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This page describes trade processes that use dangerously toxic materials such as cyanide solutions, mercury amalgams, or strong acids. These processes require training, equipment, and precautions far beyond what the text describes.
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To dye horns of different colours
Black is performed by steeping brass in aqua fortis till it is turned green: with this the horn is to be washed once or twice, and then put into a warmed decoction of logwood and water.
Green is begun by boiling it, &c. in alum-water, then with verdigris, ammoniac, and white wine vinegar, keeping it hot therein till sufficiently green.
Red is begun by boiling it in alum water, then with verdigris, ammoniac, and finished by decoction in a liquor compounded of quick-lime steepod in rain water, strained, and to every pint an ounce of Brazil wood added. In this decoction the horns are to be boiled till sufficiently red. Horns receive a deep black stain from solution of silver. It ought to be diluted to such a degree as not sensibly to corrode the subject, and applied two or three times if necessary, at considerable intervals, the matter being exposed as much as possible to the sun, to hasten the appearance and deepening of the colour.