Coccidæ—Shield-lice.
The Kermes-dye, or scarlet, made from the Coccus ilicis of Linnæus, an insect found chiefly on a species of oak, the Quercus ilex, in the Levant, France, Spain, and other parts of the world, was known in the East in the earliest ages, even before the time of Moses, and was a discovery of the Phœnicians in Palestine, who also first employed the murex and buccinum for the purpose of dyeing.
Tola or Thola was the ancient Phœnician name for this insect and dye, which was used by the Hebrews, and even by the Syrians; for it is employed by the Syrian translator.[898] Among the Jews, after their captivity, the Aramæan zehori was more common. This dye was known also to the Egyptians in the time of Moses; and it is most probable that the color mentioned in Exodus[899] as one of the three which were prescribed for the curtains of the tabernacle, and for the “holy garments” of Aaron, and which the English translators have rendered by the word scarlet (not the color now so called, which was not known in James the First’s reign when the Bible was translated), was no other than the blood-red color dyed from the Coccus ilicis.
The Arabs received the name Kermes or Alkermes for the insect and dye, from Armenia and Persia, where the insect was indigenous, and had long been known; and that name banished the old name in the East, as the name scarlet has in the West. For the first part of this assertion we must believe the Arabs. The Kermes, however, were not indigenous to Arabia, as the Arabs appear to have no name for them. To the Greeks this dye was known under the
name of Coccus, as appears from Dioscorides, and other Greek writers.[900]
From the epithets kermes and coccus, and that of vermiculus or vermiculum, given to the Kermes in the middle ages, when they were ascertained to be insects, have sprung the Latin coccineus, the French carmesin, carmine, cramoisi and vermeil, the Italian chermisi, cremisino, and chermesino, and our crimson and vermilion.
The imperishable reds of the Brussels and other Flemish tapestries were derived from the Kermes; and, in short, previous to the discovery of cochineal, this was the material universally used for dyeing the most brilliant red then known. At the present time the Kermes are only gathered in Europe by the peasantry of the provinces in which they are found, but they still continue to be employed as of old in a great part of India and Persia.[901]
Brookes says the women gather the harvest of Kermes insects before sunrise, tearing them off with their nails; and, for fear there should be any loss from the hatching of the insects, they sprinkle them with vinegar. They then lay them in the sun to dry, where they acquire a red color.[902]
The scarlet grain of Poland, Coccus polonicus, found on the German knot-grass or perennial knawel (Scleranthus perennis), was at one time collected in large quantities in the Ukraine and other provinces of Poland (here under the name of Czerwiec), and also in the great duchy of Lithuania. But though much esteemed and still employed by the Turks and Armenians for dyeing wool, silk, and hair, as well as for staining the nails of women’s fingers, it is now rarely used in Europe except by the Polish peasantry. A similar neglect has attended the Coccus found on the roots of the Burnet (Poterium sanguisorba, Linn.), which was used, particularly by the Moors, for dyeing wool and silk a rose color; and the Coccus uvæ-ursi, which with alum affords a crimson dye.[903]
Cochineal, the Coccus cacti, is doubtless the most valuable product for which the dyer is indebted to insects, and
with the exception perhaps of indigo, the most important of dyeing materials. It is found on a kind of fig, called in Mexico, where the insect is produced in any quantity, Nopal or Tuna, which generally has been supposed to be the Cactus cochinilifer, but according to Humboldt is unquestionably a distinct species, which bears fruit internally white.
Cochineal was discovered by the Spaniards, on their first arrival in Mexico, about the year 1518; but who first remarked this valuable production, and made it known in Europe, Mr. Beckman says, he has been unable to discover. Some assert that the native Mexicans, before the landing of Cortes, were acquainted with cochineal, which they employed in painting their houses and dyeing their clothes; but others maintain the contrary. Be that as it may, however, the Spanish ministry, as early as the year 1523, as Herrera informs us, ordered Cortes to take measures for multiplying this valuable commodity; and soon after it must have begun to be quite an object of commerce, for Guicciardini, who died in 1589, mentions it among the articles procured then by the merchants of Antwerp from Spain.
Professor Beckman, who has given the subject particular attention, thinks that with the first cochineal, a true account of the manner in which it was procured must have reached Europe, and become publicly known. Acosta in 1530, and Herrera in 1601, as well as Hernandez and others, gave so true and complete a description of it, that the Europeans could entertain no doubt respecting its origin. The information of these authors, however, continues this gentleman, was either overlooked or considered as false, and disputes arose whether cochineal was insects or worms, or the berries or seeds of certain plants. The Spanish name grana, confounded with granum, may have given rise to this contest.
Illustrative of this great difference of opinion, Mr. Beckman narrates the following anecdote: “A Dutchman, named Melchior de Ruusscher, affirmed in a society, from oral information he had received in Spain, that cochineal was small animals. Another person, whose name he has not made known, maintained the contrary with so much heat and violence, that the dispute at length ended in a bet. Ruusscher charged a Spaniard, one of his friends,
who was going to Mexico, to procure for him in that country authentic proofs of what he had asserted. These proofs, legally confirmed in October, 1725, by the court of justice in the city of Antiquera, in the valley of Oaxaca, arrived at Amsterdam in the autumn of the year 1726. I have been informed that Ruusscher upon this got possession of the sum betted, which amounted to the whole property of the loser; but that, after keeping it a certain time, he again returned it, deducting only the expenses he had been at in procuring the evidence, and in causing it to be published. It formed a small octavo volume, with the following title printed in red letters: The History of Cochineal proved by Authentic documents. These proofs sent from New-Spain are written in Dutch, French, and Spanish.”[904]
Among the important discoveries made by accident, the following in the history of Cochineal may be instanced: “The well-known Cornelius Drebbel, who was born at Alcmaar, and died at London in 1634, having placed in his window an extract of Cochineal, made with boiling water, for the purpose of filling a thermometer, some aqua-regia dropped into it from a phial, broken by accident, which stood above it, and converted the purple dye into a most beautiful dark red. After some conjectures and experiments, he discovered that the tin by which the window frame was divided into squares had been dissolved by the aqua-regia, and was the cause of this change. He communicated his observation to Kuffelar, an ingenious dyer at Leyden. The latter brought the discovery to perfection, and employed it some years alone in his dye-house, which gave rise to the name of Kuffelar’s color.”[905]
That innocent cosmetic, so much used by the ladies, and commonly known by the French term Rouge, is no other than a preparation of Cochineal.[906]
Kermes-berries, Coccus ilicis, and Cochineal, C. cacti, Geoffroy says, “are esteemed to be greatly cordial and sudorific, being very full of volatile salt. They are given also to prevent abortion from any strain or hurt.”[907]
Lac is the produce of an insect supposed by Amatus
Lusitanus to be a kind of ant, and by others a bee, but now ascertained to be a species belonging to the Coccidæ—the Coccus ficus or C. lacca. It is collected from various trees in India, where it is found so abundantly, that, were the consumption ten times greater than it is, it could be readily supplied.
Lac is known in Europe by the different appellations of stick-lac, when in its natural state, adhering to, and often completely surrounding, for five or six inches, the twigs on which it is produced by the insects contained in its cells; seed-lac, when broken into small pieces, garbled, and the greater part of the coloring matter extracted by water; when it appears in a granulated form; lump-lac, when melted and made into cakes; and shell-lac, when strained and formed into transparent laminæ.
Lac, in its different forms, is made use of in the manufacture of varnishes, japanned ware, sealing-wax, beads, rings, arm-bracelets, necklaces, water-proof hats, etc., etc. Mixed with fine sand it forms grindstones; and added to lamp or ivory black, being first dissolved in water with the addition of a little borax, it composes an ink not easily acted upon by dampness or water. It has been applied also to a still more important purpose, originally suggested by Dr. Roxburgh about the year 1790—that of a substitute for Cochineal in dyeing scarlet.[908] From this suggestion, under the direction of Dr. Bancroft, large quantities of a substance termed lac-lake, consisting of the coloring matter of stick-lac precipitated from an alkaline lixivium by alum, were manufactured at Calcutta and sent to England, where at first the consumption was so great, that, according to the statement of Dr. Bancroft, in 1806, and the two following years, the sales of it at the India House equaled in point of coloring matter half a million of pounds’ weight of Cochineal. Soon after this, a new preparation of lac color, under the name of lac-dye, was substituted for the lac-lake, and with such advantage, that in a few months £14,000 were saved by the East India Company in the purchase of scarlet cloths dyed with this color and Cochineal conjointly, and without any inferiority in the color obtained.[909]
The Coccidæ, although they furnish an invaluable dye and many articles of commerce, are among the most hurtful of insects in gardens and hot-houses. In 1843, the orange-trees of the Azores or Western Islands were nearly entirely destroyed by the Coccus Hesperidum; and in Fayal, an island which had usually exported twelve thousand chests of oranges annually, not one was exported.[910]