Carmine

“ The various kinds of carmine are distinguished by numbers, and possess a value corresponding thereto; the difference depending either on the proportion of the alumina added, or on the presence of vermilion added for the purpose of diluting and increasing the quantity of the colour: the alumina produces a paler tint, and the vermilion a tint different to that of genuine carmine. The amount of adulteration can always be detected by the use of liquor ammoniæ, which dissolves the whole of the carmine, but leaves the adulterating matter untouched. ”

“ The greatest care is required to prevent the contact of the liquid with iron during the whole process, the smallest trace of this metal would result in a discoloured product.
The essentials of the manufacture of carmine on the large scale are that the colouring matter is dissolved in water, and precipitated by the addition of an aluminium salt, generally alum, absolutely free from iron. The more slowly the carmine separates the finer is its colour. It is generally observed that the last portions to precipitate show the brightest shade. ”

“ Perhaps the best plan is to substitute the carmine solution for the 50 per cent. alcohol, and thus to make the staining a stage in the hardening process. From the carmine solution the tissue is transferred to 70 per cent. alcohol, to each ounce of which two drops of hydrochloric acid have been added, and after remaining in it for a day (with a piece of the usual size) is placed in 70 per cent. alcohol, in two successive quantities. Sections from this material now only require treatment with the carbolic acid and turpentine above mentioned to be fit for mounting and covering in balsam. ”

“ Bloom Rose.—This is a preparation of carmine for the face and lips. Take a quarter of a dram of carmine and place it in a phial with half a dram of liquid ammonia; keep for a few days, occasionally shaking the mixture; then dilute with two ounces of rose-water, to which half a dram of essence of roses has been added. Draw off and keep a week or ten days, then apply with the corner of a soft handkerchief, taking care that if the color is too bright it is reduced by means of pure water. ”

“ When carmines are fired in the muffle at too low a temperature, silver takes the upper hand and the color has a dirty yellow tint; if, on the contrary, the temperature is too high, the silver shade is completely destroyed, and the carmine becomes lilac or violet, which explains the difficulty in firing carmines. ”

“ Improved cardinal ink for draughtsmen is made as follows:—Triturate 1 gram of pure carmine with 15 grams of acetate ammonia solution and an equal quantity of distilled water, in a porcelain mortar, and allow the whole to stand for some time. In this way a portion of the alumina which is combined with the carmine dye is taken up by the acetate acid of the ammonia salt and separates as precipitate, while the pure pigment of the cochineal remains dissolved in the half saturated ammonia. ”

“ If used, therefore, it should be in body, and not in thin washes or as a glaze. Durable pigments are admissible in any form; but semi-stable pigments (gamboge excepted) should only be employed in body.
209. BURNT LAKE holds the same relation to crimson lake as burnt carmine to ordinary carmine; and is hence a weaker variety of the preceding, with less richness, and likewise less permanence.
210. INDIAN PURPLE is prepared by precipitating an extract of cochineal with sulphate of copper. It is a very deep-toned but rather cold and subdued purple, neither so red nor so brilliant as burnt carmine ”

“ The preparation of these colors is of importance. Genuine carmine should, after the different pieces [198] have been crushed, be ground for a short time with a little spirits of ammonia and then allowed to stand until completely dissolved. To dilute it, a thin solution of gum or water (the best is rain water) may be used. If too much spirits of ammonia has been employed the color will assume a bluish hue.
The heavy cinnabar makes a more powerful binding medium necessary, the best being a paste of starch or a solution of gum-arabic. ”

“ Pure carminic acid is a purple red mass, which transmits red light at the edges and forms a pure scarlet red powder when ground. The aqueous solution gives, with alum and ammonia, a characteristic precipitate, the colour of which is the purest carmine-red; lead, zinc and copper salts produce purple red precipitates. The composition of carminic acid is expressed by the formula C17H18O10. ”

“ Genuine ultramarine should become deprived of its colour when thrown into concentrated nitric acid.
[4] Genuine carmine should be totally soluble in liquid ammonia.
[5] Genuine madder and carmine lakes should be totally soluble by boiling in a concentrated solution of soda or potash. ”

“ FELICIEN DAVID,* centre of leaf dark carmine, surrounded with white and beautifully veined with red on a light green ground; GOLDEN QUEEN, leaves large, pale golden yellow, uniform in colour; GRETRY, carmine centre, with white spots on a dark green ground; HELEVY, white midribs and marked with crimson blotches, on a green ground; HEROLD,* dark carmine veins, surrounded by light green, blotched with pure white, and margined dark green; IBIS ROSE,* a magnificent variety, with beautiful rich rose-coloured foliage, extremely attractive ”

“ When combined with alum, borax, lithium, etc., carmine gives a good, permanent nuclear stain, varying from reddish violet to deep scarlet. It is used chiefly in pathology to give a contrasting nuclear stain to the various pigments, and when specific blue stains have been used for fibrin, mucin, bacteria, elastic tissue, etc., or when a blue injection-mass has been used. Alum-carmine is the most precise nuclear stain. Differentiation with acid-alcohol is necessary after staining with borax- or lithium-carmine. ”

“ Melt the petrolatum and wax together and add the tannin while cooling; add the oils and stir until cold. When it is desired to color the lips add 20 grains of carmine. This is done by reducing the carmine to a fine powder in a mortar and rub with a small portion of the salve until it is thoroughly incorporated, and then mix the remainder gradually. ”

“ The preparation of carmine is little understood, but success in its manufacture depends less on any mystery connected with the process than on the employment of the purest water and the best materials, and the exercise of moderate care, dexterity, and patience. ”

“ It may be prepared by exhausting cochineal with boiling water and then treating the clear solution with alum, cream of tartar, stannous chloride, or acid oxalate of potassium; the colouring and animal matters present in the liquid are thus precipitated. Other methods are in use; sometimes white of egg, fish glue, or gelatine are added before the precipitation. The quality of carmine is affected by the temperature and the degree of illumination during its preparation—sunlight being requisite for the production of a brilliant hue. ”

“ When well-made, pure, and employed alone and in body, it has been known to retain its colour for years, especially if protected by oil or varnish. In tint with white lead, however, it has no stability; and though little affected by impure air, in glazing it is soon discoloured and destroyed by the action of light. Of great power in its full touches, it possesses considerable clearness in the pale washes, and works admirably. In landscape, carmine is seldom used, the colour being chiefly valued in flower painting and illumination. ”

“ Carmine.—Reduce one ounce of cochineal to a fine powder, add to it six quarts of clear rain or filtered water, as for cochineal. Put this into a large tin saucepan, or a copper one tinned, and let boil for three minutes, then add twenty-five grains of alum, and let it boil two minutes longer; take it off the fire to cool; when it is blood warm pour off the clear liquor into shallow vessels, and put them by to settle for two days, covering them with paper to keep out the dust. ”

“ See Carmine and Indigo, Sulphate of.
Blue, Char′coal. Carbonised vine-stalks are triturated with an equal weight of salt of tartar or pearlash, the mixture put into a crucible, and heated over the fire until it ceases to swell, the mass being kept well stirred all the time; when cold, it is dissolved in water, and the excess of alkali saturated with dilute sulphuric acid. The liquid becomes blue, and a dark precipitate falls down, which turns of a brilliant blue colour when dried and cautiously heated. ”

“ However, in this case, the pomade must be melted in a water-bath, or the pomade and wax melted together. Then add the carmine, stir until cold, fill into boxes and make the surface lustrous over an alcohol flame.
Lip-salve No. 2.—Pomm. Rose No. 6 or 12, 101⁄2 ozs., Huile antique rose No. 6 or 12, 14 drachms, white beeswax 51⁄2 drachms, carmine nacarat 23⁄4 drachms.
Melt the wax in a porcelain or enamelled vessel, then add, first, the oil, combine it with the wax, then add the pomade and finally the carmine. When all this is intimately mixed, stir it until cold. ”

“ Carmine should always be used to shade or ornament it, and if in some instances a deeper contrast is desirable, 38 add a little burnt carmine to it, where the greatest amount of intensity is required. Never use black to effect the object. ”

“ Is one of the most useful colours in illuminations; its richness, either diluted or not, gives life and brilliancy to the surrounding colours. In combination with enamel white, it makes a rich pink; with cobalt, it forms a soft lilac; and with burnt carmine, it produces a rich brown, and invariably adds to the general effect. Carmine is so generally useful, so easily applied, that the artist will soon discover its inestimable value. ”

“ Mix this part with white talc, reduced to fine powder, and moistened with a little lemon-juice and water. Then form the whole into a paste, and having put it in small pots, expose it to dry. This colour is reserved for the use of the toilette; but it has not the durability of that prepared from cochineal.
325. ECONOMICAL ROUGE.
Fine carmine, properly pulverized and prepared for the purpose, is the best that can be employed with safety and effect: it gives the most natural tone to the complexion, and imparts a brilliancy to the eyes, without detracting from the softness of the skin. ”

“ After the tissue has been passed from the hardening, or fixing, fluid into the successive alcohols, as described, it is placed in the following solution. Take about forty grains of carmine and eighty grains of borax, dissolve in about an ounce of water, add to the mixture an ounce of methylated spirit, and let it stand for some time with frequent shaking; about a week will be sufficient, and the process of solution may be hastened by gentle warming at intervals. ”

“ It is only needful to diffuse very finely ground carmine through the water in which they live, and, in a very short time, the bodies of the Colpodoe are stuffed with the deeply-coloured granules of the pigment. ”

“ Evaporate the mixture to one-fifth its bulk over a water bath, allow it to cool, filter from deposit, and evaporate to dryness, when picro-carmine is left as a crystalline powder of red-ochre colour.
Sections can be stained in a one per cent. aqueous solution, requiring only ten minutes for the process; wash well in distilled water, and transfer them to methylated alcohol, then to absolute alcohol, after which they are rendered transparent by immersing in oil of cloves or benzole, before mounting in balsam or dammar. ”

“ Carmine is better in lumps than in powder; diffused in pure water, it gives rose-color; a little salt of tartar brightens the tint. Carthamus is dissolved cold in alcohol; heat, as well as the alkalies, causes it to pass to orange. The acids render it of a lively and pure red; a very delicate flesh-color is obtained by rinsing the material, colored with carthamus, in slightly soapy water. Blue colors are prepared by means of indigo, or Prussian blue. Sometimes balls of common blue are used, steeped in water. Indigo is first dissolved in sulphuric acid. ”

“ The staining with the carmine will generally not attack the fine nerve fibres. To show these up I have used aniline blue dissolved in water. By these means I have brought out very plainly the nerve fibres, in nerve trunks, of considerable size, as well as those along vessels. I took the material prepared as described, broke up a little piece in fragments of the size of mustard seeds, and left them twelve hours in the blue fluid in a watch glass. Glycerine, if necessary, slightly acidulated, will remove the superfluous stain. ”

“ The tint turns more on the violet red when the solution of tin is omitted. Some persons use less, others more, alum.
2. Add washed and recently precipitated alumina to a strong and filtered decoction of Brazil wood. Inferior to the last.
Lake, Carminated. Syn. Cochineal lake, Florence l., Florentine l., Paris l., Vienna l.; Lacca Florentina, L. Prep. 1. The residuum of the cochineal left in making carmine is boiled with repeated portions of water, until it is exhausted of colour; the resulting liquor is mixed with that decanted off the carmine, and at once filtered ”

“ The best vessels in which to stain sections are small jars of white porcelain, capable of holding about two fluid ounces, and furnished with lids—they are much preferable to beakers or watch glasses, for owing to the white background which they afford it is very easy to watch how the staining is proceeding. The carmine solution which we have just described is both too strong and of too great density to be used in its pure state. ”