Chap- 25.] A-TRAMENTUM. 241 



For sometimes it is found exuding from the earth like the 

 brine of salt-pits, while at other times an earth itself of a 

 sulphurous colour is sought for the purpose. Painters, too, have 

 been known to go so far as to dig up half-charred bones^*^ from 

 the sepulchres for this purpose. 



All these plans, however, are new-fangled and troublesome ; 

 for this substance may be prepared, in numerous ways, from 

 the soot that is yielded by the combustion of resin or pitch ; 

 so much so, indeed, that manufactories have been built on the 

 principle of not allowing an escape for the smoke evolved by 

 the process. The most esteemed black,^^ however, that is made 

 in this way, is prepared from the wood of the torch-pine. 



It is adulterated by mixing it with the ordinary soot from 

 furnaces and baths, a substance which is also employed for the 

 purpose of writing. Others, again, calcine dried wine-lees, and 

 assure us that if the wine was originally of good quality from 

 which the colour is made, it will bear comparison with that of 

 indicum.^'^ Polygnotus and Micon, the most celebrated painters 

 of Athens, made their black from grape-husks, and called it 

 " tryginon. "" Apelles invented a method of preparing it from 

 burnt ivory, the name given to it being " elephantinon." 



We have indicum also, a substance imported from India, the 

 composition of which is at present unknown to me.^* Dyers, 

 too, prepare an atramentum from the black inflorescence which 

 adheres to the brazen dye-pans. It is made also from logs of 

 torch-pine, "burnt to charcoal and pounded in a mortar. ThesSpia, 

 too, has a wonderful property of secreting a black liquid ;« 

 but from this liquid no colour is prepared. The preparation of 

 every kind of atramentum is completed by exposure to the sun ; 



50 "Carbones infectos." The reading is very doubtful. It mav possi- 

 bly mean "cliarred bones tainted ^ith dirt." This would make' an in- 

 ferior ivory-black. The earth before-mentioned is considered by Ajasson 

 to be a deuto-sulphate of copper, a solution of which, in gallic acid, is 

 ?'l,i "l^ ^^^ dyeing black. The water near copper-mines would very pro- 

 bably be also highly impregnated with it. Beckmann considers these to 

 nave been vitriolic products. Vol. II. p. 265. 



^1 Our Lamp-black. Vitruvius describes the construction of the manu- 

 factories above alluded to. 52 Probably, our Chinese, or Indian ink 

 a different substance from the indicum of Chapter 27. * 



" From Tpv^, "grape-husks," or "wine-lees." 



** Indian ink is a composition of fine lamp-black and size. 



55 See B. ii. c. 29. Sepia, for sepic drawing, is now prepared from 



tlivSG jlllCGS, 



VOL. VI. « 



