EXTRACTION OP INDIGO FROM WO AD. 303 



such an enormous mass of matter in a dye, the colorer 

 must be very skilful in his art to draw from it a uniform 

 and well-sustained color. It is not then astonishing, that 

 the use of indigo should have superseded that of the cakes, 

 and that consequently the culture of woad should be much 

 diminished. 



Henry IV., who foresaw the depreciation of this princi- 

 pal branch of French agriculture, wished to arrest the 

 evil in its infancy, and by an edict of 1609, he pronounced 

 the penalty of death against all those who should make 

 use of " the false and pernicious drug called indigo" 

 The same severity was adopted by the governments of 

 Holland, Germany, and England, though they had not the 

 same interest in the subject : the law was, however, main- 

 tained and executed only in the last of these kingdoms. 



This source of prosperity may easily be revived in 

 France, not however by increasing the manufacture of 

 woad cakes, of which we cannot extend the use, but by 

 extracting from the leaves of the woad, indigo which shall 

 be equal to that brought from India. 



The long war of the revolution deprived us of naviga- 

 tion, and our colonial supplies of various articles became 

 consequently very dear and incomplete : in this state of dis- 

 tress and privation, government made an appeal to our 

 learned men, upon the subject of attempting to obtain 

 from our own soil a portion of the supplies, which had 

 before been brought hither from the New World. The 

 efforts made were not unsuccessful, and in a short time 

 indigo was made from woad, which was not excelled by the 

 best of that brought from Guatimala. 



Three large establishments for the manufacture of this 

 article, were established at the expense of government; 

 one at Albi, another in the neighbourhood of Turin, and a 

 third in Tuscany. These establishments prospered for 

 fieveral years, and the processes for obtaining indigo were 

 much improved in them ; but the changes which took 

 place in 1813, deprived the manufactories of protection ,* 

 the establishments were sold by the respective govern- 

 ments, and thus this profitable branch of industry, which 

 would have continued if the establishments had belonged 

 to individuals, has disappeared. M. Roques, a skilful 

 <iyer at Albi, has alone maintained an establishment that 

 he had formed, and during ten years he has made use of 

 no other indigo for coloring than that which he prepared 

 himself from woad- 



