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Vol. 3, No. 10
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The Leyden Papyrus X
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1163
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100. Another {Procedure).
Take
the juice of the upper part of the alkanet and a solid gall-nut roasted
in the oven. Having ground it with the addition of a little copperas,
mix with the juice, boil, and make the purple dye.
101. A Substitute for Greenish-Blue Color.
In
place of greenish-blue color, take scoria of iron, crush it with care
until reduced to the appearance of smegma, and boil it with some
vinegar until it becomes stiff. Immerse the wool, previously cleaned
with heavy fullers herb, and you will find it dyed in purple. Dye in
this way with the colors that you have.
Iron
oxide or scales from the forging of iron was called scoria of iron,
while the term smegma was applied to copper oxide made by blowing
across the surface of molten copper with bellows.
102. Arsenic.
103. Sandarach.
104. Misy.
105. Cadmia.
106. Chrysocolla.
107. Rubric of Sinopia.
108. Alum.
109. Natron.
110. Cinnabar.
111. Mercury.
As
mentioned in the introduction, the last recipes in the papyrus are
sections extracted from the well-known "Materia Medica" of
Dioscorides. They are chiefly descriptive of certain minerals and
metallurgical products used in antiquity. The title only of each recipe
is given here since their contents have been widely published in the
many editions of this writer's works.
III. Commentary
By
reason of the antiquity and character of the papyrus there is much in
it of great interest to historians and philologists, but no attempt
will be made here to comment upon this phase of the subject. Its
significance and meaning from the chemical standpoint will be chiefly
stressed in as concise a way as possible; emphasis being placed upon
its general nature rather than upon a detailed examination of each of
its recipes and preparations.
Perhaps
one of the most striking points to be noticed about the collection is
the numerous repetitions in the nature of the recipes, many of them
only varying slightly in the proportions of the same ingredients. This
doubtless indicates that it was collected from various sources and from
pre-existing documents now lost to us. Furthermore, this fact pushes
still farther back the time when the chemical arts and operations
described in the papyrus must have been known to mankind. To be
remarked also is the fragmentary character of many of the recipes, and
the essential omissions in many of them giving the impression that they
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