Scan 57
The violin: its famous makers and their imitators, 1875
4 lines. Read by computer on 1 October 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1be done artificially in other countries. Hence the Italian superiority. Southern Germany adopts, to some extent, similar means in making strings; France, to a less degree; while England is obliged to rely solely on artificial processes. It therefore amounts to this result—the further from Italy the seat of manufacture, the more inferior the string.
3Strings, although called "catgut," are not made from the intestines of that domestic animal, as is commonly supposed. Whether they were originally so made, and hence derive their name, it is impossible to learn. We may be sure, however, that had the raw material been drawn from that source up to the present time there would have been no occasion to check the supply of the feline race by destroying nine kittens out of ten; on the contrary, the rearing of cats would indeed have been a lucrative occupation. A time-honoured error is thus commemorated in a word, whose very origin must be ascribed to want of thought. If the number of cats requisite for the string manufacture be considered for a moment, it is easy to see that Shylock's "harmless, necessary" domestics are under no contribution in this matter. Strings are made from the intestines of the sheep and goat, chiefly of the former. The best qualities are made from the intestines of the lamb, the strength of which is very great if compared with those of a sheep more than a year old. This being so, the chief manufacture of the year is carried on in the month of September, the September string
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