Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 6.djvu/117

Rh under the government of native princes, the Auamese lived independent, and preserved rather the name than the reality of vassalage to the Chinese empire. Since that time the nation, with a most remarkable aptitude for expansion, has aggrandized itself at the expense of its neighbours, and has conquered from the Cambodians Tsiampa and the six pro vinces of the south which now form the French colony. It is to be noted that the Cambodians, though endowed with physical force far superior to that of the Cochin Chinese, have been beaten by them in every encounter. {{ti|1em|It is nearly a century since the first treaty of alliance was signed between France and the kingdom of Anam. By this treaty, dated the 28th November 1787, the king of Cochin-China ceded to France in full property the Penin sula of Tourane and the Isle of Pulo-Condore. The agree ment was only partially executed, but it was sufficient to render the influence of France predominant in Cochin China; and Christianity made rapid progress in Tong-king. At the death of the king Gia-long, in 1820, the party hostile to strangers prevailed; and several attempts to pro tect the French missionaries and establish the French influ ence had failed, when in 1858, in consequence of the murder of M. Diaz, who was put to death by order of the king, merely on account of the news that a French ship was cruising in sight of the coast, a squadron was sent under the command of Admiral Iligault de Genouilly, who seized Tourane. Shortly after the admiral made explorations in the south, seeking a better situation for a settlement than Tourane, and passing up the River Don-nai, he took posses sion of Saigon, the true capital of Lower Cochin China. On the 5th June 1862 the court of Hue&quot; accepted a treaty, b} T which it abandoned three provinces to France, and bound itself to pay an indemnity of war. After various expedi tions occasioned by revolts, Francs occupied in 1867 the three other provinces of Lower Cochin China, and after long negotiations a treaty was signed at Saigon, on the 15th March 1874, definitively abandoning the six provinces to France. This treaty opens besides to the commerce of all nations one port in eastern Cochin China and one port in Tong-king, and guarantees liberty of transit from the sea as far as Yun-nan.}}

1em  COCHINEAL, a dye-stuff used for the production of scarlet, crimson, orange, and other tints, and for the pre paration of lake and carmine. It consists of the females of Coccus cacti,. an insect of the order Hemipttra, which feeds upon various species of the Cactacece, more especi ally the nopal plant, Opuntia coccinellifera, a native of Mexico and Peru. The dye was introduced into Europe from Mexico, where it had been in use long before the entrance of the Spaniards in the year 1518, and where it formed one of the staple tributes to the Crown for certain districts. In 1523 Cortes received instructions from the Spanish court to procure it in as large quantities as possible. It appears not to havs been known in Italy so late as the year 1548, though the art of dyeing then flourished there. Cornelius van Drebbel, at Alkmaar, first employed cochineal for the production of scarlet in 1650. Until about 1725 the belief was very prevalent that cochineal was the seed of a plant, but Dr Lister in 1672 conjectured it to be a kind of kermes, and in 1703 Leeu- wenhoeck ascertained its true nature by aid of the micro scope. Since its introduction cochineal has supplanted kermes (Coccus ilicis) over the greater part of Europe. The male of the cochineal insect is half the size of the female, and, unlike it, is devoid of nutritive apparatus ; it has long white wings, and a body of a deep red colour, terminated by two diverging setse. The female is apterous, and has a dark-brown plano-convex body ; it is found in the proportion of 150 to 200 to one of the male insect. The dead body of the mother insect serves as a protection for the eggs until they are hatched. Cochineal is now furnished not only by Mexico and Peru, but also by Algiers and the S. of Spain. In Teneriffe it was success fully cultivatsd in 1858, on the failure of the vines there through disease, but the diminished value of cochineal of late years has much affected its production in the Canaries Cochineal is collected thrice in the seven months of tho season. The insects are carefully brushed from the branches of the cactus into bags, and are then killed by immersion in hot water, or by exposure to the sun, steam, or the heat of an oven much of thf3 variety of appear ance in the commercial article being caused by the mode of treatment. The dried insect has the form of irregular, fluted, and concave grains, which weigh about YQ- of a grain, as many as 70,000 insects being estimated to weigh 1 It. Cochineal has a musty and bitterish taste There are two principal varieties silver cochineal, which has a greyish-red colour, and the furrows of the body covered with a white bloom or fine down, and black cochineal, which is of a dark reddish-brown, and destitute of bloom. Granilla is an inferior kind, gathered from uncultivated plants. The best crop is the first of the season, which consists of the unimpregnated females ; the later crops contain an admixture of young insects and skins, which contain proportionally little colouring matter. Cochineal owes its tinctorial power to the presence of a substance termed cochinealin, or carminic acid, a com pound of hydrogen, carbon, and oxygen, which may be prepared from the aqueous decoction of cochineal. The comparative value of different specimens of cochineal may be ascertained by a method based upon the bleaching action of ferricyanide of potassium upon a weak potash solution of the dye. The black variety of cochineal is sometimes sold for silver cochineal by shaking it with powdered talc, or heavy-spar : but these adulterations can be readily detected by means of a lens. The duty on cochineal was 