CHINA-INK, a pigment made of lamp-black and gelatine, or isinglass, well incorporated by levigation on a stone slab. It is usually perfumed slightly with musk or with camphor. The finest kind is said to be prepared in the East from the soot obtained by burning camphor. When prepared in the ordinary way, the addition of a minute quantity of alkali is an improvement, as it serves to saponify any oily matter, and thereby renders the pigment more readily miscible in water.