A HANDBOOK

OF

DYEING AND CALICO PRINTING.

INTRODUCTION.

HE introdudtion of a number of new dyes resulting from chemical

"*■ research has rendered very desirable the publication of a complete workcontaining the latest and most reliable information on the subjedt, and never-theless confined within reasonable limits.

Few branches of human industry are more intimately connected withscience than the art of dyeing and printing, that is to say, the application ofcolouring matter to vegetable and animal tissue. To recount the numerousbranches of science with which the art of dyeing is more or less associatedwould be tedious and unprofitable, but the following instance will serve as anexample:—The substance known as cochineal, which in its native country,Mexico, was used as a dye and cultivated by artificial means at a very remoteperiod of history, was long supposed to be the dried seed of a plant. Afteithe year 1518 it was introduced into Europe, but its real constitution was notknown until the 17th century, when it was accidentally discovered to consistof the body of an insedt, the Coccus cacti. The dye yielded by cochinealbeing valuable, and capable of producing many shades of colour, attemptswere soon made to introduce into other countries the plant upon which theinsedt lives and feeds. To do this with success it became necessary tostudy minutely the habits of a very small insedl, and to inquire attentivelyinto the climatological and all other conditions of its life. Nor was this all,for recent experience has taught us that even in localities favourable to thegrowth of the species of cadtus upon which the insedt lives, the Coccus cactiitself languishes or becomes extindt if the spot where it is located be too nearthe sea and subjedt to the influence of damp winds. Here is a demonstrationof simultaneous connedtion with the sciences of Natural History, Botany,and even Meteorology. The position of the art of dyeing and printing with