108 ORGANS OF SECRETION. 



the most highly prized and most beautiful dye known to the 

 ancients.* 



Pliny states that in his time the purple dye was obtained from 

 the Buceinum and the Purpura. The moilusk now known as 

 3Iu7-ex trunculus is generally supposed to have been that princi- 

 pally used by the ancients in obtaining the Tyrian purple. It is 

 related that the discovery of the dye is due to the dog of a Tyrian 

 nymph, which crushing some of these shells in its teeth, its mouth 

 became stained with purple. It is possible that the fragile 

 lanthina may have been thus crushed, but the shells of the 

 Muricidse would resist the dog's teeth. To be exact, this event 

 occurred 1500 B. C. The color was so beautiful that the fair 

 nymph expressed to her lover, Hercules, her desire to have a 

 robe of similar hue. Hercules, of course, gratified her. It is 

 evident that the product of two difierent species was mixed in 

 order to produce the finest color, as Pliny gives the proportion 

 of 200 pounds of juice of "Buceinum," and 111 pounds of that 

 of " Pelagia " as suitable for obtaining a beautiful amethyst color, 

 suflScient for 50 pounds of wool. The extent of the Tyrian 

 industry is visible in numerous holes in the rocks, two to three 

 feet deep, containing the breccia of shells anciently crushed in 

 them for the extraction of the dye. The arms of the city as 

 preserved on its medals was the purpura shell, and in the time 

 of Strabo the multiplicity of dye-works unpleasantly affected 

 the air of the vicinity. The Romans used various species in 

 great quantity for dyeing purposes, and the remains of Murices 

 form vast heaps ; indeed in one case, at Tarento, the mass is so 

 large as to have received the name of " Monte Testaceo." 



The color was prepared by pounding up small specimens, or 

 by breaking the shells of larger ones and extracting the purple 

 gland. This fluid was mixed with five or six times its weight of 

 water, with twenty ounces of soda to every hundred pounds. 

 Placed in lead or tin vessels the mixture was exposed to the sun 

 for severah days, until the hue desired was obtained, when the 

 wool was simply plunged into it and allowed to remain for a few 

 hours. Under Augustus the dyed wool brought as much as 

 $200 per pound. 



The Indians of the new world also understood the art of purple 

 dyeing from shell-fish, and it is probable that all ancient peoples 

 inhabiting sea-shores have become accidentally acquainted with 

 this property, common to so man^^ mollusks, at a very early 



* See Lacaze-Dutliiers' (Ann. Se, Nat., xii, 5, 1859) exhaustive " Me- 

 mo! re sur la Pourpre," an exceedingly interesting paper, illustrated by 

 specimens of the color resulting from various applications of the dyes 

 obtained from Murices, Purpuras, etc. See also Smithsonian Report, 

 18fi3 ; LovelVs Edible Mollusks, p. 124; Qrimaud de Gcnix, Rev. eA, Mag, 

 Zool, 34, 1856. 



