: - 
To the Account of the MuReEx, ending in Page 275. add, 
HE feveral Authors who have treated of the Shell-fith which 
produces the Purple, have, in defcribing’ it, promifcuoufly 
made ufe of the Words Conchylium, Purpura, Murex, and Ofrum: 
All thefe are here convertible Terms, or figuratively applied to ex- 
prefs either the Shell or Shell-fifh, the Tin@ture it emits, or the 
Purple or Crimfon itfelf. The Greeks call’d all Shells Gonchs; and 
that which afforded the Purple was, by way of Eminence, called 
the Conch. From hence Plautus calls purple Tapeftry conchyliata ta- 
petia. Fuvenal and Martial have follow’d the Greeks in calling this 
the Conch. 
Horum ego non fugiam conchylia: aay 
Juven: Il. 81. 
Ebria Sidonie cum fint de fanguine conchae. 
Mart: 
‘There are two Sorts of Shells that are fo term’d: The moft ge- 
nerally fo called, is that defcribed and delineated by Rondeletius 
and others ; this is ftudded with feveral long Prickles, fome of them 
chanell’d, and open on one Side. Thro’ thefe Fiffures. it is faid that 
the Tongue of the Murex darts into the other leffer Shell-fith, which 
thefe Prickles had before perforated, and thus feed upon them. The 
other is of the Buccinum Kind we have already defcribed and deli- 
heated. 
The learned Fabius Columna; as well as many antient Authors fay, 
that this is the peculiar Charaéteriftic of the true Zyrian Purple, and 
that the other Coach, or Murex, emits a Liquid which dyes a fine Vio- 
let Colour. ‘That there were two Sorts of what is commonly called 
the Purple, is evident from a Paflage in Pliny ( 1), where a Perfon 
is reprefented faying, Me juvene violacea purpura vigebat, cujus 
libra (2) denariis centum venibat; nec multo poft rubra Tarentina. 
By 
(1) Lib. 9. Cap. 29. : : ; 
(2) Denarius was a Roman Peny, very near the Weight of thé Attic Drachm; ih our Mo- 
ney of the Value of Eight-pence Halfpeny Farthing ; feven of them being made out of an 
Ounce Troy Weight in the Time of Tiberius. And we read of no higher Value either before 
or after that Fime ; which alfo continued Jegal Weight in the Time of Ve/pafan. After this 
they weigh’d lefs ; eight of them being made out of an Ounce; which reduced them to Seven- 
pence Halfpeny: of our Money. For whereas their Libra before contained but eighty-four, it 
how contained ninety-fix of them. In the lower Empire they fcarce weigh’d half fo much in 
pure Silver, Tho? this was the Price of this Kind of Purple : Yet the to-much valuable Tyrian 
Scarlet was often fold for One thoufand Reman Denarii a Pound ; fo that it was tsa times 35 
dear as the common Purple. 
