RECORDS 



OF 



GENERAL SCIENCE 



JANUARY, 1835. 



Article I 



On Calico- Printing. By Thomas Thomson, M. D., F. R. S., 

 L. and E. &c, Regius Professor of Chemistry in the 

 University of Glasgow. 



Calico-printing is the art of applying one or more 

 colours to particular parts of cloth, so as to represent 

 leaves, flowers, &c, and the beauty depends partly on the 

 elegance of the pattern, and partly upon the brilliancy 

 and contrast of the colours. The process is not confined 

 to cotton cloth, as the term calico-printing would lead us 

 to suppose. It is applied also to linen, silk, and woollen 

 cloth ; but as the processes are in general the same, I 

 shall satisfy myself with describing them as applied to cot- 

 ton, because it is with them that I am best acquainted. 



The general opinion is, that this ingenious art originated 

 in India, and that it has been known in that country for a 

 very long period. From a passage in Pliny, who probably 

 composed his Natural History about the middle of the 

 first century of the Christian Era, it is evident that calico- 

 printing was understood and practised in Egypt in his time, 

 but unknown in Italy. 



" There exists in Egypt," says he, " a wonderful method 

 of dyeing. The white cloth is stained in various places, 



b2 



