Mr. Field, in his valuable work “Chromatography,” (page 179,) says — Superior red lakes are prepared 
from cochineal, lac, and kermes ; but the best of all are those prepared from the root of the rubia tinctoria, 
or madder plant. Of the various red lakes the following are the principal: — 
1. Rubric, or Madder, Lakes. These pigments are of various colours, of which we shall speak 
at present of the red or rose colours only] which have obtained, from their material, their hues, or their 
inventor, the various names of rose 'rubiate, rose madder, pink madder, and Fields lakes. 
The pigments formerly called madder lakes were brick-reds of dull ochrous hues; but for many years 
past these lakes have been prepared perfectly transparent, and literally as beautiful and pure in colour as 
the rose ; qualities in which they are unrivalled by the lakes and carmine of cochineal. The rose colours of 
madder have justly been considered as supplying a desideratum, and as the most valuable acquisition of the 
palette in modern times, since perfectly permanent transparent reds and rose colours were previously 
unknown to the art of painting. 
These pigments are of hues warm or cool, from pure pink to the deepest rose colour ; — they afford the 
purest and truest carnation colours known; — from permanent tints with white lead; and their transparency 
renders them perfect glazing or finishing colours. They are not liable to change by the action of either 
light or impure air, or by mixture with other pigments; but when not thoroughly edulcorated they are, in 
common with all lakes, tardy dryers in oil, the best remedy for which is the addition of a small portion of 
japanner’s gold-size ; or, as they are too beautiful and require saddening for the general uses of the painter, 
the addition of manganese brown, cappagh brown, or of burnt umber, as was the practice of the Venetian 
painters in the using of lake, adds to their powers and improves their drying in oils. 
Notwithstanding they are equally beautiful and durable as water-colours, they do not work therein with 
the entire fulness and facility of cochineal lakes : when, therefore, permanence is of no consideration, the 
latter may still be preferred ; but in those works in which the hues and tints of nature are to be imitated 
with pure effect and permanence, the rose colours of madder are become indispensable, and their powers in 
these respects have been established by experience from the palettes of our first masters during upwards of 
a quarter of a century. With respect to the future, too, there is this advantage attending these pigments, 
that they have naturally the peculiar quality of ultramarine, of improving in hue by time — their tendency 
being to their own specific prismatic red colour. 
These pigments have been imitated on the Continent with various success, and in many instances by 
the lakes of lac, cochineal, and carthamus. The best we have seen is the laque de garance, the brightest of 
which was evidently tinged by the rouge of safflower, and proved inferior in durability to the genuine lake 
of madder. As, however, the colours of safflower, cochineal, and lac, are soluble in liquid ammonia and 
alkalies in general, which the true madder lakes or rubiates are not, the latter may be as easily tested by an 
alkali as ultramarine is by an acid; and if pure ammonia do not extract colour from a lake so tested, we 
may with general certainty pronounce it to be a true madder lake. 
2. Liquid Rubiate, or Liquid Madder Lake, is a concentrated tincture of madder of the most 
beautiful and perfect rose colour and transparency. It is used as a water-colour only in its simple state 
diluted with pure water, with or without gum ; it dries in oil by acting as a dryer to the oil. Mixed or 
ground with all other madder colours with or without gum, it forms combinations which work freely in 
simple water, and produce the most beautiful and permanent effects. The red of the definitive scale is of 
the pigments 1 and 2 combined. Liquid rubiate affords also a fine red ink, and is a durable stain which 
bears washing, for marking, painting, or printing on cotton or linen cloth, &c., and is peculiarly suited to 
the tinting of maps and charts permanently. 
Sensible and Chemical Properties, &c. — The roots of madder have a bitter and somewhat 
austere taste : the odour is not strong, but rather unpleasant ; the infusion made with boiling water is of a 
deep reddish brown ; to cold water, alcohol, and the essential oils, the roots impart a bright red colour. 
Roth the taste and odour of madder is imparted to the watery and alcoholic infusions. The colouring matter 
of madder is precipitated of a brownish red, by a solution of alum ; of a deep lake or blood red colour, by 
lime water and the alkaline carbonates ; and brown, by acetate of lead. The colouring matter of madder 
roots appear to differ from most other substances used for the purpose of dyeing, in having the peculiar 
property of tinging with a red colour the milk and bones of those animals which have fed upon it ; a cir- 
cumstance which was first noticed by Antoninus Mizaldus, and subsequently by Mr. Belchier, who published 
an account of a pig and a cock, whose bones became red by eating madder mixed wfith their food ; since 
which time (from various experiments that have been made) it has been ascertained, that the colouring 
matter affects the bones in a very short time, and that the most solid part of the bones first receives the red 
colour, which gradually extends through the whole osseous substance. 
Medical Properties and Uses. — Madder has been long regarded as a deobstruent, detergent, and 
diuretic, and more latterly as an emmenagogue. It has been chiefly used in jaundice, dropsy, and diseases 
proceeding from obstructions, particularly those of the liver and kidneys ; but its efficacy in any disease 
scarcely warrants the encomiums that were formerly bestowed upon it. Its diuretic effects do not appear 
to be constant, and as an emmenagogue, its powers are neither uniform nor powerful. The roots of madder, 
when powdered, may be given in substance, in doses of from twenty to thirty grains three or four times a 
day; or in decoction, two ounces to a pint and a half of water, of which from one to three ounces may be 
taken three times a day. 
Off. The Roots. 
