CHAPTER VII 
VEGETABLE DYES ! 
By the late SARAH M. BAKER, D.Sc. 
Quain Student in Biology, University College, London 
THE art of extracting colouring matters from plants 
and impregnating with them animal or vegetable fabrics, 
has been practised from the earliest dawn of civilisation. 
All trace of the pioneer workers has disappeared, and 
within historic time, until the advent of synthetic dyes 
in the last generation, no fundamental change was 
introduced into the technique of dyeing. Modern 
methods are essentially modifications of the primitive 
processes still employed in the East, and, although they 
reduce time and labour, the quality of the work generally 
suffers from such departures. 
In the Egyptian wall paintings, garments coloured 
scarlet, bright blue, yellow and green, are represented 
very early; but the custom of using fine white linen 
for mummy cloths has prevented the preservation of 
much coloured material. One mummy cloth of about 
1000 B,C. has been shown to contain two yellow dyes 
1 The lecture on which’ this chapter is based was delivered on 
March 12, 1917, and a few days later the manuscript here printed was 
handed in by Dr. Sarah Baker with final corrections for the press. 
This gifted botanist died on May 29, in her 3oth year. 
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