IVORY. 



fonverting tlie aqua-fortis into aqua rcgia, by diffolving a 

 fourth part of its weight of fal ammoniac in it, ivory may be 

 llained of a fine purple colour. 



Ivory, bone, horn, and other folid parts of animals, may 

 be ftained black, in the fame manner as wood. Thefe fub- 

 ftances may be ftained yellow, by boiling them firil in a 

 [ folution of one pound of alum, in two quarts of water ; and 

 I then, having prepared a titifture of the French berries, by 

 '• boihng half a pound of the berries, pounded, in a gallon of 

 I water, putting them into this tindure, after it has boiled 

 ! about an hour, and letting them remain there half an hour. 

 ' Turmeric root may be ufed inftead of the berries ; but in 

 this cafe the ivory, Sic. muft be dipt in alum water after it is 

 taken out of the tindure. Ivory, Sec. may be ftained blue, 

 by firft ftaining it green, and then dipping it in a folution of 

 pearl afhes made ftrong, and boiling hot : or it may be other- 

 wife boiled in the tindure of indigo, prepared by the dyers ; 

 and afterwards in a folution of tartar, made by dilTolving 

 three ounces of white tartar, or cream of tartar, in a quart of 

 water. For other proceffes and colours, fee DvKixf; of 

 Bone, Sec. Colouring ami Staining of BoSE. and ToKTOlsi; 

 Sb^/l. 



Ivory may be prepared as a ground for miniature paint- 

 ing, by cleanfing the ivorv leaves or tables, and rubbing 

 them over with the juice of garlic. This is faid to be more 

 effential for taking off the greafinefs, which prevents the 

 colours from fixing on the ground, than foap or gall. 

 Ivory has the fame medical virtues with hartlhorii ; its 

 fliavings too, like thofe of hartftiorn, boil into a jelly with 

 water, and have the fame reftorative quality. See Haris. 



HORN". 



Ivory BlacL See Ivory Black. 



Ivory, Fcj/!l, in Nalural Hijlory. It is not uncommon 

 in the moft modern alluvial foils, like the vallies in the bafin 

 of Paris, mentioned by Cuvier and Brogniart, and the foil 

 in which the docks adjoining the Thames were excavated, 

 to find the bones, teeth, and tnfks of elephants ; and this 

 foflil ivory is not, in fome inftances, much altered, though 

 in general it has loft its confiftence in a great meafure, 

 and readily fcaSes off in concentric rings, and in others is 

 impregnated v.ith metallic fubilances, fo as to imitate, if not 

 form the Turquoife ftones, the Callais of Pliny, &c. as 

 Dr. Woodward has ftiewn in his Letters on the j.Iethod of 

 Foffils, p. 15. It may, however, be doubted, we believe, 

 whether foffil ivory has ever been found imbedded in the 

 ftrata, or the parts of any dry-land animals, numerous as 

 their remains are in the hft alluvial covering of fome dillricls 

 The abundance of elephant.^' teeth found buried in different 

 parts of the world, and many of thofe parts fuch as no ele- 

 phant is ever known to have lived in, have given amazenie;il 

 to naturalifts. 



' The long tufl<s, which are what we call ivory, are the 

 only teeth the vulgar are acquainted in this creature ; yet 

 even thefe, in their foflil ftate, have often been miftaken for 

 horns, or other animal parts. The grinders of this animal 

 are fo enor.moully large, and of fo lingular a ftiape, that it 

 requires fome knoA-ledge in natural hiltory to difcover them 

 at fight, and many have miftaken them, when iniperfed, for 

 parts of a petrified fhell-filh of the nautilus kind, their root 

 being hollowed all along, and armed with an indented ridge 

 on each fide, in the manner of the back parts of fome (hells 

 of that and of the Cornu ammonis kind. 



• We are not to wonder that the teeth of elephants are 

 found more frequently than any other bones of the animal, 

 fmce their ufe in the creature required that they ftiould be 

 harder than any other bone, and that hardnefa has preferved 

 thsm in places w!;crc the other bones have perjflicd. The 



different ftate in which tliefe teeth are found, is wholly 

 owing to the different juices abounding in the earth in the 

 place where they were depofited, fome of thofe juices 

 being of power to preferve, others to deftroy them ; fome 

 eating them infenfibly away, fome as it were calcining 

 them by flow degrees, and others rendering them greatly 

 more hard and durable than before. Mem. Acad. Par. 



Count Marfigli, and fome other writers, have thought it 

 an eafy folution of the queftion of the teeth and bones of 

 elephants being found in countries where elephants are not 

 naturally found, that we owe them to the Ronian.s, who, 

 bringing them over for their ufe in war, buried them whcrc- 

 ever they happened to die. But fir Hans Sloane expreffes 

 himfelf very juftly agaiiift this opinion : he obferves, that 

 of the remains of elephants found in Europe, nothing is fo 

 common as the ivory tuiks. Now, as he well obferves, the 

 Romans held ivory in the liigheft efteem, and it fold among 

 them at a great price ; wherefore, had they been the buriers 

 of the elephants, they would certainly have taken away tlie 

 ivory tulks firft. It is certain, therefore, that accident, and 

 not defign, hath buried thefe bones, and that accident can 

 have been no other than fome prodigious inundation. 

 Woodward is defirous of making the univerfal deluge to 

 have done all this, but that feems not neceflary to be fiip- 

 poftd in every cafe. .Sir Hans Sloane gives an enumeration 

 of the moft curious of thefe pieces of foflil ivory, which 

 his o«-n cabinet contained, and of fome others of the moft 

 remarkable, mentioned by authors ; from which we may 

 form a very diftind idea, both of the nature of the bodies 

 themfelves, and of the places where they are ufually met with. 

 See Philof Tranf N^ 403. p. 458. 



The power of fubterranean calcinations to render things 

 of this kind brittle, is remarked by the fame author from 

 Moreton's Hiftory of Norihamptonfliire, in the inliance of 

 a foffil tnfk of an' elephant, which was in the wliolc at Icaft 

 fix feet long, and had preferved its natural whitenefs, though 

 rendered fo brittle as to fall into feveral pieces in the digging. 

 This was dug up near Little Bowden, in Northamptonfhire ; 

 and the ftrata of the place where it lay were as follows : 

 I. Vegetable mould, 14 inches. 2. Loam, a foot and a half. 

 3. Large pebbles, with a fmall mixture of earth among them, 

 two feet and a half. 4. Blue clay ; in the upper pai-t of 

 this laft ftratum the tooth was four.d. 



Sir Hans mentions another elephant's tuflc very entire and 

 found, found in Siberia. The hke are common in Siberia 

 and many parts of RulTia, and arefo little injured, that they 

 are ufed as ivory, and are fuppofed to be the teeth of a valt 

 animal called the mammoth, which they think lives under 

 ground. Phil. Tranf. N' 468. See farther on this fubjed, 

 BoNCs, Fvffll, Ei.KPliASTs' Bones, and Teeth, FsJfiL 



IvouY CoaJ}, in Gcogrnphy, a name given to a country of 

 Africa, fituated on the coait of the Atlantic, between Cape 

 ApoUonia to the F.. and Cape Palmas to the W. Tiie prin- 

 cipal towns and villages are Groua, or Grua, Great Tabo, 

 Little Tabo, Grand Drewin, Batrou, Laho, Apollonia, 

 and Val'.o. Thefe lie at the mouths of rivers, whence they 

 derive their names. The interior of the countr)- is littlj 

 known, as the natives do not allow the Europeans to eftablifli- 

 fettlcments, or even to trade among them, except very 

 cautioufly, by means of the coaft negroes. The chief com- 

 modities are gold, ivory, and flaveS. The inhabitants are 

 reckoned favagc, and in a high degree jealous and lufpicious ; 

 infomuch that in their traffick with the Europeans, they are 

 artful and impofing, and fo eafily incenfed and alarmed, that 

 they will precipitate themfelves into the fea from the 

 European fliips, and fwim to their caBoes._ 



The 



