THE NATUUAL SCIENCE JOUENAE 
49 
replaced by the shell-bearing Cephalo- 
pods, like the pearly nautilus. The 
Murex first appears in the Jurassic age. 
Its representatives rapidly increase in 
the following periods, with the maximum 
reached in recent time. 
Some species are eaten on the Medi¬ 
terranean coasts, by the poorer classes, 
under the name “ bulo,” but they are not 
held in high estimation. Apart from 
this, they are put to very little use now- 
a-days. Such, however, was by no 
means the case in ancient times. From 
a species of the Mediterranean—suppos¬ 
edly the Murex trunculur—was obtained 
the dye for making the far-famed Tyrian 
purple. It is of this ancient use we are 
chiefly to speak. 
The vein from which the liquid was 
obtained is found at the back of the neck. 
It is branching, and is connected with 
the mucous gland. It is found in 
many species, among them, the common 
Purpura lapillus of our own shores. Re¬ 
mains near Tyre, and a great mass of 
shells of the Murex brandans called 
Mount Testaceo near Tarento, Italy, tes¬ 
tify to the extent to which the industry 
was carried in ancient times. What use 
the animal makes of the liquid is not 
known, although it has been suggested 
that it serves the same purpose as the 
ink of the cuttle fish, to blind pursuers. 
The great peculiarity of the liquid is 
that in the animal it is a murky white 
and slightly glutinous, but on being ex¬ 
posed to the air it rapidly passes through 
shades of light and dark green, and blue 
to a rich deep purple.. The cause of this 
change has not been discovered. Some 
suppose it to be due to an absorption of 
oxygen, others to the exposure to light. 
This latter view is supported by the fact 
that if material just dyed be placed im¬ 
mediately in a dark room it will retain 
for years the first assumed pale yellowish- 
green hue. The ancient dye was famed 
as much for the permanence of its color 
as for its beauty, and we read of purple- 
dyed garments found by Alexander the 
Great among the treasures of Darius, 
which though two hundred years old, had 
lost nothing of their original brightness. 
On the contrary, the dye obtained from 
some species at the present time is very 
evanescent. A strong, disagreeable, 
fetid odor is given forth when the liquid 
is exposed to air, and so extensive were 
the dye-works about Tyre at one time, 
that the air in the city was tainted by 
the smell. 
The discovery of the value of shellfish 
for dyeing, dates back to 1500 b. c. 
There is a legend that Hercules was 
walking on the shore one day with his 
love, when her dog bit into a sea-snail. 
Almost immediately his jaws were dyed 
such a beautiful shade of red that the 
nymph was attracted thereby, and ex¬ 
pressed an ardent desire to have a robe 
similarly colored. Hercules of course 
satisfied her wish, and thus was started a 
fashion which for many centuries knew 
no rival, which enriched the cities of 
Tyre and Sidon beyond compare, and 
may have been the foundation of their 
commercial activity. All the shores of 
the Mediterranean supplied the proper 
species, but, though numerous, a small 
quantity only could be obtained from 
each. The smaller shells w'ere pounded, 
but if the animal supplied only so much 
as one ounce of the precious liquid, the 
vein containing it was carefully removed, 
and the contents mixed with five or six 
times its weight of water. The mixture 
