A new type of 2-D separation material was synthesized and studied. The material is suitable for 2-D chromatography utilizing both covalent and noncovalent interactions. The first dimension is boronate affinity chromatography, and the second dimension is RP chromatography (or vice versa). The polymeric media were prepared using p-vinylphenylboronic acid as the functional monomer. This monomer was selected due to the presence of the boronic acid group for the cis-diol/boronate interaction in boronate chromatography. Two crosslinkers were evaluated, namely ethylene glycol dimethacrylate and divinylbenzene. The crosslinker content was varied to maximize the polymer strength and the RP performance of the packed column. Several parameters were evaluated to define the optimum for polymer strength and column performance including crosslinker, porogen, initiator, and column-packing parameters. The polymer-based HPLC columns were successful in separating phenol, catechol, dimethylphthalate, and hydroquinone under RP conditions, and thus can be used as an RP HPLC column. The columns were also successful in separating catechol and adenosine under boronate chromatography conditions, and thus can be used as a boronate affinity column. Moreover, the two types of chromatography can be performed consecutively on the same column during one complete chromatographic run, making it a 2-D chromatography. Under these 2-D conditions, the catechol was separated from a mixture of phenol, catechol, dimethylphthalate, and hydroquinone; the adenosine ribonucleoside was separated from a mixture of adenosine ribonucleoside, adenosine deoxyribonucleoside, and uridine deoxyribonucleoside. This type of single-column 2-D HPLC eliminates the requirement of a complex and expensive multidimensional HPLC instrument and provides increased peak capacity for separation.

A Few years ago Professor Souter made the suggestion that the curious custom of beginning each page of a MS., or each column of a page, with a large letter might be of African origin. He was struck with this feature while examining a fragment, newly acquired for the British Museum, of the celebrated Codex Palatinus of the Gospels (formerly at Vienna, MS. 1185, now at Trent), which is supposed to give us the African text of the New Testament. In reply to the suggestion, the present writer submitted a list of eighteen MSS. in which this usage is illustrated. As most of the MSS. are manifestly Italian, the African origin of the practice was shown to be untenable. Quite recently another theory has been put forward, localizing the practice within still narrower limits. According to Professor Weinberger, the use of a capital at the beginning of each page would seem to be a peculiarity of MSS. coming from Cassiodore's library at Vivarium; and he proceeded to use this feature as a touchstone for detecting Codices Vivarienses. Impressed by the unusual interest attaching to this feature, I began to assemble all the instances I had, and to look for others. I collected a list of nearly fifty items, an inspection of which showed me at once that in registering the phenomenon under discussion I had unwittingly drawn up a list of very ancient MSS. The list does not, to be sure, hold all our oldest MSS., but most of those it holds are, as will be seen, among the oldest. In other words, the use of a large letter at the beginning of each page is clearly a custom of very great antiquity. This being so, it seemed useful to interrogate these MSS. further, in order to ascertain what other practices they have of interest to palaeographers.

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In an article entitled ‘Some Facts about our Oldest Latin Manuscripts,’ which appeared in this journal, the present writer put together a group of forty-seven MSS. which had this one feature in common, that each page or each column of a page they contained began with a large letter, regardless of whether that letter occurred in the middle of a sentence, or even in the middle of a word. It so happened that the list thus drawn up was composed almost entirely of very ancient MSS.; indeed, it contained a very large proportion of the oldest MSS. extant. In the circumstances it seemed useful to note down the behaviour of these MSS. with respect to four other features—namely, the manner of indicating the omission of m and n at the end of lines, the use of running titles in the top margin, the size and arrangement of the written space, and the manner of signing quires.