2506 Purple Colour of the Ancients. 



Mr. Quekett read a paper ' On the Structure of Cartilage in the four great classes 

 of Animals ; being Contribution No. 2 on the Anatomy of Cartilage.' After giving a 

 brief abstract of the former communication, in which the principal characters of car- 

 tilage in general were described, the Author went on to notice the most simple form 

 under which it exists, viz., that of large more or less hexagonal nucleated cells that 

 could be readily isolated from each other, as such formed the chorda dorsales of many 

 fishes, both in the adult and in the embryonic condition. He then went on to 

 describe the membraniform condition of cartilage, as it exists in the ears of male ani- 

 mals in which the cells were generally well-defined and collected together in a single 

 thin layer, as in the ears of some species of the English bat, or sometimes into two 

 or more layers superimposed, as in the mouse and rat. The Author then concluded 

 by describing the different modes of arrangement of the cells in osseous fishes, and 



-N. B. Ward. 



June 20, 1849. — N. B. Ward, Esq., Treasurer, in the chair. 



Frederick Barber, Esq., was balloted for, and duly elected a member of the So- 

 ciety. 



The Secretary (J. Quekett, Esq.) read a paper ' On the Structure and Mode of 

 Growth of certain Tissues and Organs of the Trout, as observed in Specimens pro- 

 duced by the Artificial Mode of hatching the Ova proposed by M. Boccius, and prac- 

 tised in this country by Samuel Gurney, Jun., Esq.' — J. W. 



On the Purple Colour of the Ancients, especially considered in refe- 

 rence to its connexion with Natural History. By the Rev. James 

 Smith. 



There is no colour which is so much celebrated by Greek and 

 Roman writers, and which is so familiar to classical scholars, at least 

 by name, as that of purple. It cannot, however, admit of doubt that 

 the Latin word purpura, as used by the authors of antiquity, must be 

 regarded as a generic, and not as a specific, term. They were in the 

 custom, it would appear, of applying this word indiscriminately to 

 the extensive class of tints which is produced by the intermixture of 

 red and blue ; and to some colours, moreover, in which blue does not 

 form an ingredient, at least to the outward appearance, and so far as 

 can be ascertained by a common and an unpractised eye. This latter 

 circumstance would seem to have been especially the case with the 

 shade of purple, which was of all others the most esteemed in the an- 

 cient world, and which there is reason to believe, was reserved in the 



