A well-intentioned repair

I discovered a well-intentioned repair I've not run into before.

Some time ago, someone placed carefully trimmed sheets of wax paper
between all the pages of a journal issue from 1896.  Don't know if the
wax paper was initially adhered to the pages, but it is stuck to some
of the pages in places now.  The pages are now brittle and and moldy,
with the wax paper making the situation even worse.

This is not a valuable volume so I'm not asking for any advice on
reversing the repair.  I am asking if anyone knows why this was done?
Just guessing, it look s  like a precursor of lamination, that the wax
paper would hold the pages together in one piece as the paper aged. It
didn't work.

Jim.

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                  Conservation DistList Instance 5:28
                 Distributed: Monday, November 18, 1991
                        Message Id: cdl-5-28-005
                                  ***