dyed black its weight is increased to thirteen ounces. In general, a black dye increases the weight of cloth a fifth more than bright dyes.*

As indigo, after this, soon became common, and the sale of woad was injured, the first prohibition against the former was issued by Saxony, in the year 1650; † and because government well knew how much depends on a name, when one wishes to render an object odious or estimable, the prohibition was couched in terms which seemed to show that indigo was included among those eating substances, termed in the recess already mentioned devil's dyes. In the year 1652 Duke Ernest, the pious, caused a proposal to be made to the diet by his envoy, Dr. Hoennen, that indigo should be entirely banished from the empire, and that an exclusive privilege should be granted to those who dyed with woad. This was followed by an imperial prohibition on the 21st of April 1654,§ in which every thing ordered in regard to the devil's dyes is repeated, with this addition, that great care should be taken to prevent the private introduction of indigo, by which the trade in woad was lessened, dyed articles injured, and money carried out of the country. The elector took the earliest op

* Observations sur la Physique, par Rozier, iii. 1774, p. 183. + Schreber ut supra, p. 9.

Schreber. Hauptst. v. p. 122.

§ Ibid. p. 3.

portunity, the same year, to make known and enforce this prohibition with great severity in his dominions.*

The people of Nuremberg, who at that time cultivated woad, went still further. They made a law that their dyers should annually take an oath not to use indigo; and at present they are obliged to do the same thing, though indigo is as necessary to them as to others; a most indecent disregard to religion, which, however, is not without example. In the French monarchy, where all offices were purchased and sold, every counsellor of parliament, on his entrance, was obliged to swear that he had not obtained his place by money, until, at length, some one had the courage to refuse taking a false oath. Thus also, in Germany, many placemen must swear that they will observe all the orders of government, yet many of them are daily violated, and indeed cannot be observed, or, at any rate, not without great mischief and confusion.

What was done in Germany in regard to Thuringia, was done in France in regard to Languedoc. In consequence of an urgent representation by the states of that province, the use of indigo was forbidden in 1598; and this prohibition was af

* Schreber ut supra, p. 11.

+ Gatterer's Technologisches Magazin, i. 2. p. 256.

Le Guide du commerce de l'Amerique par le port de Marseille. A Avignon 1777, 4to. i. p. 366.

terwards repeated several times. But in the wellknown edict of 1669, in which Colbert separated the fine from the common dyers, it was stated, that indigo should be used without woad; and in 1737, dyers were left at liberty to use indigo alone, or to employ a mixture of indigo and woad.*

In England, where, I believe, woad was not at that time cultivated, the first mention of indigo in the laws occurs in the year 1581, under the reign of Elizabeth, not, however, on account of a blue but a black dye. No woollen articles were to be dyed black with the gall-nut, madder, or other materials, till they had received the first ground, or been rendered blue by woad, or woad and indigo together. In like manner, it was long believed, that no durable black could be produced unless the article were first dyed in a blue pan. Hats also were not considered to be properly dyed unless traces of a blue tint could be discovered on the place where they were cut. At present, our dyers can communicate a durable black without a blue. ground, as well as dye a fixed blue without woad; and in every part of Europe foreign indigo will continue to be the most common material for dye

* See Hellot's Abhandlung, from Memoires de l'Acad. à Paris, année 1740, in Hamburg. Magaz. i. 5, p. 42.

↑ The Statutes at large, vol. ii. Lond. 1735, p. 250-except the same (the woollen article) be first grounded with woad only, or with woad and a Nele, alias blue Inde.

Marperger's Beschreibung des Hutmacher-handwerks. Altenburg. 1719, 8vo. p. 85,

ing, till its high price render it necessary to obtain a similar pigment from indigenous plants.

VANES. WEATHERCOCKS.

If the poet Seneca was well informed, mankind, in the infancy of navigation, had no particular names for distinguishing the principal winds.* This is not at all incredible; because with their rafts and floats, which were the first vessels, they for a long time ventured out to sea only so far that they could easily return to the shore; and, therefore, while navigation continued in this state, they had little reason to trouble themselves about the direction of the winds. It is more certain that those nations respecting whom we have the oldest information, distinguished by names the four principal winds only. This is generally proved by a passage in Homer, where he intends to mention all the winds, and names only four; but this proof is of little weight; for what poet at present would, with the like view, think of boxing the compass, or of introducing into a poem the names of all the thirty-two points? Would he not rather

* Medea, ver. 316: Nondum Boreas, nondum Zephyrus nomen habebant.

+ Odyss. v. 295: Una vero Eurusque Notusque ruit, Zephyrusque vehemens et Boreas serenus.

be satisfied with the names of the four chief winds alone? If more names, therefore, were usual in Homer's time, he would not consider it necessary to name them. In another passage he names only two winds;* and from these some have endeavoured to prove that no more were then known; but this assertion indeed is completely refuted by the passage first quoted. It can, however, be easily proved, that for a long time names were given to the four principal winds only.

One may easily see also what at first gave rise to this distinction. The sun at noon stands always over one point of the horizon, which appears to the observer as a circle, having the place where he himself is as its centre. This point is called the meridian or south, and the one opposite to it the north. If the observer turns his face towards the north, he will have on his right hand the east, and on his left the west. The space between these principal winds contains ninety degrees, or a right angle. The number, however, must soon have

*Iliad, ix. 5. Sicut autem venti duo pontum commovent piscosum, Boreas et Zephyrus. It almost appears that Seneca also considered these two names as the oldest. Homer, however, Iliad, xxi. 334, where he speaks only of two, names the Zephyrus and Notus. Strabo, i. p. 51. (29) : Εισι δε τινες δι φασι δυο τους κυριωτάτους είναι ανεμους, Βορεαν και Νοτον: Sunt qui duos præcipuos ventos faciunt, Boream et Austrum.

+ Favorinus in Aulus Gellius, ii. 22, says: Exortus et occasus mobilia et varia sunt; meridies septemtrionesque statu perpetuo stant et manent. Plin. ii. 47, p. 96: Veteres quatuor omnino servavere,