Europe, especially the Mediterranean. These fish
constantly employ the contents of their "ink bags"
to discolor the water, when in the presence of enemies,
in order to facilitate their escape from them.

The black broth of the Spartans was composed of
this product. The Egyptians sometimes used it for
coloring inscriptions on stone. It is the most lasting
of all natural ink substances.

So great is the antiquity of artificial ink that the
name of its inventor or date of its invention are alike
unknown. The poet Whitehead refers to it as follows:

Hard that his name it should not save,
Who first poured forth the sable wave."


The common black ink of the ancients was essentially
different in composition and less liable to fade
than those used at the present time. It was not a
stain like ours, and when Horace wrote

"And yet as ink the fairest paper stains,
So worthless verse pollutes the fairest deeds,"

he must have had in mind the vitriolic ink of his own
time.

But little information relative to black inks of the