will completely supplant the cochineal product; but 

 this substitution seems now absolutely assured. 



Such substitution is taking place, or has taken place, 

 in the case of the other animal pigments, which need be 

 mentioned here only for their historical interest. 



Lac-dye, once a favorite pigment material, is ob- 

 tained from an insect not unlike the cochineal. The 

 same is true of alkermes from which the famous Vene- 

 tian scarlet was made. It comes from an insect found in 

 Persia, Morocco, and Algeria. Purree, or Indian yellow, 

 is manufactured in Bengal from the urine of cows fed 

 on the leaves of the mango tree. Sepia, a favorite pig- 

 ment of water-color artists, is made from the gland of a 

 marine cephalopod, known as the "ink-fish"; while 

 "mummy," an inferior yellow pigment at one time 

 fancied by some artists, is made by the action of such 

 solvents as chloroform or benzine on Egyptian 

 mummies. 



The vegetable coloring-matters, like the animal, are 

 of rapidly declining importance, as practically every one 

 of them can now be made cheaper artificially than they 

 can be obtained from natural sources. This means that 

 certain great industries have been created at the expense 

 of other older ones. Painters and dyers now look to 

 city workshops for their supply of pigments that formerly 

 came from the fields. 



Perhaps the most conspicuous example of the revolu- 

 tionary effect of the introduction of coal-tar colors 

 produced synthetically, is that of the^eomglete elimina- 

 tion of madder-root as a source of color-matenaTr^f 

 der, known botanically as Rubia tinctorum, was cul- 



[307] 



