Enzymes and manuscripts

I received the following email from John Hodges a couple of weeks
ago and asked him if I might post his letter directly.    I thought
the letter might be of interest to others.

    I've gotten your name from one of the departments I contacted at
    UCB earlier today.  This has been a bit of a hit-and-miss
    search, so let me give you a brief background:  my wife and I
    were introduced to a visiting professor from Beijing Union
    University a couple of months ago, Cheng Jianfang, whose trip
    here was to arrange for student-faculty exchanges between CSU
    Fresno and Beijing Union University.  The two institutions are,
    as I understand it, "sister" schools, and such arrangements are
    part of the program.

    Dr. Cheng is an Associate Professor of Archeology at the
    university as well, and this is why I am contacting you.  She
    has formulated an enzyme solution (please bear with me, I'm out
    of my element here) that is being used with some success in
    China on 500 year-old and older manuscripts in the National
    Archives. The solution is painted onto the fragile, chronically
    stuck pages, which become loosened without harm to or alteration
    of the original inks, surfaces, and characters.

    Dr. Cheng brought a video with her showing some of the work
    being done with her solution by the university and the Archives.
    I told Dr. Cheng just before she left for Beijing that we would
    try and make some preliminary inquiries, hopefully to find out
    who she might contact directly as she seeks interest for her
    enzyme solution in the USA (and elsewhere).

    Do you have any suggestions as to whom Dr. Cheng would contact,
    if only to get some idea of any possible interest in her enzyme
    solution?

    John Hodges

Madeleine Fang
Phoebe Hearst Museum of Anthropology

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                  Conservation DistList Instance 13:14
                  Distributed: Monday, August 16, 1999
                       Message Id: cdl-13-14-011
                                  ***