I ony of Jews which was established at Thebes in Greece
I in the 12th century carried on an extensive manufac- tory for dyeing purple. It ultimately became super- seded by the use of indigo, cochineal, etc., whence a cheaper and finer purple was obtained, and free from the disagreeable odor which attended that derived from shell-fish (Martial, i, 50, 32). The method of the an- cients in preparing and applying it, and other partic- lars respecting its history, uses, and estimation, are most fully given by Pliny (Hist. Xat. ix. 36-42). The' best modern books are Amati, De Restitutione Pvrpu- rarum (3d ed. Cesena, 1784) ; the treatise by Ca- pelli, De Antiqua et Nupera Purpura, with notes; and Don Michaele Rosa, Dissertazione delle Porpore, etc. (1768). See also Dictionnaire des Sciences NatureUes. xliii, 219, etc. ; Bochart, edit. Rosenmuller, iii. 675, etc. : Heeren, Historical Researches, translated (Oxford, 1833), ii, 85, etc. Steger, De Purpura, Sacm- Dignitatis Insig- ni (Lips. 1741).
Crimson (Heb. fcarmil', b"~*'~, a Persian word akin to Sanscrit krimi, Eng. crimson. It occurs in 2 Chron. ii, 7-14; iii. 14, Sept. kckkwoc, Vulg. coecinum). This word is by some supposed to signify another kind of shell-fish, yielding a crimson dye, so called because found on the shore near Mount Carmel. If so, these words (Cant, vii, 5), " thine head upon thee is like Carmel," may contain another reference to the shape
I of some sort of purpura (Bochart, iii, 661, etc.). Gese- nius says it is a word belonging to later Hebrew, and most probably of Persian or Armenian origin. — Kitto.
The purple dye itself was a liquor, contained in a vein situated in the neck of the animal, which when first opened resembled cream in color and consistence. Small shells were collected and bruised in mortars, but the larger ones were opened singly, the fluid carefully removed, and mingled with salt to prevent decomposi- tion. It was diluted with five or six times as much water, and kept moderately hot in leaden or tin ves- sels for eight or ten days, during which the liquor was
| often skimmed, to separate all the impurities. After this, the wool to be dyed, being first well washed, was
' immersed, and kept therein for rive hours, then taken out, cooled, and again immersed, and continued in the liquor till all the color was exhausted (Thomson, Hist. of Chemistry, i, 91). Prior to the researches of Mr. Wilde, noticed above, it had been concluded that the purpura of Pliny was the Mnrex truncidus of Lin- naeus from indirect evidence. The buccinum of the same ancient writer is thought to be the Purpura pa- tula of Lamarck; and probably the P. hipUlus, one of the most abundant of species on the rocky shores of Eu- rope, including Great Britain, may have been the chief of the smaller sorts. It has been supposed by some that the concbyliiim of Pliny, winch gave a paler and bluer purple, was our JantMna fragilis ; but this is out of the question, because though this snail-like mollusk discharges a violet thud, it is exceedingly volatile, and therefore wholly unfit for dyeing, whereas unalterable permanency characterized the Phoenician purples, Sca- Itiria clathrus, another European shell-fish which dis- charges a coloring thud, is liable to the same objec- tion, unless the ancients had some mode of fixing what we find evanescent. Colonel Montagu instituted some experiments on this. "The purple juice," he says, " may be collected either from the recent or dried animal, by opening the part behind the head; and as much can be procured from \'w<: individuals as is suf- ficient, when mixed with a few drops of spring-water, to cover half a sheet of paper." Neither volatile nor fixed alkali materially affects it ; mineral acids turn it a bluish green or sea-green ; sulphuric acid renders it a shade more inclining to blue; vegetable acids prob- ably do not affect it. since cream of tartar did not in the least alter it. These colors, laid on paper, were very bright, and appeared for some months unchanged by the action of the air or the sun ; but being exposed
PPKPLE
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for a whole summer to the solar rays in a south win- dow, they almost vanished. The application of al- kali to the acidulated color always restores it to its primitive state, and ii i9 as readily changed again by mineral acid (Montagu, Testacea Brit. Supp. p. 122). The circumstance thai the fluid effused by Janthina ami Scalaria is purple from the first is conclusive against its being the purple dye of the ancients, who
Dog-whelk — Purpura lapillus.
Tyriau Rock- shell
tell us distinctly that this was while or cream-like while within the vein. This agrees accurately with the genera Murex and Purpura, as may be readily test- ed in the ease of /'. lapillus, the common dog-whelk of the British coast. Montagu thus records the resull oi his experiments on this species : "The part containing the coloring-matter is a slender longitudinal vein,jus( under i he skin on the back, behind
the head, appearing whiter than the rest of the animal. The fluid it sell is of the col- or and consistence of cream. As soon as ii 13 exposed to the air it becomes of a bright yellow, speedily turns to a pale green, and continues to change imperceptibly, until it assumes a bluish cast, and then a purplish red. Without the influence of the solar rays, it will go through all these changes in the course of two or three hours: l>ut the process is much accelerated by expos- ure to the Miu. A portion of the fluid, mixed with diluted vitriolic aeid. diil not at firsl appear to have been sensibly affected; but, by more intimately mix- ing ii in the sun. it became of a pale purple, or pur- plish red, without any of the intermediate changes. Several marks were now made on line calico, in order to try if it wore possible to discharge the color by such