SCOURING

or renovating articles of dre . This art has been much more studied by French men, who wear the same coats for two or three years, than by English men, who generally cast them off after so many months. The workmen who remove greasy stains from dre , are called, in France, teinturiers-degrai eurs , because they are often obliged to combine dyeing with scouring operations. The art of cleansing clothes being founded upon the knowledge of solvents, the practitioner of it should, as we shall presently illustrate by examples, be acquainted with the laws of chemical affinity. Among the spots which alter the colours fixed upon stuffs, some are caused by a substance which may be described as simple , in common language; and others by a substance which results from the combination of two or more bodies, that may act separately or together upon the stuff, and which may therefore be called compound .