USE  OF  MUREXIDE  IN  DYEING. 
429 
Forty  or  fifty  drops  applied  by  friction,  repeated  three  times  a 
day  on  the  track  of  the  sub  and  super  orbital  nerves,  on  that  of 
the  facial  nerve,  &c. — Jour,  de  Pharm.,  July,  1854. 
USE  OF  MUREXIDE  IN  DYEING. 
Attempts  have  recently  been  made  to  communicate  a  purple 
color  to  textile  fabrics,  by  the  production  of  murexide  in  their 
fibres.    As  yet  they  have  been  successful  only  in  the  case  of 
wool. 
The  idea  of  using  murexide  for  dyeing  is  not  new,  but  the  dif- 
ficulty consisted  in  fixing  it  upon  the  fabric,  and  procuring  the 
substance  at  a  sufficiently  cheap  rate. 
Dr.  Sacc  was  induced  by  the  fact  that  a  solution  of  alloxan 
stained  the  skin  purple,  owing  to  the  production  of  murexide,  to 
try  whether  woolen  cloth  steeped  in  a  solution  of  alloxan,  would 
acquire  a  purple  color,  and  he  found  that  this  really  is  the  case, 
the  color  produced  being  far  finer  than  that  of  cochineal. 
M.  A.  Schlumberger  adopts  the  following  process  : — The  fabric 
to  be  dyed  is  soaked  in  a  solution  of  alloxan  (30grms.  to  1  liter), 
wrung,  dried  at  a  gentle  heat,  and  after  an  ageing  of  twenty-four 
hours,  the  color  brought  out  by  passing  the  cloth  over  a  roller 
heated  to  212°  Fahr.  The  intensity  of  color  varies  according  to 
the  strength  of  the  alloxan  solution,  and  washing  with  cold 
water  produces  the  full  degree  of  brilliance. 
M.  Sacc  found  that  the  finest  colors  could  only  be  communi- 
cated to  fabrics  mordaunted  with  persalts  of  tin.  They  obtained 
the  best  results  with  a  solution  of  equal  parts  of  perchloride  of 
tin  and  oxalic  acid,  having  a  density  of  1.006.  Cloth  freshly 
mordaunted  gave  better  results  than  cloth  which  had  been  mor- 
daunted for  some  time. 
A  committee  was  appointed  by  the  Socie'te'  Industrielle  at 
Mulhausen  to  inquire  into  this  subject,  and  they  suggested  that, 
as  murexide  is  produced  by  the  action  of  heat  and  ammonia  upon 
alloxan,  the  cloth  should  be  exposed  to  ammonia  vapor  after  being 
treated  with  alloxan.  By  this  means  the  ageing  of  the  cloth  is 
rendered  unnecessary,  and  a  saving  of  alloxan  is  effected,  for 
this  substance  is  liable  to  be  decomposed  by  the  traces  of  proto- 
chloride  of  tin  or  sulphurous  acid,  retained  by  the  cloth  after 
bleaching. 
