Plin. 1. 9:

c. 35.

It is chimerical to imagine, that pearls take birth from dew drops; that they are foft in the fea, and only harden when the air comes to them; that they wafte and come to nothing, when it thunders, as Pliny and several authors after him fay.

*

Many things are highly prized only for being fcarce, whofe principal merit confifts in the danger people are at to get them. It is ftrange that men fhould set so small a value upon their lives, and fhould judge them of lefs worth than fhells hidden in the fea. If it were neceffary, for the acquiring of wifdom, to undergo all the pains taken to find fome pearl of uncommon beauty and magnitude, (and as much may be faid of gold, filver, and precious ftones) we ought not to be a moment in refolving to venture life, and that often for fuch inestimable treafure. Wisdom is the greatest of all fortunes ; a pearl the most frivolous of riches; men, however, do nothing for the former, and hazard every thing for the latter.

STU

SECT. VIII.

PURPLE.

TUFFS dyed with purple were one of the most confiderable branches of the commerce of the antients, especially of Tyre, which by industry and extreme fkill had carried that precious dye to the highest poffible degree of perfection. The purple difputed value with gold itself in thofe remote times, and was the diftinguishing mark of the greatest dignities of

Animâ hominis quæfitâ maxime placent. Plin. ibid.

the

the universe, being principally appropriated to* princes, kings, fenators, confuls, dictators, emperors, and thofe to whom Rome granted the honour of a triumph.

The purple is a colour, compounded between red and violet, taken from a fea-fish covered with a fhell, called alfo The purple. Notwithstanding various treatises wrote by the moderns upon this colour fo highly prized by the antients, we are little acquainted with the nature of the liquor, which produced it. Ariftotle Arift. de and Pliny have left many remarkable things Hift. Anim.l. 5. upon this point, but fuch as are more proper C. 15: to excite, than fully to fatisfy curiofity. The plin. i. latter, who has spoken the most at large upon c. 38. the preparation of purple, has confined all he fays of it to fome few lines. These might suffice for the description of a known practice in thofe times; but is too little to give a proper idea of it to ours, after the use of it has ceafed

for many ages.

9.

Pliny divides the feveral fpecies of fhells, Plin. 1. 9. from which the purple dye is taken into two 39. kinds; the first of which includes the fmall kind of Buccinum, fo called from the refemblance between that fifh's fhell, and a hunting horn; and the second the fhells called purple, from the dye they contain. It is believed that this latter kind were called alfo Murex.

Some authors affirm, that the Tyrians difcovered the dye we speak of by accident. hungry dog having "broke one of thefe

* Color nimio lepore vernans, obfcuritas rubens, nigredo fanguinea regnantem difcernit, dominum confpicuum facit, & præftat humano generi ne de confpectu

An

Jul. Pol

lux. 1. 1. c. 4.

fhells Caffiod. 1.

1. Var.

Principis poffit errari. Caffiod. Ep. 2. 1. 1. Var. Ep. 2.

+ From thence purple habits are called in Latin, conchiliatæ veftes.

with his teeth upon the fea-fide, and devoured one of these fifh, all around his mouth and throat were dyed by it with fo fine a colour, that it furprized every body that faw it, and gave birth to the defire of making ufe of it. Plin. 1. 9. The purple of Getulia in Africa, and that .36-39. of Laconia in Europe, were in great estima† tion; but the Tyrian in Afia was preferred to

all others; and that principally which was twice dipt, called for that reafon dibapha. A pound of it was fold at Rome for a thousand denarii, that is, five hundred livres.

The Buccinum and Murex scarce differed in any thing but the bignefs of fhell, and the preparation of them. The Murex was fifhed for generally in the open fea; whereas the Buccinum was taken from the ftones and rocks to Memoirs of which it adhered. I fhall speak here only of the Acad. the Buccinum, and fhall extract a fmall part of of Scienc. what I find upon it, in the learned differtation 1. 1711 of Monfieur Reaumur.

An.

The liquor could not be extracted from the Buccinum, without employing a very confiderable length of time for that purpose. It was firft neceffary to break the hard fhell, that covered them. This fhell being broke at fome distance from its opening, or the head of the Buccinum, the broken pieces were taken away. A fmall vein then appeared, to use the expreffion of the antients; or with greater propriety of fpeech, a small refervoir, full of the proper liquor for dying purple. The colour of the

*Veftes Getulo murice tenctas.
Rabes with Getulian purple dyed.
Nec Laconicas mihi

Trahunt honestæ purpuras clientæ.

Nor do my noble clients wives with care
Laconia's purple spin for me to wear.

Нок.

HOR.

liquor contained in this small reservoir, made it
very diftinguishable, and differs much from
the flesh of the animal. Ariftotle and Pliny
fay, it is white; and it is indeed inclining to
white, or between white and yellow. The little
refervoir, in which it is contained, is not of e-
qual bignefs in all the Buccina; it is, however,
commonly about a line, the twelfth
part of an11
inch, in breadth, and two or three in length.
It was this little refervoir the antients
were obliged to take from the Buccinum, in or-
der to feparate the liquor contained in it. They
were under the neceffity of cutting it from each
fish, which was a tedious work, at least with
regard to what it held for there is not above
a large drop of liquor in each refervoir. From
whence it is not furprizing that fine purple
fhould be of fo high a price amongst them.

Aristotle and Pliny fay indeed, that they did' not take the pains to cut these little veffels from the fmaller fifh of this kind separately, but only pounded them in mortars, which was a means to fhorten the work confiderably. Vitruvius Architect. feems even to give this as the general preparati- 1. 7. c. 13. on. It is, however, not eafy to conceive, how a fine purple colour could be attained by this means. The excrements of the animal must confiderably change the purple colour, when heated together, after being put into the water. For that fubftance is itself of a brown, greenish colour, which, no doubt, it communicated to the water, and muft very much have changed the purple colour; the quantity of it being exceedingly greater than that of the liquor.

In the preparation of purple, the cutting out the small refervoir of liquor from each Buccinum, was not the whole trouble. All those fmall veffels were afterwards thrown into a great quantity

quantity of water, which was fet over a flow fire for the space of ten hours. As this mixture was left fo long upon the fire, it was impoffible for it not to take the purple colour: it took it much sooner, as I am well convinced, fays Mr. Reaumur, by a great number of experiments. But it was neceffary to separate the fleshy parts, or little veffels, wherein the liquor was contained; which could not be done without lofing much of the liquor, but by making those fleshy membranes diffolve in hot water, to the top of which they rofe at length in scum, which was taken off with great care.

This was one manner in which the antients made the purple dye; that was not entirely loft, as is believed, or at leaft, was discovered again about fifty years ago by the royal fociety of England. One fpecies of the fhells from which it is extracted, a kind of Buccinum, is common on the coaft of that country. The obfervations of an Englishman upon this new discovery, were printed in the journals of France in 1686.

Another Buccinum, which gives alfo the purple dye, and is evidently one of those described by Pliny, is found upon the coafst of Poitou. The greatest fhells of this kind are from twelve to thirteen lines (of an inch) in length, and from feven to eight in diameter, in the thickest part of them. They are a fingle fhell turned fpirally, like that of a garden fnail, but fomewhat longer.

In the journal of the learned for 1686, the various changes of colour through which the Buccinum's liquor paffes are described. If inftead of taking out the veffel, which contains it, according to the method of the antients, in making their purple, that veffel be only opened,

and