Note 246 — ESSAYS. (continued 3)
Reading edition
Dragon’s blood is the resin of the “Dracæna draco” of Linnæus. The resin itself is opaque and brittle. The powder is of a crimson colour, insoluble in water. With us it is soluble both in alcohol and in the fixed oils; the ancients, as they had not alcohol, may have used it with oil.
This was probably the crimson colour which the Frenchman, mentioned in the little account of Pompeii, published by the Society for the Diffusion of Knowledge, bought of the workmen employed in excavating the town, and used with success as a body colour. He does not appear to have analysed it, or in any way endeavoured to ascertain its nature, for the benefit of art. See vol. ii., p. 56.