Illustrative of this great difference of opinion, Mr. Beckman narrates the following anecdote: “A Dutchman, named Melchior de Ruusscher, affirmed in a society, from oral information he had received in Spain, that cochineal was small animals. Another person, whose name he has not made known, maintained the contrary with so much heat and violence, that the dispute at length ended in a bet. Ruusscher charged a Spaniard, one of his friends, who was going to Mexico, to procure for him in that country authentic proofs of what he had asserted. These proofs, legally confirmed in October, 1725, by the court of justice in the city of Antiquera, in the valley of Oaxaca, arrived at Amsterdam in the autumn of the year 1726. I have been informed that Ruusscher upon this got possession of the sum betted, which amounted to the whole property of the loser; but that, after keeping it a certain time, he again returned it, deducting only the expenses he had been at in procuring the evidence, and in causing it to be published. It formed a small octavo volume, with the following title printed in red letters: _The History of Cochineal proved by Authentic documents_. These proofs sent from New-Spain are written in Dutch, French, and Spanish.”[904] Among the important discoveries made by accident, the following in the history of Cochineal may be instanced: “The well-known Cornelius Drebbel, who was born at Alcmaar, and died at London in 1634, having placed in his window an extract of Cochineal, made with boiling water, for the purpose of filling a thermometer, some aqua-regia dropped into it from a phial, broken by accident, which stood above it, and converted the purple dye into a most beautiful dark red. After some conjectures and experiments, he discovered that the tin by which the window frame was divided into squares had been dissolved by the aqua-regia, and was the cause of this change. He communicated his observation to Kuffelar, an ingenious dyer at Leyden. The latter brought the discovery to perfection, and employed it some years alone in his dye-house, which gave rise to the name of Kuffelar’s color.”[905] That innocent cosmetic, so much used by the ladies, and commonly known by the French term Rouge, is no other than a preparation of Cochineal.[906] Kermes-berries, _Coccus ilicis_, and Cochineal, _C. cacti_, Geoffroy says, “are esteemed to be greatly cordial and sudorific, being very full of volatile salt. They are given also to prevent abortion from any strain or hurt.”[907] _Lac_ is the produce of an insect supposed by Amatus Lusitanus to be a kind of ant, and by others a bee, but now ascertained to be a species belonging to the Coccidæ--the _Coccus ficus_ or _C. lacca_. It is collected from various trees in India, where it is found so abundantly, that, were the consumption ten times greater than it is, it could be readily supplied.