Inquiries into the eticaustic Tainting of the Ancients. 21 



by wine- merchants in their white wines, also in clarifying coffee, 

 making jellies and creams; and lastly, it may be used instead of 

 isinglass on all occasions. 



2d. The gelatine simply dried and cut in jDieces, contains a 

 great quantity of nourishment in a very small compass ; it may 

 be rendered useful to make soup for sailors during long voyages, 

 for soldiers in besieged towns, and even in camps and barracks. 



3d. If made into cakes with a certain quantity of gravy and 

 roots, it will make an excellc-nt dish both for the naval and mi- 

 litary officers. M. D'Arcet has shown us some specimens of this 

 preparation, wliich surpass in beauty and quality all that we have 

 hitherto seen of this kind. 



4th and lastly. It can be employed to make glue with more 

 advantage than any other substance that has been used for the 

 purpose ; the operation vnll be much shortened by it, and the 

 glue infinitely better. The tenacitv of the latter, according to 

 vome experiments made by Messrs. Cadet, Gassicourt, and Jecker, 

 opticians, is to the best Paris glue as 4 to .'j, a quality extremely 

 valuable to joiners, cabinet-makers, &c. and especially to paper- 

 makers, who frequently fail in their operations for want of good 

 giue. 



It is but justice to add, that M. D'Arcet, by applying to do- 

 mestic oeconomy a known principle in chemistry, has rendered 

 3. real service to humanity ; since he has demonstrated the utility, 

 for a mmiber of purposes, of a matter which has hitherto been 

 almost entirely lost. 



IX. Inquiries into the encaustic Painting of the Ancients. 

 By M. Chaptal*. 



jLliny distinguishes colours as color es austeri and color es fio-' 

 ridi, i.e. colours of a low value, and brilliant and clear colours; 

 he adds that the latter were furnished to the painter by the per- 

 son who made them; and he places in this class minium, urme- 

 nium, chrysocoUe, indicum, and pnrpurissum. The ochres, ce- 

 ruse, sandaraque, and black, are of the former description. 



Sinopis was a red earth with which minium was sophisticated. 



Melinum, according to the characters indicated by Pliny, ap- 

 pears to us to have been a white clay. Nevertheless the ancients 

 also employed in their fresco paintings the paste of lime, as I 

 have ascertained by analysing some colours used by tlie ancients. 

 These whites produced by limo have been preserved without al- 

 teration. The melinum was brought from Melos and ISamos ; 

 Lu*^ the latter was too fat, and the painters made but little use 

 of it, 



• Annates <Ie Ctiirfiir, fome xclii. p. 298. 



B a The 



