Ehan Althen, a Persian who introduced madder into France, born in 1711, died in 1774. He was sold to an Anatolian planter, who for 14 years kept him working on cotton and madder. On effecting his escape from slavery, he found his way from Smyrna to Marseilles and Avignon, where the soil seemed to him favorable to the growth of madder. He failed to interest the public mind in favor of his plan, but a French lady, Mme. de Clausenette, consented to plant the seeds which he had brought with him from Smyrna. The experiment was successful and extensively imitated, but Althen, who had thus conferred a great benefit upon France, was left to die in the greatest penury; and on the same day that the honor of a monument in the Calvet museum at Avignon was paid to him by the French authorities, his only daughter died in despair at the hospital.