C O I 
COL 
393 COL 
^° W ,i C ?'° Ur ' ^ c ^ oes noi sta n>d, and is chiefly 
used for common purposes. 
Gamboge is a gum brought from the East 
Indies; It readily dissolves in water, and is 
a line brignt yellow. It is used only in wa- 
fer, and is very serviceable. 
. Massicot is an oxyd of lead, prepared by 
calcining white-lead. It is very little used, 
the colour not being very bright! 
Gall-stones. 'I his is a concretion or hard 
substance, formed in the gall-bladders of 
beasts; or it may be obtained from the gall 
Ot animals. It is a very rich colour, but does 
not stand. 
Raw terra di Sienna, is a native ocherous 
earth brought from Italy. It is a line warm 
colour, and stands well.' 
Orange-lake is the tinging part of annotto 
precipitated together with the earth of alum. 
It does not stand. 
Brown-pink is the tinging part of some ve- 
getable substance precipitated upon the earth 
ot aium. It is of a fine rich greenish yellow, 
but does not stand. * 
Green. 1 here are few colours that are 
useful as greens; accordingly, it is the prac- 
tice with artists to form their greens by the 
mixture of blue and yellow colours. By va- 
vying these, a vast variety of green tints may 
be obtained. 
Sap-green is the concreted juice of the 
buckthorn-berries. It is never used in oil. 
It is employed chiefly in flower-painting and 
colouring prints, &c, 
A erdigns. If plates of copper, moistened 
from time to time with vinegar, are left ex- 
posed to the air, they will be converted into 
a green oxyd, called verdigris : this is an im- 
perfect oxyd of copper, combined with a 
*mall portion of acetic acid, carbonic acid, 
and water. It is prepared in large quanti- 
ties, chiefly in France near Montpellier, by 
stratifying copper-plates with the husks of 
grapes yet under vinous fermentation, which 
soon grow acid, and corrode the copper. 
Alter the plates have stood in this situation 
tor a - sufficient time, they are moistened with 
water, and exposed in heaps to the air. The 
verdigris is scraped off from their surface as 
it forms. Verdigris is of a bluish-green co- 
lour, but has no body, and does not stand. 
It is only used for very coarse purposes. It 
answers best when used in varnishes. 
Distilled verdigris, sometimes called cry- 
stals of verdigris, is prepared from common 
verdigris, by dissolving it in vinegar. It is 
of a very bright green ; and is used chiefly 
for varnishes, and in colouring maps, &c. 
Brown colours. Bistre is the finer part 
extracted from the soot of burnt wood. It is 
much used alone for sketches in water-co- 
lours, being a transparent warm colour. 
There is an excellent sort prepared in Ireland. 
Cologne-earth is a mineral substance 
of a blackish brown colour. It is a very 
useful colour ; though what is generally sole! 
in the shops for Cologne-earth, is an artificial 
mixture of several colours. 
It aw- timbre is a native ochreous earth, of 
a light brown.. It stands well. 
Burnt-umbre is only the last-mentioned 
colour calcined in the fire. It then acquires 
a rich deep brown, and is of great use, being 
a fine colour, and standing perfectly well. 
Asphaltum is used in oil, and is 'of a very 
rich deep brown, ft is a transparent or gla- 
ring colour. It will not work in water ; "but 
when dissolved in turpentine, it becomes a 
useful substance for giving deep and spirited 
touches to drawings. 
White. Flake-white is an oxyd of lead, 
formed by corroding lead with vegetable 
acids or vinegar. 
M hite-lead is the same colour as flake- 
white, only of an inferior quality. It is the 
only white used in oil-painting, and is a very 
useful colour; but in water it always turns 
black, and should never be used. 
Pure carbonate of bine is very useful as a 
white in water-colours, as it stands perfectly 
well. 
Egg-shell white, and oyster-shell white, are 
only egg-shells or oyster-shells calcined, by 
which the animal gluten is destroyed, leaving 
the lime behind, which soon attracts the 
carbonic acid again from the atmosphere. 
U ell-washed Spanish-white, or common 
whitening, answers the same purpose. 
Black. Lamp-black is the soot of oil, col- 
lected after it is formed by burning. It is 
very generally used, both in oil and water, 
and stands perfectly well. 
Ivory-black is the coal of ivory or bone, 
formed by giving them a great heat, while 
they are deprived of all access of air. It is 
of a more intense black than lamp-black. 
Blue-black is tne coal from burning vine- 
stalks in a close vessel. It is like mon- 
black, with a tint of blue. 
Colour, in dyeing. See Dyeing. 
Coi.our, iii heraldry. 1 he colours gene- 
rally used in heraldry are red, blue, black, 
green, and purple ; which the heralds call 
gules, azure, sable, vert or sinople, and pur- 
pure; tenne or tawny, and sanguine, are 
not so common: as 'to yellow and white, 
called or and argent, they are metals, not 
colours. 
Colour, in law, some probable plea, 
though really talse in itselt, and only calcu- 
lated to draw the trial of the cause from the 
jury to the judge ; for which reason it ought 
to be matter in law or doubtful to the jurors. 
Colour of office, signifies some unjust ac- 
tion done under countenance of an office, 
and is opposed to virtute officii, which im- 
plies a man’s doing a right and just thing in 
the execution of his office. 
Colours, in the Latin and Greek 
churches, are used to distinguish several 
mysteries and feasts. 
lo Colour ' strangers* goods, in com- 
meice, is when a freeman allows a foreigner 
to enter goods at the custom-house in his 
name. 
COLOURING, in painting, is the art of 
applying and disposing various colours in 
such a manner as to be productive either of 
an imitation of the natural hues of the objects 
represented, of harmonious arrangement of 
tints, or of force and brightness of effect. 
See Painting. 
COLUBER, a genus of serpents. The 
generic cnaracter is, scuta or undivided la- 
melke under the abdomen, broad alternate 
scales under the tail. This is by far the most 
numerous of all the Linnaean genera of ser- 
pents : and the species differ greatly in size 
and habit, according to their respective 
tribes; some, as the vipers, having large, 
flatfish, and subcordate heads, with rather 
short than long bodies and tails; while others, 
a„s the major part of the harmless serpents, 
have, in general, small heads, with longer 
0 1 
bodies and tails in proportion. In some few| 
species, exclusive of the usual subcaudail 
scales, are a few scuta or undivided lamella:] 
either at the beginning or towards the tip of 
the tail. It is to be observed, that m the in- 
vestigation ot this genus the subcaudal scales, 
though alternate, are reckoned by pairs, so 
that the number marked under the' 'respective 
species is always to be understood to mean 
so many pairs. There are ninety-seven spe- 
cies: the following are the most remarkable, j 
1. Coluber Berus, or common viper 
(See Plate Nat. Hist. fig. 136), which ap- 
pears to be pretty generally diffused over the 
whole antient continent, and which is by no 
means uncommon in our own island,' lias 
been known from times of remote antiquity] 
though all the particulars relative to its juh 
ture and manners are even yet not fully un- 
derstood. 
"i he general length of the viper is about 
a foot and half, or two feet, though some have 
been seen of much greater length, measuring 
near three feet: the fangs are situated, as in, 
other poisonous serpents, on each side the 
toie pait ot the upper jaw' ; and are generally 
two in number, with a few smaller ones lying 
near the principal or large fangs, as if intended 
by nature to supply tiie place ot the former 
w hen lost either by age or accident. 
i lie viper has always been considered as 
the most poisonous of the European serpents, 
and innumerable are the cases recorded bv 
medical and other writers of the fatality of 
its bite; yet the instances, in our own island 
at least, seem to be far less frequent than Ge- 
nerally supposed; and though the bite of 
this animal produces a painful and trouble- 
some swelling, yet it is rarely of any other 
bail consequence. No doubt the cases must i 
differ, as in the bite of every other poisonous 
serpent, according to the nature of the part 
bitten, the constitution of the person, the 
strength and vigour of the animal, the season 
of the year, &c. and it the bite happens 
directly on a vein, it may perhaps be produc- 
tive ot the most alarming symptoms, and 
even sometimes prove fatal :'yet Fontana] 
even in the warm of climate of Italy, seems 
to doubt whether any well-attested'instance 
could be adduced in which the viper had 
killed any person by its bite. The poison 
ot the viper was in ancient times collected 
by barbarian nations as a poison for their] 
arrows ; the Scythians, according to Pliny, 
using it for that purpose mixed with human 
blood : the poison ot other serpents is used 
in a similar manner by savage nations at the 
present day. 
I he most established application for the] 
bite of a viper is common olive-oil, thoroughly] 
rubbed on the wounded part, and about a 
wine-glassful taken internally: this the viper-'] 
catchers use, as is pretended, with perfect! 
success ; and all other applications, as volatile- 
alkali, &c. seem of far less certain efficacy. 
r ihe viper, though so much dreaded 'on- 
account of its bite, has been very highly es- 
teemed, both by the ancients and moderns, ] 
in a medical view', and used as a restorative' 
and strengthening diet. This idea seems to 
have originated from the animal’s casting its 
skin, like other snakes, and thus appearing, 
as it were, in a state of renovated youth; 
and the snake’s being made the emblem of 
health, and consecrated to fEsculapius, mi.st 
have depended on the same idea. We are ' 
