PASTE is likewise used for a preparation of wheaten flour, boiled up and incorporated with water; used by various artificers, as upholsterers, saddlers, bookbinders, &c. instead of glue or size, to fasten or cement their cloths, leathers, papers, &c. When paste is used by bookbinders, or for paper-hangings to rooms, they mix a fourth, fifth, or sixth, of the weight of the flour of powdered resin; and where it is wanted still more tenacious, gum arabic or any kind of size may be added. Paste may be preserved, by dissolving a little sublimate,
in the proportion of a dram to a quart, in the water employed for making it, which will prevent not only rats and mice, but any other kind of vermin and insects, from preying upon it.