WRITING IN He 
peras . Thus Pliny tells us, (lib. xxxiv. cap. 12,) that the 
Greeks, in consequence of this supposed relation, had given 
the name of chalcanthum to that substance which the Latins 
denominated atramentum sutoriurn ; and after mentioning how, 
and the places where it was produced, its colour, transparent 
glossy appearance, &c. he adds, that being dissolved or diluted, 
it served the purpose of staining leather black*. 
The inks of But, notwithstanding this knowledge of the black, produced 
the ancients , . . , „ , , , , , . 
were of coal, by iron with galls and other matters, then employed tor tan- 
and not iron. n j n g skins, (among which were the pods of an Egpytian acacia, 
the cups of acorns, &c.) no application of this knowledge, 
for the production of unriling ink, appears to have taken place, 
when Pliny wrote his history j for in his thirty-fifth bock, chap. 
6, after mentioning the black pigment employed by painters, and 
describing it as being obtained like our lamp-black, by burning 
rosin or pitch in places which, he says, were constructed pur- 
posely to hinder the escape of smoke, he observes, that the 
best was obtained from torch wood, or pitch pine, though fre- 
quently adulterated by the soot collected in furnaces and 
Cuttle fish. bagnios j and this, he adds, is employed to write books f. He 
afterwards adverts to the wonderful nature of the cuttle fish 
and its ink, (of which, and of the use made of it to conceal 
themselves when in danger, he had given an account in the 
29th chapter of his ninth book $) but observes, that no use 
was made of it as ink. “ Mira in hoc sepiarura natura : sed 
ex his non Jit." In the same chapter, Pliny adds, that, for the 
purpose of writing, the lampblack, or soot, was rendered much 
more useful by being mixed with gum, and for painting, by ar»i 
admixture of blue — “ perficitur librarium gummi, tectorium 
glutino admisto.” And any person who will take the trouble 
of mixing lampblack with water, thickened a little by gum, 
* “ Graeci cognationem aeris nomine fieeerunt & atramento suturio : 
appellant enim chalcanthum : nec ullhis, rnque inira natura est. 
“ diluendo Jit atramentum tingendis coriis .. Plin. xxxiv 
cap. 12. 
t u Laudatissimum eod#m mode fit e tedis •” adultera%rr foj aacua 
<balinarumque/tdigi3^ ad vvlumina scribmda viimlur” 
msj 
