76 CHINA-INK. 



Another article highly valued in the arts, the China or 

 Indian-ink, is very generally believed to be manufactured 

 fron the black liquor excreted by certain cephalopod mol- 

 lusca, more especially, according to Bosc, from the Sepia 

 rugosa : but the fact, however confidently some have affirmed 

 it, cannot be said to be determined in the affirmative at 

 least.* The colour called sepia is, however, composed almost 

 solely of the cuttle's secretion ; and, from various passages in 

 the Latin writers, we learn that the same was used in their 

 days in lieu of writing-ink. In Italy an ink is still prepared 

 from the liquor in question, which Cuvier says differs from 

 the genuine China-ink only in being a little less black. The 

 liquor and that of the Octopus and Loligo, is preferable to 

 that of the Sepiae is expressed from the cellular tissue of its 

 bladder in the state of a thickish bouillie, which diffuses 

 itself readily in water and blackens a very considerable quan- 

 tity. Received into a vessel, it dries in a few hours, and 

 detaches itself in scales, similar to those of China-ink. With 

 this preparation Cuvier drew the beautiful designs which 

 illustrate his memoir ; and he thinks it would be easy to 

 originate a little branch of industry on whatever coasts these 

 cephalopods abound.-)- I suspect not ; for, according to the 

 experiments of Dr. Bancroft, the ink of the cuttles, although 

 durable enough, is otherwise objectionable ; the strokes of 

 the pen are not uniformly black, from the carbonaceous par- 

 ticles not being equally dispersed through the fluid, which, 

 moreover, is liable to putrefy, and in its natural state could 

 not be long preserved for the purposes of ink, unless the car- 

 bonaceous matter were separated from the animal mucilage, 

 and mixed with a solution of gum arabic. J 



The mother-of-pearl, applied in so many ways, as you are 

 well aware, to ornamental works, is got from the pearl-oyster 

 and from the large bivalve shells allied to it, and native of the 

 same seas. Cameos are cut on some thick shells with a nacred 

 inner layer. With the powdered bone or shell of the Sepia, 

 silversmiths make excellent moulds for casting articles of 

 small work, such as spoons, forks, and rings ; and statuaries 

 and china-menders mix the glairy fluid of the garden-snail 



Besides those already referred to, the curious reader may consult Aris- 

 totle, Hist. Animal., lib. v. cap. 13 ; Edinb. Encyclop. viii. Art. Dyeing ; 

 Thomson's Hist. Roy. Soc. 67, &c. ; Beckman's Hist, of Inventions, vols. i. 

 and ii. ; Pennant's Brit. Zool. iv. ; Montagu's Test. Brit. Supp. 105, 

 108, 120, &c. Aldrovandus has gathered together everything ever said on 

 the subject previous to his own time, but his chapters are tedious beyond 

 endurance. * Griffith's Cuvier, part xxxix. 289. 



t Mem. sur les Mollusq. i. 4, 5. J On Colours, ii. 431. 



