NOTES. 51 



to occasion the application of chance discovery to the coloring of 

 stuffs. But though neither history nor tradition, has preserved 

 any authentic information with regard to the origin of this inter- 

 esting art ; yet, from analogy, as well as observation on the prac- 

 tice of barbarous nations at the present day, we can readily credit 

 the fables of the latter, ^-ith regard to the i-ude beginnings whence 

 this art has sprung. The high antiquity of the T}Tian purple is 

 confirmed by Homer, who ascribes the wearing of purple orna- 

 ments and robes, to the heroes of Greece and Rome, the preparing 

 them to queens and princesses. The Pagans were even persuaded 

 that the purple dye had a particular virtue, and was capable of 

 appeasing the wrath of their gods. The Tyrians, by the confes- 

 sion of all antiquity, succeeded best in dying purple stuffs. For 

 fifty pounds of wool the ancients used no less than three hundred 

 pounds of the liquor of the Buccinum and Murex, or six pounds of 

 liquor to one of wool, consequently, the real Tyrian purple vied 

 in value with gold itself. To assume the purple was a phrase 

 synonymous with that of ascending the throne ; officers were ap- 

 pointed to superintend the manufactories of this imperial dye. It 

 was piincipally prepared in Phoenicia, and the punishment of 

 death was decreed against any who should have the audacity to 

 appropriate it to their own use, though concealed by garments of 

 another color. 



Xote ^, page 27, line 9. 

 Though no device of human skill, 

 Hath plann'd thee, Trochus ! at the will; 



The Trochus Perspectivus, is particularly alluded to, Linnaeus 

 describes it as having the perforation funnel shaped, with a double 

 granulate belt ; and being a most beautiful shell. 



