MADDER.

This plant, the root of which is either dried and bruised, or used

fresh, for dyeing red, has a weak, square, jointed stem; and rises to

the height of eight feet when supported, otherwise it creeps along the

ground. At each joint there are from four to six leaves, about three

inches in length, almost an inch broad in the middle, and pointed at

both ends. The upper side of the leaves is smooth; but the middle nerve

of the under side is armed with small rough prickles; and others of

the same kind may be found on the stem. On this account, the leaves,

which drop annually, adhere readily to other bodies, like those of the

_asperugo_. The branches, which in June bear flowers divided into four

yellow leaves, proceed from the joints. The fruit, a kind of berry,

which, towards the time of its ripening, though that seldom happens

among us, is first of a brownish colour, and then black, contains a

round seed. The roots grow sometimes to the thickness of one’s finger,

push themselves deep into the earth, are surrounded by many small

fibres, have a yellowish-red pith, and are covered with a black bark

or rind. This plant grows wild in the Levant, as well as in Italy, the

southern parts of France, and in Switzerland. The cultivated kind is

well known, and is propagated with much advantage in various countries

of Europe.

When one compares this short description with what Dioscorides says of

a plant which he calls _ereuthodanon_, it will be readily seen that he

meant our madder. He even compares its long square stem, armed with

a great many hooks, to that of the _asperugo_; and he tells us that

the leaves stand in the form of a star around the joints. The fruit

was at first green, then red, and lastly black. The thin long roots,

adds he, which are red, serve for dyeing; and on that account the

cultivated kind (he must therefore have been acquainted with the wild

sort) is reared with much benefit in Galilee, around Ravenna in Italy

and in Caria, where it is planted either among the olive-trees, or in

fields destined for that purpose. It is remarked in some manuscripts,

that this plant had a name given it by the Romans, which, as Marcellus

Virgil observes, meant the same thing as _Rubia sativa_, and that

it was called in Etruria _Lappa minor_, doubtless because, like the

bur, it adhered to other bodies. On account of the colour which it

communicated, it was called also sometimes _cinnabaris_[274].

In opposition to this asserted identity I find only one doubt; namely,

that among those plants which, on account of the position of their

leaves, were called _stellatæ_, and which were all so like that we must

reduce them to one natural order, there are more sorts, the roots of

which dye red, and which on that account are very improperly called

wild madder. Why, therefore, should the plant of Dioscorides be our

madder, and not some other plant of the like nature? For this reason,

in my opinion: because the ancients, who were acquainted with all these

plants, which grew wild in their lands, were equally prudent as the

moderns, and cultivated that kind only which was the most productive or

beneficial, viz. our _Rubia tinctorum_.

This opinion will be strengthened by comparing the accounts given

of that plant by other ancient writers. Theophrastus agrees almost

perfectly with Dioscorides; and adds, that it did not grow upright,

but was fond of reclining. The comparison, therefore, with the leaves

of ivy cannot be just; but that I shall leave to the critics. Pliny

says expressly, that the _erythrodanum_ or _ereuthodanum_ was in his

mother-tongue called _rubia_; and that its red roots were used to dye

wool and leather red[275].

In the middle ages this plant was called _varantia_, a name which must

have arisen from _verantia_. The latter means the real, genuine dye;

as _aurantia_ signified a golden yellow. Till the year 1736, this

plant was little regarded, except among dyers, farmers and merchants,

who purchased it from the farmers, in order to sell it to the dyers

with profit; and among a few herb-dealers and physicians, who, on the

authority of the ancients, ascribed to it eminent virtues, which others

doubted or altogether denied. In the above year, however, a property of

it was discovered by accident, as usual, which rendered it an object of

more attention. John Belchier, an English surgeon, having dined with a

cotton-printer, observed that the bones of the pork which was brought

to the table were red. As he seemed surprised at this circumstance, his

host assured him that the redness was occasioned by the swine feeding

on the water mixed with bran in which the cotton cloth was boiled, and

which was coloured by the madder used in printing it. Belchier[276], to

whom this effect was new, convinced himself by experiments that the red

colour of the bones had arisen from the madder employed in printing the

cotton, and from no other cause; and he communicated his discovery to

the Royal Society, in a paper which was printed in their Transactions.

This singularity was now soon known to all the naturalists, several

of whom made new experiments, the result of which brought to light

many truths useful to physiology. Besides the roots of madder, those

of the _Galium_ (yellow ladies-bed-straw) and other plants which

have an affinity to madder, produce the like effects; but this is the

case neither with saffron nor woad, nor with many others much used in

dyeing. The colouring takes place soonest in young animals; and is

strongest where the bones are hardest and thickest. On the other hand,

it does not reach the soft parts; appears only a little in the milk;

and in general is not perceptible in the animal juices[277].

As the English calico-printers were acquainted with this effect of

madder before it was known to naturalists, it is not improbable that it

was known much sooner in other places, where the plant has been much

cultivated and used since the earliest periods. From what J. E. Stief

says, we have reason to believe that the people in the neighbourhood

of Breslau, his native city, who gave the stalks of the madder plant

to their cows instead of straw, must have first discovered that it

possessed the property of communicating a red colour to the bones[278].

As many truths not yet investigated by means of new experiments, and

which on that account have not yet been acknowledged, are concealed

among the evidently false assertions to be found in the works of the

ancients, and as these works were thrown aside too early, before their

contents were properly examined, I was induced to suspect that some

hints of this colouring property might also be mentioned in them, which

indeed is the case.

We learn from the works of Galen and Dioscorides, that the ancient

physicians remarked that the use of certain roots, which they

administered to their patients, communicated a colour to their urine

and excrements; and this observation has been repeated by Cardan,

Thurneisser, Porta, Castor, Durantes, and others. Had those ancient

physicians, who often prescribed these roots, and paid attention to the

colour of the excrements of their patients, been accustomed to open

their bodies when they died under their hands, they would have perhaps

remarked, in human bones, what was observed long after in the bones of

animals, when the roots were no longer used in medicine; and what, if

I am not mistaken, was never yet observed in the bones of the human

species[279].

Böhmer, who made researches respecting the antiquity of this

observation, found it neither in Rombert. Dodonæus, Mich. Ettmuller,

Morin, Will. Salmon, nor others, who, however, speak of coloured urine.

In his opinion the oldest writer who speaks of coloured bones is

Mizaldus; but what he relates is all taken from the treatise of Lemnius

De Miraculis Occultis Naturæ; and the latter therefore is the oldest

writer that I at present can mention as acquainted with this property.

He was a physician in Zealand, where madder has been cultivated since

the earliest ages, and where he had an opportunity of remarking it.

He says that the bones of animals became red, as had been observed

when the flesh was dressed, by their eating only the leaves, and not

the roots. In the first edition of the above work, printed in octavo,

in the year 1559, which consists of two books, this information will

not be found; but it may be contained in the second of 1564, which

comprehends four books.

[The madder plant is much cultivated in Holland, but Macquei observes

that the Dutch were first indebted to the Flemish refugees for their

knowledge of the method of preparing this plant. Its culture has often

been attempted in England, but always without success[280]. It is

also largely cultivated in Alsace and Provence in France, especially

near Avignon, in Asiatic Turkey, and in Italy; from which places it

is largely exported. The Turkey and Provence madder is procured from

_Rubia peregrina_; the remainder from _R. tinctorum_. To prepare the

root, which is the part used in dyeing, it is removed from the ground,

picked, dried and ground.

Madder contains three distinct colouring principles; two of these are

red, viz. alizarine and purpurine, and one, xanthine, is yellow.

Since 1836, two new products have been introduced into commerce,

which are destined to replace madder in the operations of dyeing and

calico-printing; one is called garancine, the other colorine. Garancine

is prepared by washing and macerating madder, and filtering through

linen. The grounds are then crushed and mixed with sulphuric acid,

equal to half the amount of madder first employed; the acid should be

somewhat dilute. It is then poured hot upon the madder, agitated, and

when the mixture appears intimate, the temperature is raised to 212°,

and maintained for about an hour. It is then again mixed with water,

filtered, and thoroughly washed. It is finally pressed, dried and

passed through the sieve. This is the process patented by MM. Lagier,

Robiquet and Colin, in 1828.

It was first introduced into commerce by the house of Lagier and

Thomas, at Avignon, in 1829.

The great advantage of garancine over madder is that it does not change

the white, and that the bleaching of the stuffs dyed with it is reduced

to a mere nothing. Hot water or bran are the only means used for

clearing them. Madder is an adjective colour, that is to say, one which

requires to be combined with some basic substance or mordant to render

its fixture upon the dye-stuff permanent.]