166 



ANIMAL COLOURING MATTERS. 



stitution of the pigment from this analysis. But the smallest 

 number of atoms which corresponds with the preceding analy- 

 sis is the following : 



10 atoms carbon, . 7*5 or per cent. 64-52 



9 atoms hydrogen, 1-125 . 9-68 



3 atoms oxygen, . = 3-000 . 25.80 



11-625 100-00 



CHAPTER VI. 



COLOURING MATTER OF THE ANCIENT PURPLE DYE. 



THE most celebrated and precious of all the ancient dyes was the 

 purple. The method of dyeing which was monopolized by the Ty- 

 rian dyers, who seem to have been acquainted with it at a very 

 early period. The dye stuff was a white^clammy liquor, obtain- 

 ed from a variety of univalve shells found on the coast of the 

 Mediterranean. Pliny divides these Shells into two genera, which 

 he distinguishes by the names of Buccinum and Purpura. * About 

 two drops of the liquid was obtained from each fish, by opening 

 a reservoir placed in the throat To avoid the trouble of ex- 

 tracting it from every individual fish, they were often bruised in 

 a mortar. The liquor when extracted was mixed with salt to 

 prevent putrefaction. It was then diluted with five or six times 

 its weight of water, and kept moderately hot in leaden or tin 

 vessels for the space of ten days, during which the liquor was of- 

 ten skimmed to separate impurities. After this the wool, pre- 

 viously washed, was immersed and kept therein for five hours. It 

 was then taken out, carded, and immersed again, and kept in the 

 liquid till all the colouring matter was extracted. Pliny informs 

 us that the Tyrians first dyed their wool in the liquor of the Pur- 

 pura and afterwards in that of the Buccinum. 



Another mode of preserving the purple dye was by covering 

 it with honey. Plutarch, in his Life of Alexander the Great, in- 

 forms us, that there was found in the King of Persia's palace at 

 Susa, five thousand talents of the purple of Hermione, which, 

 though it had been laid up one hundred and ninety years, retain- 



* Plinii, lib. ix. c. 36. 



4 



