Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume IX.djvu/294

 282 INK which otherwise is cognizable at law. If in such cases the courts of law have already taken jurisdiction, a court of equity will in a proper case restrain their further procedure. Thus, when fraud, accident, or mistake has given one party to the suit, an unfair advantage over his opponent, an equity arises in favor of the latter which will be protected by injunction. For ex- ample, if after judgment against the defendant at law a receipt is found, showing the payment of the very debt upon which he has been con- demned, if there be no remedy in such a case at law, equity will enjoin, and so prevent, the execution of the judgment. Equity will also sometimes relieve against torts. The ground of interference here is, that between the com- plete right of the plaintiff and the largest rem- edy which he can receive at law for the wrong done him, there lies an equity which is not protected ; this may rest either in the inade- quacy of the money compensation which the plaintiff recovers, or in his right to be exempted from vexatious litigation. The equity juris- diction in these cases is most frequently exer- cised in respect to waste, nuisances, and in- fringements of patent rights and of copyrights. The remedies at law in all these cases are simi- lar. To cite alone that of nuisances, they can at most only abate or afford compensation for existing nuisances, but are ineffectual to pre- vent such as are threatened or in progress ; if, however, the complainant's right be clearly admitted or established at law, and the nature of the threatened injury be such that it cannot be compensated by damages, or will occasion a constantly recurring grievance, equity has jurisdiction to enjoin. Further, as examples of the equitable relief afforded by injunction, it may be mentioned that courts of equity will re- strain the unjust conveyance of real property or the transfer of stocks during the pendency of suits which concern them ; they will forbid the publication of private papers, letters, or manu- scripts ; they will enjoin a husband's transfer of property in fraud of the legal or equitable rights of the wife ; and will compel the due ob- servance of personal covenants where there is no effectual remedy at law. In the cases thus reviewed, the court of equity issues the injunc- tion by its remedial writ. The judicial writ is in the nature of an execution, and issues subse- quently to a decree of the court. Injunctions may be either temporary, when they are grant- ed for a limited time, or until the filing of the defendant's answer, or the hearing of the court ; or perpetual, when in the opinion of the court, after a hearing of the merits of the case, the plaintiff has established his right to such relief. INK, the name given to a variety of prepara- tions designed for producing colored letters in writing or printing. The ink of the ancients appears to have been similar to the solid Chi- nese or India ink- a combination of lampblack with glue or gum, in the proportions, as given by Dioscorides, of three parts of the former to one of the latter. The liquor of the cuttle fish is also said by Cicero and Pliny to have been in use for ink. These preparations were used in a fluid state, by means of a style with a split point. Manuscripts written from the 5th to the 12th century are generally very legible, while those of the loth and 16th centuries are made out with difficulty in consequence of the discolora- tion of the ink. This is owing in the one case to the permanent quality of the ancient inks, which were of the nature of a black paint, and also to the use of parchment and of a porous pa- per of cotton rags which absorbed the ink ; and in the other to the closer quality of the linen paper of the later period, and the changeable nature of the ink, which was in fact a dye pre- pared from nutgalls and sulphate of iron. Pa- per bleached with excess of chlorine would cause this kind of ink to be discolored. The decay of the vegetable portion of the ink would cause the color to fade, and ancient writings thus rendered illegible have been restored by careful application of an infusion of galls. In an essay on the " Origin and Progress of Print- ing," privately printed by the Philobiblon so- ciety in England, 1859, it is said : " The ink of the ancients, and that used in the middle ages, had a consistency much thicker than that at present in use ; very highly gummed when applied to papyrus, parchment, or paper, it formed letters in relief, as if they were em- bossed, which has given rise to an erroneous conjecture that these writings were produced by a sort of typographic process. Black ink was in general used for manuscripts and char- ters. The basis of all the black inks was car- bon in various forms, as lampblack. Red ink was generally employed for writing initials and the titles of books and chapters; hence the term rubrics, from rwbrica, red. At Or- leans there is a charter of Philip L, dated 1090, written in green ink. The emperors signed in purple ink obtained from the murex ; gold and silver inks were chiefly employed on colored parchments or purple vellum. The celebrated codex of Upsal is written with silver ink upon violet parchment, the initials and some passages being in gold." Though the same materials were used for several centuries that are now employed for the best inks, little was known of the real nature of the compounds produced un- til the researches of Dr. Lewis and of Kibau- court toward the close of the last century ; the latter published an interesting paper containing an account of his observations in the Annales de chimie of 1798. The inks from that time were improved ; but the recipes have until re- cently been objectionable from the introduc- tion of unnecessary ingredients, and particu- larly from the necessity of employing much gum to prevent the coloring matter from sub- siding; this renders the ink thick and indis- posed to flow freely from the pen, and also liable to become mouldy. The requisites of a good writing ink are permanency of character, close adherence to the paper, a good color, no tendency to mould, and a proper consistency.