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To prepare realgar

The most brilliant and permanent yellow that can be imagined, is the sulphuret of arsenic, or realgar, into which more or less diluted, according to the depth of tint required, the wool, silk, cotton, or linen, is to be dipped. All metalic utensils must be carefully avoided. When the stuffs come out of this bath they are colorless, but they insensibly take on a yellow hue as the ammonia evaporates, they are to be exposed as equally as possible to a current of open air; and when the color is well come out, and no longer heightens, they are to be washed and dried.

Wood should be fulled in the ammoniacal solution, and should remain in it till it is thoroughly soaked; then, very slightly and uniformly pressed, or else merely set to drain of itself. Silk, cotton, hemp, and flax, are only to be dipped in the dyeing liquid, which they easily take. They must then be well pressed.

The sulphuret of arsenic will give every imaginable tint to stuffs, from the deep golden yellow to the lightest straw-colour, which has the invariable advantage of never fading, of lasting even longer than the stuffs themselves, and of resisting all reagents, except alkalies. Hence it is peculiarly fitted for costly tapestry, velvets, and other articles of furniture which are not in danger of being washed, with alkalies or soap, and to which the durability of colour is a most important object. It may also be used with advantage in paper-staining.