44 TURNSOLE MANUFACTURE AND USES. 



i85o. for use since the year 1833, previous to which time the wild 

 plants only were collected. The locality where the cultivation 

 is carried on is restricted to the neighbourhood of the small 

 town of Grand Gallargues, in the department of Gard. 

 Manufnc- According to J. P. Hugues, to whose pamphlet ( Une Excur- 

 ture - sion dans la Commune de Grand Gallargues dans 1835 : 

 Nismes, 1835), and a personal visit to the spot during the- past 

 autumn, I am indebted for most of these particulars, the 

 plants, which vary from six to eight inches in height, and whose 

 seeds are developed though not ripe, are cut in the month of 

 August, ground to pulp in a mill, and the juice, which amounts 

 to about half their weight, expressed. This juice is at first of a 

 dark green colour, but speedily assumes a purple hue by simple 

 exposure to the air. In it the cloths (which are merely pieces 

 of coarse sacking carefully washed) are soaked, dried, exposed 

 to the vapour of ammonia derived from a heap of stable 

 manure or some similar source, and immersed in another 

 portion of juice with which a quantity of urine has been mixed. 

 A second drying completes the process. 



In this state the Turnsole is purchased by dealers, packed 

 into large sacks, each capable of containing four quintals, 

 and carried to the neighbouring ports, whence it is shipped to 

 Holland. 



Turnsole ^ ut ^ tt * e * S ^ nown * t^e P ur P ses f r which Turnsole is 

 purchased by the Dutch. According to the author before 

 quoted, its use is confined to colouring the exterior of cheese, 

 though it was formerly thought to have served in the manu- 

 facture of blue paper, the colouring of wine, and confectionery. 

 Pomet, in common with other old authors, imagined it formed 

 the colouring matter of litmus, an opinion since entertained 

 by Guibourt (Histoire des Drogues Simples: Paris, 1836), but 

 relinquished in a subsequent edition of his works. Dr. Ure 

 states the name Turnsole to have been applied to litmus in 

 order to conceal the true origin of the latter substance. 



The manufacture of Turnsole has been carried on in the 

 south of France from an early period. Pena and De Lobel 

 (Stirpium Adversaria Nova : Lond., 1570) correctly describe the 



