60 ARC 
thoroughly bruife, but not to reduce it into powder, and 
then mqiften it occasionally with a ftrong.fpirit of urine, or 
urine itfelf mixed with quick-lime: in a few days it acquires 
a purplifh red, and at length a blue colour; in the firft ftate 
it is called archil., in the latter, lacmus, or litmus. The dyers 
rarely employ this drug by itfelf, on account of its dear- 
nefs and the perifhablenefs of its beauty. The chief ufe 
they make of it is for giving a bloom to other colours, as 
pinks, &c. This is effected by palling the dyed cloth or 
iilk through hot water lightly impregnated with the archil. 
The bloom, thus communicated, foon decays upon expo- 
fure to the air. Mr. Heliot informs us, that, by the addi¬ 
tion of a little folution of tin, this drug gives a durable 
dye ; that its colour is at the fame time changed towards 
a fcarlet; and that it is the more permanent, in proportion 
as it recedes the more from its natural colour. 
Prepared archil very readily gives out its colour to wa¬ 
ter, to volatile fpirits, and to fpirit of wine; it is the fub- 
ftance principally made ufe of for colouring the fpirits of 
thermometers. As exppfure to the air deftroys its colour 
upon cloth, the excluiion of the air produces a like efi'eft 
jn thofe hermetically-fealed tubes, the fpirits of large ther¬ 
mometers becoming in the compafs of a few years colour- 
lefs. M. l’Abb.c Nollet obferves (in the French Memoirs 
for the year 1742), that the colourlefs fpirit, upon break¬ 
ing the tube, i'oon refumes its colour, and this for a num¬ 
ber of times 1’uccellively ; that a watery tinfhire of archil, 
included in the tubes of thermometers, loft its colour in 
three days ; and that in an open deep veftel, it became co¬ 
lourlefs at the bottom, while the upper part retained its 
colour. A folution of archil, in water, applied on cold 
marble, ftains it of a beautiful violet or purplifh blue co¬ 
lour, far more durable than the colour which it coramu- 
cates to other bodies. M. Du Fay fays, he has feen pieces 
of marble ilained with it, which in two years had buffered 
no fenfible change. It finks deep into the marble, fome- 
times above an inch, and at the fame time fpreads upon 
the furface, unlefs the edges be bounded by wax, or fome 
fuch fubftance. It feems to make the marble fomewhat 
more brittle. 
Linnaeus informs us, in the Swedifh Tranfaffions for the 
year 1742, that the true archil mofs is to be found on the 
weftern coafts of England ; and fufpeiits that there are fe- 
veral other more common modes, from which valuable 
colours might be extrafted. ' A quantity of fea-mofs ha¬ 
ving rotted in heaps upon the fhore, he obferved the liquor 
in the heaps to look like blood; the fea-water, and the 
fun, and the putrefaction, having brought out the colour. 
M. Kalin, in an Appendix to Linnaeus’s Paper in the year 
1745, mentions two forts of moffes actually employed in 
fome parts of Sweden for dying woollen red : one is the 
lichenoides corallifcrme apicibns coccineis of Ray’s Sy- 
nopfis ; the other, the lichenoides tartareum, farinaceum, 
fcutellarum untbone fufeo of Dillenus. This laft is a white 
fubftance, like meal clotted together, found on the fides 
and tops of hills. It is fliaved off from the rocks after 
rain, purified from the (tony matters intermixed among it, 
by waffling with water ; then dried in the fun, ground in 
mills, and again waftied and dried : it is then put into a 
veftel with urine, and let by for a month. A little of this 
tincture added to boiling water makes the dying liquor. 
In the fame TranfaCtions, for the year 1754. there is an 
account of another mofs, which, prepared with urine, 
gives a beautiful and durable red or violet dye to wool and 
filk. This is the lichen foliaceus, umbilicatus fubtus lacu- 
nefus Linn. Flor. Suec. It grows upon rocks, and is readily 
diftinguifhed from others of that clafs, by its looking as if 
burnt or parched, confuting of leaves as thin as paper, con¬ 
vex all over on the upper fide, with correfponding cavities 
underneath ; adhering firmly to the ftones by a little root 
under the leaves, and coming alunder, when dry, as foon as 
touched. It is gathered after rain, as it then holds belt 
together, and parts ealieft from the (tone. 
In France, a cruftaceous mofs, growing upon rocks in 
Auvergne, is prepared with lime and urine, and employed 
ARC 
by the dyers as a fuccedaneum to the Canary archil, to 
which it is faid to be very little inferior: it is called Orfeillc 
d’Auvergne, or Ferelle. Mr. Heliot relates, that he has 
met with feveral other moftes, which, on being prepared 
in the fame manner, acquire the fame colour. The mod 
expeditious way, he fays, of trying whether any mofs will 
yield an archil or not, is, to moiften a little of it with a mix¬ 
ture of equal parts of fpirit of fal ammoniac and ftrong lime- 
water, and add a fmall proportion of crude fal ammoniac. 
The glafs is then to be tied over with a piece of bladder, 
and fet by for three or four days. If- the mofs is of the 
proper kind, the little liquor which runs from it, upon in¬ 
clining the veftel, will appear of a deep crimfon colour; 
and this afterwards evaporating, the plant itfelf acquires 
the fame colour. 
Lewis tried a good number of the common moffes, botk 
of the cruftaceous and foliaceous kind, and not a few of 
the fungi; as alfo the herbs chamomile and milfoil, which 
yield a blue eflential oil; and thyme, whofe oil becomes 
blue by digeftion with volatile fpirits ; but have not as yet 
met with any that yielded a colour like archil. Mod of 
them gave a yellow or reddifh brown tindture ; and, if 
there was a fcarcity of other drugs for thefe kinds of dyes, 
fome of the moftes might be made to afford not inelegant 
ones. A few gave a deep red colour to the liquor; but, 
w hen diluted, it fhewed a yellowifh call; and, when ap¬ 
plied on cloth, it gave only a yellowifh red. 
ARCHILO'CHIAN, /. a term in poetry, applied to a 
fort of verfes, of which Archilochus was the inventor, 
confifting of feven feet ; the four firft whereof are ordi¬ 
narily dadtyles, though fometimes fpoijdees ; the three laft 
trochees, as in Horace, So/vitur acris hyems, grata vice vtris 
& Favoni. 
ARCHI'LOCHUS, a famous Greek poet and mufician, 
was, according to Herodotus, cotemporary with Candaules 
and Gyges, kings of Lydia, who flourifhed about the 14th 
Olympiad, 724 years before Chrift. But he is placed much 
later by modern chronologifts ; viz. by Blair 686, and by 
Prieftley 660, years before Chrift. He was born at Paros, 
one of the Cyclades. His father Teleficles was of fo high 
a rank, that he was chofen by his countrymen to confult 
the oracle at Delphos. Archilochus fliewed an early ge¬ 
nius and attachment to poetry and mufic ; yet thefe arts 
did not prevent his going into the army, like other young 
men of his birth ; but, in the firft engagement at which he 
was prefent, the young poet, like Horace, and like our 
own Suckling, loft his buckler, though he faved his life 
by the help of his heels. “ It is much eafier,” faid he, 
“ to get a new buckler than a new exiftence.” This 
pleafantry, however, did not fave his reputation; nor could 
his poetry or prayers prevail upon Lycambes, the father 
of his miftrefs, to let him marry his daughter, though (lie 
had been long promifed to him. After thefe mortifica¬ 
tions, his life feems to have been one continued tiffue of 
difgrace and refentment. 
According to Plutarch, there is no bard of antiquity by 
whom the two arts of poetry and mufic have been fo much 
advanced a$ by Archilochus. To him is attributed par¬ 
ticularly the fudden tranfition from one rhythm to another 
of a different kind, and the manner of accompanying thofe 
irregular meafures upon the lyre. Heroic poetry, in hexa¬ 
meter verfe, feems to have been folely in ufe among the 
more ancient poets and muficians; and the tranfition from 
one rhythm to another, which lyric poetry required, was 
unknown to them ; fo that, if Archilochus was the firft: 
author of this mixture, he might with propriety be ftyled 
the inventor of lyric poetry, which, after his time, became a 
fpecies of vedification wholly diftinct from heroic. Ar¬ 
chilochus was (lain by Callondax Corax, of the ifland of 
Naxos ; who, though he did it in fight, according to the 
laws of war, was driven out of the temple of Delphi, by 
command of the oracle, for having deprived of life a man 
confecrated to the Mufes. 
ARCHPMAGUS, the hi&h-prieft of the Perfian Magi, 
or wodhippers of fire. He' relided in the higheft fire- 
3 temple, 
