in exposure, there is absolutely nothing to be said in their favour for art work. It is decided, then, that our student will work with gelatino-bromide plates.