_Form of Projections._--The principle is maintained by all the best English and French architects that projections (_i. e_., cornices, sills, lintels, etc.) should be "throated," that is, undercut in such a way as to throw off the dripping of rainwater, etc., from the front of the building, but in New York this principle is almost universally neglected. It was pointed out that the severity of our climate even requires the further care that the upper surface of projections should be so cut as to prevent the lodgment or long retention of deposits either of rainwater or snow. It is immediately above and below such deposits that the ashlar of our fronts is most rapidly corroded and exfoliated, an effect evidently due mainly to the repeated thawing and solution, freezing and disintegration, which are caused by the water, slush, and snow, which rest, often for weeks, upon a window-sill, balcony, cornice, etc. Thus from the initial and inexcusable carelessness in the construction and form of the projections, and, later, the neglect of the houseowner, due to ignorance of the results involved, to remove the deposits of snow, etc., as fast as they accumulate on the projections, is derived a large part of the discoloration of the marble, Nova Scotia stone, or light colored granyte, and especially the exfoliation of the brownstone beneath the window-sills, balconies, etc., by the water alternately trickling down the front and freezing, by day and by night, for long periods. The artificial means of preservation are of two classes, organic and inorganic. The former depend on the application of some organic substance in a coating or in the injection of fatty matters; but, as the substances are with greater or less rapidity oxidized, dissolved, and carried away by the atmospheric fluids, the methods founded on their use have been properly denounced by many authorities as only costly palliatives, needing frequent repetition, and therefore exerting an influence toward the destruction of delicate carving. The following were discussed: coal-tar; paint, which has been used in New York for many residences, as in Washington for the Capitol, and in London for Buckingham Palace, etc., but lasts only a few years, and often even permits the disintegration to progress beneath it; oil, often used in New York, but as objectionable as paint; soap and alum-solution; and paraffine, beeswax, resin, tallow, etc., dissolved in naphtha, turpentine, camphene, oil, etc.