324 DIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 



ter. In this country, where it is distinguished by the 

 names stick-lac when in its native state unseparated 

 from the twigs to which it adheres ; seed-lac when se- 

 parated, pounded, and the greater part of the colour- 

 ing- matter extracted by water ; lump-lac when melted 

 and made into cakes ; and shell-lac when strained and 

 formed into transparent laminae ; — it has hitherto been 

 chiefly employed in the composition of varnishes, ja- 

 panned ware and sealing-wax; but within these few 

 years it has been applied to a still more important pur- 

 pose, originally suggested by Dr. Roxburgh — that of a 

 substitute for cochineal in dyeing scarlet. The first 

 preparations from it with this view were made in con- 

 sequence of a hint from Dr. Bancroft, and large quan- 

 tities of a substance termed lac-lake, consisting of the 

 colouring matter of stick-lac precipitated from an al- 

 kaline lixivium by alum, were manufactured at Cal- 

 cutta and sent to this country, where at first the con- 

 sumption was so considerable, that in the three years 

 previous to 1810 Dr. Bancroft states that the sales of 

 it at the India House equalled in point of colouring 

 matter half a million of pounds weight of cochineal. 

 More recently, however, a new preparation of lac co- 

 lour, under the name of lac-dj/e, has been imported 

 from India, which has been substituted for the lac-lake, 

 and with such advantage, that the East India Company 

 are said to have saved in a few months 14,000/. in the 

 purchase of scarlet cloths dyed with this colour and co- 

 chineal conjointly, and without any inferiority in the 

 colour obtained '^. 



Some other insects besides the Cocci afford dyes. 



* Bancroft on permanent Colours, ii.20. 49. 



