421 
PIGMENT. 
antiquities. Some pieces of his writing are inferted in 
the Colledfion of Gronovius, tom. ix. Moreri. 
PIGHT, old prefer, and parr. pail', of pitch. Pitched, 
placed} fixed ; determined. Not now in ufe. 
Then brought (he me into this defert vaft, 
And by my wretched lover’s fide me pight. Spenfer. 
Stay yet, yon vile abominable tents, 
Thus proudly pight upon our Phrygian plains. S/iahefp. 
I difl'uaded him from his intent, 
And found him pight to do it. Shaltefpeare's K. Lear. 
To PIGHT', v. a. [perhaps from picka, Swed. to prick.] 
To pierce. Obfolete. —Thei fchulen fe into whom thei 
pighten thorough. Wicliffe's St. John xix. 37. 
PI'GHTEL, /. {piccolo, Ital. final!.] A little enclc- 
fu re, 
PIGMAT'KA, a town of Rufiia, in the government 
of Olonetz, on the north coaft of Lake Onezfkoes fix teen 
miles fouth of Povenetz. 
PIG'MENT, f. {pigmentum, Lat.] Paint; colour to 
be laid on any body.—They would be afhamed to think, 
that ever they had faces to daub with thefe beaflly pig¬ 
ments. Bp. Hall's Coniempl. — Confider about the opacity 
of the corpufcles of black pigments , and the comparative 
diaphaneity of white bodies. Boyle. —When glafs is flained 
or coloured, as in painting on glafs, or for counterfeiting 
gems, or precious (tones, the pigment is always of a metal¬ 
line, or mineral, nature. Chambers. 
Of the pigments ufed by the ancients, and the manner 
of applying .them, we have been enabled, from the molt 
important communications of fir Humphrey Davy, to 
give a fatisfaftory account under the article Painting, 
vol. xviii, p. 217 & feq. 
More than commonly incurious mult he be who would 
not find delight in (temming the dream of ages; return¬ 
ing to times long pad, and beholding the then date of 
things and men. In the arts of an ancient people much 
may be feen concerning them: the progrefs they had 
made in knowledge of various kinds; their habits; their 
ideas on many fubjedls. And products of (kill may like- 
wife occur, either wholly unknown to us, or fuperior to 
thofe which now fupply them. The following account 
of an examination of fome Egyptian Colours, by James 
Smithfon, efq. F.R.S. have appeared in the Annals of Phi-’ 
lofophy for Jan. 1824. 
“ I received from Mr. Curtin, who travelled in Egypt 
with Mr. Belzoni, a final! fragment of the tomb of king 
Pfammis. It was fculptured in balfo relievo, and painted. 
The colours were white, red, black, and blue. I have 
heard the white of Egyptian paintings extolled for its 
brilliancy and prefervation. I found the pref’ent to be 
neither lead nor gypfum ; but carbonate of lime. Chlo¬ 
rides of barium caufed no turbidnefs in its folution. An 
entire fare op hag us of arragonite proves that the ancient 
Egyptians were in polTedion of an abundant dore of this 
matter, remarkable often for its perfedl whitenefs. Was 
it the material of their white paint ? The red was oxyde 
of iron. By heating, it became black, and returned on 
cooling to its original hue. In a cafe where fo much fo¬ 
reign admixture was prefent, fince the layer of red was 
much too thin to allow of its being ifolated, I ccnfidered 
this as a better proof of red oxyde of iron than obtaining 
Pruffian blue. The black was pounded wood-charcoal. 
After the carbonate of lime with which it was mixed had 
been removed by an acid, the texture of the larger parti¬ 
cles was perfectly difcernible with a drong lens; and in 
the fire it burned entirely aw.ay. The blue is what mod 
deferves attention. It was a fmalt, or glafs powder, fo 
like our own, though a little paler, as to be midaken for 
it by judges to whom I diowed it; but its tinging matter 
was not cobalt, but copper. Melted with borax and tin, 
the red oxyde of copper immediately appeared. 
“ Many years ago I examined the blue glafs with which 
was painted a fmall figure ot Ifis, brought to me from 
Vol. XX. No. 1379. 
.Egypt by a relation, and found its colouring matter to 
be copper. I am informed that a fine.blue glafs cannot 
at prefent be obtained by means of copper. What its 
advantages would be above that from cobalt, it is for ar- 
tids to decide. Intent upon the blue fmalt, it unfortu¬ 
nately did.not occur to me to examine, till I had waffied 
nearly the whole of it away to wade, what was the gluti¬ 
nous matter which had been fo true to its office for no 
lefs a period than 3500 years; for the colours were as firm 
on the done as they can ever have been. A fmall quan¬ 
tity of it recovered from the water did not (eem to form 
a jelly on concentrating its dilution ; or to produce a pre¬ 
cipitate with galls. I imagined its vegetable nature as¬ 
certained by its a dies redoring the colour of reddened 
turnfo! paper, till I found thofe of glue do the fame. 
“The employment of powder of charcoal for a black 
would feem to imply an unacquaintance with lamp-black, 
and, perhaps with bone-black, and that of copper to co¬ 
lour glafs l\lue, a deficiency of cobalt. And if the gluti¬ 
nous matter (hould prove, on a future examination, to ba 
vegetable, our glue being then podefied may, perhaps, be 
deemed quedionable.” 
Since the publication of the “ Tedacea Britannica,” 
Mr. Montagu has directed his attention to the purple dye 
which is obtained from the inclofed dug of the Buccinum 
lapillus and of the Turbo clathrus. The former, accor¬ 
ding to Reaumur, yielded the famous Tyrian purple, 
which in the days of Pliny fold for thirty guineas a- 
pound. Duhamel, however, fuppofes, that the animal 
from which it was procured belonged to a fpecies of Mu- 
rex. The part which contains the colouring matter ia 
Buccinum lapillus is a dender longitudinal vein, juft un¬ 
der the (kin, behind the head, and appearing whiter than 
the red of the animal. By breaking the diell in a fmall 
vice, fo as not to crulh the animal, and laying open the 
vein with a needle, a tenacious matter, of the colour and 
confidency of thick cream, becomes manifed. This may 
be taken out by a fine-pointed and did’ hair-pencil, for 
marking linen, (ilk, or paper. On expodng the fluid to 
the air, it a flumes a brighter yellow, and fpeedily turns 
to a pale green on the (everal materials. It then imper¬ 
ceptibly changes to a darker hue, pafles to bluifli, and 
from that to purplifli red, of greater or lefs intendty, ac¬ 
cording to the quantity ufed in the experiment. Thefe 
changes, too, are more or lefs accelerated by the prefence 
or the abfence of the folar rays ; but, even without the 
influence of the latter, they are all effected in the courfe 
of two or three hours. 
It would appear from the following flatements by Mr. 
Montagu, that this dye, when once fixed, cannot be ef¬ 
faced, and might therefore be very advantageoufly em¬ 
ployed in all cafes in which large quantities of it are not 
required: “Several marks were made on fine calico, in 
order to try if it was podible to difeharge the colour by 
fuch chemical means as were at hand; and it was found 
that, after the colour was fixed at its lad natural change, 
nitrous no more than vitriolic acid had any other effect 
that of rather brightening it: aqua regia with and with¬ 
out dilution of tin, and marine acid, produced no change ; 
nor had fixed or volatile alkali any fenfible effect. It 
does not in the lead give out its colour to alcohol like- 
cochineal, and the fneens of the animal of the Turbo cla¬ 
thrus ; but it communicates its very dilagreeable odour to 
it mod copioufly, fo that opening the bottle has been 
more powerful on the olfadlory nerves than the effluvia. 
of adafoetida, to which it may be compared. All the 
markings which had been alkalized, and acidulated, to¬ 
gether with thofe to which nothing had been applied, be¬ 
came, after wafliing in foap and water, of an uniform co¬ 
lour, rather brighter than before, and were fixed at a fine 
unchangeable crimfon. As the (fain given by this ani¬ 
mal fluid is, as far as our experience has gone, indedruc- 
tible, attempts were made to coiled! a quantity for the-, 
purpofe of marking linen, when frefli (hells could not be. 
procured. Many (hells were broken, all of which were 
5 P more. 
