PURPLE DYEING, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 403 



ing or printing of paper-hangings ; anrl quite a new field is opened to the dyer 

 and printer of textile fabrics by the affinity of this coloring material for various 

 metallic salts. Not only several beautiful shades of red can be produced with 

 it, but also yellow, blue and violet. 



And thus it is that our sober and utilitarian day steals one by one its glories 

 from hoar antiquity. What the mightiest and haughtiest magnates of the olden 

 day claimed as their exclusive privilege has now become common property to 

 the humblest as well as to the highest. A striking proof, this common pro- 

 perty in beautiful colors, of the superiority of the present age in its utilitarian 

 tendencies to that antiquity which we so highly, and, in a pin-ely asthetic point 

 of view, so justly, glorify. The animals which supplied the ancients with their 

 costly purple arc perfectly known to us and easily obtainable, but we cast them 

 aside, because we can more readily obtain our objects by other means. Whether 

 the murexid be the very "purple" of the ancients is a question fairly open to 

 discussion ; but that it is so is by no means improbable. We know that uric 

 acid is a constituent of the common snail, and, it is not unreasonable to suppose, 

 of the piTrple snail also, though the fact be not experimentally proved. Putre- 

 fied urine, added to the fluid of snails, furnishes ammonia ; so that the ingre- 

 dients for the formation of mm-exid are certainly present. 



Should the murexid red be still supposed inferior to that resplendent purple 

 which the old writers so eloquently extol, let it not be forgotten that the skill 

 of the dyer -^vas of old limited almost to that one really splendid color, and 

 that our modern wealth of gorgeous colors and delicate tints was then not 

 dreamed of. Could we place our murexid, however, side by side with the true 

 Roman purple, the former probably would not lose by the comparison. The 

 glories of antiquity, like the prestige of our modern gi-eat men, might lose not 

 a little of their illusion were we placed in closer contact with them. 



