THE DISCOVERY OF THE TANNINS. 
13 
process of tanning was the great incentive which led to 
a more exact knowledge of tannin. One of the chief 
objects in view was to shorten the process, and the idea 
of extracting the oak-bark or tan with water is usually 
attributed to Seguin, but previous to his patent was the 
suggestion of Macbride in 1795 to extract the bark 
with lime-water, and that of Anthony Fay to make an 
extract by boiling the tan with water in the proportion 
of one pound of the former to three gallons of the lat¬ 
ter. This extract, or ooze, as he termed it, was to be’ 
weakened with water and used for tanning, which it 
accomplished in one-half the time occupied by the 
methods then in use. Fay’s patent was dated January 
17, 1790, although not published until 1796. Seguin’s 
patent appears to have been dated in France in 1795 
and in England in 1796, in the latter case under the 
name of William Desmond. 
To afford an understanding of what bearing these 
patents, especially Seguin’s, had on the discovery of 
tannin, it will be necessary to state that previous to his 
investigations the process of tanning was not supposed 
to be one of a combination of tannin with animal 
membrane, but simply a physical process in which the 
astringent property of the bark caused the hide to 
shrivel, harden, and become non-putrescible; therefore, 
when Seguin reasoned from his experiments, which 
were chiefly conducted on quite a large scale in the 
tanyard, that there was a principle present in oak-bark 
which combined with hide to form leather, he was 
given the credit of discovering tannin, although it had 
previously been separated and recognized as a distinct 
substance by both Diz6 and Deyeux. 
