Читать книгу The Book of Shells. Containing the Classes Mollusca, Conchifera, Cirrhipeda, Annulata, and Crustacea онлайн

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“But the last and most beautiful colour, after washing in scalding water and soap, will (the matter being again exposed to the sun or the wind to dry,) be a much different colour from all those mentioned, that is, a fair bright crimson, or near to the prince’s colour, which afterwards, notwithstanding there is no styptic to bind the colour, will continue the same, if well ordered, as I have found in handkerchiefs that have been washed more than forty times, only it will be somewhat alloyed from what it was after the first washing.”

Some years after this, Réaumur discovered great numbers of a species of buccinum, on the coast of Poitou, and the stones, round which they had collected, were covered with small oval masses, some of which were white, and others of a yellowish colour; and, having squeezed some of them on the sleeves of his shirt, in about half an hour he found it stained of a fine purple colour, which he was unable to discharge by washing. In repeating his experiment on his return home, he found it was necessary that the cloth should be exposed to the direct rays of the sun.