1^4 Mr. Hatchett's analytical Experiments 
the value is diminished, because the insects have left their cells, 
and consequently these can be of no use as a dye or colour, but 
probably may be better for varnishes. 
The seed lac which I have examined, contained but little of 
the colouring matter, and appeared (as I have already observed) 
to have undergone some process of purification; but, of all the, 
varieties, shell lac contains the least of the tinging substance, as 
may well be expected, when the mode of preparing it is 
considered. 
It is remarkable, that although lac has been known, and im- 
ported into Europe, during so long a time that the date cannot 
now be ascertained, yet it .has but little attracted the attention, 
of chemists. 
The first chemist of eminence who mentions it, and the only 
one who has subjected it to any thing like a regular examination, 
is the younger Geoffroy, whose Paper is published in the Mem. 
de V Acad, de Paris for the year 1714.* In this Paper, Mr. 
Geoffroy seems to have been chiefly induced to examine it on 
account of its tinging substance ; but he nevertheless has not 
neglected the substance which constitutes the cells. This he 
considers to be a sort of wax, very distinct from the nature of 
gum or resin. But it is to be observed, that he formed this 
opinion, not so much upon the results of chemical experiments, 
as upon the cellular construction observed in the stick lac,, 
which, as he justly remarks, demonstrates it to be formed by 
insects, after the manner that the honeycomb is formed by bees; 
and that it is not therefore, as some have supposed, a gum or 
* Observations sur la Gomme Lacque, et sur les autres Matieres animales qui four- 
nissent la Teinture de Pourpre. ParM. Geoffkoy le jeune. Mem. de V Acad. 1714, 
p. 1 2 x. 
