December i, 1881.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
565 
and largely imported into this country, we shall speak 
separately. As to mordants, perhaps, it will be as well 
before going farther to explain this simple, but most 
important, term. A mordant is, strictly speaking, a 
substance used by dyers to fix their dyes, and render 
them immovable by washing. But by rather an unhappy 
looseness of expression, the term is also applied to 
substances which, when used in connection with a dye- 
stuff, have the property of brightening the colour, or 
of altering its shade. For example, cream of tartar 
is called a mordant, becuse it is used to brighten the 
red communicated to silk and wool by chloride of tin. 
It seems a pity that the suggestion of Berthollet to 
distinguish this latter class of mordants by the name; 
of alterant* is not generally adopted. The principal 
mordants, in the strict sense of the word, that are 
used in England, are alum and metallic oxides, particularly 
of tin. The natives of India, Mr. Liotard tells us, use 
catechu — which is the juice of trees of the acacia 
tribe— galls formed on the pistaclrio-nut tree, the rind 
of the promegranate, tamarisk galls, and myrobolams 
or the nuts of a genus of trees known as Termenalia. 
Mr. Liotard divides that part of his Memorandum 
which relates to actual process of dyeing, under two 
heads, namely, simple or single colours, such as red, 
yellow, blue, and black ; and compound colours, such 
as purple, green, and orange. Brown, it may be men- 
tioned, may be considered as either a simple or compound 
colour, being producible by a single dye-stuff or by a 
mixture varying according to the shade required. The 
d. T 
idum 
Mi-' 
shades. Of those the Cm 
lacca, and Coccus cacti si 
The first is sometimes ki 
and yields safllower or ca 
and as the basis of rouq 
which forma round the bar 
incrustation called lac. ] 
both shell-lac and lac-dy 
Cochineal insect, the driedl 
and well-known red, crims 
been e,leulatcl thai 70. 
Over 1,100 tons were im 
1850, which argues an exti 
Deals. Of yellow dyes, an 
best known. Arnotta is m 
the seeds of a small • ev< 
feiglflnd, and is used to C( 
Chinese also used to en 
nankeen. Turmeric is the 
tuber of another small 1 
only as a dye-stuff, but a 
condiment in curries. Bin 
from indigo. Black dve ci 
of the cashew-nut withon 
often derived from a combin 
part), alum (two parts), al 
iron (five parts). Poniegr, 
second is an insect 
rious trees a resinous 
it to dye the original 
me, root-stock, bulb, or 
and is well-known not 
itter and tonic, and a 
is, of course, produced 
obtained from the juice 
addition, but is more 
ruch as myrabolams (one 
parts), and sulphate of 
rind, with iron filings, 
18 also used to produce a black dye. 
In connection with each of his notices of the simple 
colour dyes, Mr. Liotard gives collated descriptions of 
the methods practised in various localities for applying 
tin' dyes firstly to silk, then to cotton threads and cotton 
cloths, lastly to wool and woollen fabrics. The same 
plan is adopted in treating of compound colours, which 
arc, as already mentioned, produced by combining the 
dye stuff above described as yielding simple colours. A 
final section of (lie chapter on compound colours is 
devoted to colours such us brown, grey, drab, dove- 
grey. Ac. obtained from a mixture of black and other 
colours. I tut the practical information given on this 
head, particularly as regards silk dyeing, is scanty. 
Is reference to the modem Indian practice of calico 
printing. Mr. Liotard emotes u lengthy und exhaustive 
report by Mr. Buck, on the method adopted in the 
North-West Provinces. Mr. Buck, it may be mentioned, 
evidently prosocuted the enquiry into the nature of dye- 
stuffs, and the methods of applying them, with charac- 
teristic energy and throughness ; and his correspondence 
on the subject is, perhaps, the most valuable portion of 
Mr. Liotard s Memorandum. But as his description of 
calico-printing in the North- West-Provinces is rather 
long, we may quote a simpler example of the preparation 
of material used for holiday petticoats, especially in 
marriage festivities. It is called karilia, and shows white 
prints on a blue ground. The material, being English 
longcloth cut into pieces of six yards each, is first given 
over to the washerman, who deprives it of the strarch 
by washing it in clear water. The next step is to prepare 
a resist-paste of lime, gum, pulse, flour, and water. 
This is is stamped on the cloth by means of a mould, 
the impression while still wet being sprinkled over with 
wheat flour, to increase the resistance to the subsequently 
applied blue dye. The cloth now jjasses into the hand 
of a rwngrez or dyer in plain colours, who dips it in 
indigo, thus dyeing it blue except in those places previously 
printed with resist-paste. Washing, and beating smooth 
with clubs, complete the process. The cost of dyeing 
20 pieces, that is to say, 120 yards of longcloth, is R3-7. 
We now come to the influence exercised in India by 
the importation of aniline or phenylamine dyes, derived 
by distillation from coal-tar. This subject is of the utmost 
importance in connection with Indian dyes, as it in- 
volves to a serious extent the possibility, that the use 
of the latter may become actually extinct. As far as 
one can gather from the reports collected bv Mr. Liotard, 
the anilino dyes seem ahnost everywhere ousting dyes 
of local production. As Mr. Hutcliins writes, reporting 
for Mysore, " supposing, for instance, a man wants a 
handful of scarlet yarn to continue his design, it is 
produced in three minutes ; a pinch of the cheap glit- 
tering powder and a little hot water in a brass saucer 
is all that is required. By the old method it would 
have taken him tluee days and involved dirt and a 
tedious process." The statistics relating to the use of 
aniline dyes in India during the last five years, show an 
average annual importation to the value of about 
R-1,00,000. The actual figures for 1879-80 are R.5,90,791. 
As regards the sources of importation, the United 
Kingdom is credited with having sent to India aniline 
dyes to the value of R 1,51,39-1. Italy, France, and 
Austria come next. The Sraits Settlements and Turkey 
in Asia export to the value of about R1,000 between 
them ; while a small quantity comes from other countries 
not named. Of the whole amount, very roughly speaking, 
Bombay takes three-fifths, Bengal one-fifth, the remaining 
lifth being divided between British Burmah, Madras, 
and Bind ; British Burmah taking about fifteen times 
as much as the two last put together. 
But in spite of the popularity of aniline dyes, their 
employment — setting aside all questions of taste — is open 
to one very radical objection, namely, that of great 
instability. Looking at the superiority, on this point, 
of Indian dyes, as well as at the necessity for pro- 
tecting the commercial interests connected with them, 
Government have not only acted in a politic, but also 
in a most natural, manner by remitting the export 
duties on Indian dyes, and allowing aniline dyes to 
remain under an import duty of 5 per cent. Mr. Liotard 
thinks that all it seems absolutely desirable for Govern- 
ment, to do, further, for the present, is to continue the care- 
ful production of lac and extend the systematic collection 
of myrabolams. The rest must be left to private enterprise. 
Government, by calling for reports from numerous quarters, 
has done — what it would take an individual a lifetime 
to do — in a few years. It has produced a work of 
reference showing the existence of many ilye-stuils of 
which, probably, English dyers have hitherto been com 
plctclv ignorant. By describing the processes adopted 
in various parts of the country, it bus shown what are 
