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Purple dye of the ancients, according to a fragment attributed to Democritus. Chemical News 48 14 Dec 1883, 279-280. Transcribed by Alan Pritchard. Purple dye of the ancients, according to a fragment attributed to Democritus. - M. Berthelot. Chemical notices from foreign sources. Comptes Rendus Hebdomadaires des Séances, de l'Académie des Sciences. Vol. xcvii., No. 21, November 19, 1883. The author states that the works of Democritus or of his disciples formed a kind of philosophical and scientific encyclopaedia, which was collected and arranged in Tetralogies by Thrasyllus, in the reign of Tiberius, but which has unfortunately been lost, with the exception of some fragments collected and published by Franck in 1836, and by Mullach in 1843. M. Berthelot, whilst examining the Greek alchemical manuscripts in the National Library, found the fragment in questions given in the original Greek, and in the following version :- "Putting in a pound of purple, …. place it on the fire until ebullition; then, removing the decoction from the fire, put the whole into a vessel, and withdrawing the purple, pour the decoction upon the purple, and let steep for a night and a day. Then, taking 4 lbs. of orchil, pour water upon the weed to the depths of four fingers, and let it become thick. Filter, heat, and pour upon the wool. Let it steep for two nights and two days. Take out and dry in the shade; and to 2 lbs. of the liquor add water so as to make up the original quantity. Repeat until it becomes thick; then, having filtered, re-enter the wool as before, and let it steep for a night and a day. Lift and rinse in urine, and dry in the shade. Take laccha (probably alkanet), put it with 4 lbs. of sorrel, and boil with urine until the sorrel is reduced. Having clarified the water, put it in the alkanet, boil until thick, filter again, enter the wool, then wash afresh with urine, and afterwards with water. Dry in the shade, and expose to the vapour of sea-weeds steeped in urine. … The following wares enter into the composition of the purple :- The weed which is called false purple, the coccus (a kind of cochineal), the sea colour (orchil), the crismos (?), alkanet, Italian madder, the phyllanthion of the divers, the "purple worm" (probably another sort of cochineal), the rose of Italy. These colours are esteemed by our predecessors. There are colours to be avoided and which are of no value: The cochineal of Galatia, the colour of Achaia, which is called laccha, that of Syria, called rhizion (an inferior madder?), the shell-fish of Libya, and of the coast of Egypt, called pinna, the woad of the upper region, and the colour of Syria called murex. These colours are not fast, and, except woad, are not esteemed among us" [The obscurity of this passage is in great part due to our ignorance of the technical terminology of the Greek language] [] in original - AP

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