rd William Murray obtained a patent for manufacturing
starch from horse-chesnuts. The method was to take the horse-chesnuts
out of the outward green prickly husk, and either by hand, with a knife
or tool, or else with a mill adapted for the purpose, the brown rind was
carefully removed, leaving the chesnuts perfectly white, and without the
smallest speck. In this state the nuts were rasped or ground to a pulp
with water, and the pulp washed with water through a coarse horse-hair
sieve, and twice afterwards through finer sieves, with a constant
addition of clear cold water, till all the starch was washed clean from
the pulp which remained in the sieve; and the water being settled,
deposited the starch, which was afterwards repeatedly washed, purified,
and dried, in the same manner as the potatoe-starch before described. We
are not informed if this manufacture has been carried into effect. The
sour, nauseous, milky liquor obtained in the process of starch-making,
appears, upon analysis, to contain acetous acid, ammonia, alcohol,
gluten, and phosphate of lime. The office of the acid is to dissolve the
gluten and phosphate of lime, and thus to separate them from the starch.
Starch is used along with smalt, or stone-blue, to stiffen and clear
linen. The powder of it is also used to whiten and powder the hair. It
is also used by the dyers, to dispose their stuffs to take colours the
better. Starch is sometimes used instead of sugar-candy for mixing with
the colours that are used in strong gum-water, to make them work more
freely, and to prevent their cracking. It is also used medicinally for
the same intentions with the viscous substance which the flour of wheat
forms with milk, in fluxes and catarrhs, under various forms of powders,
mixtures, &c. A drachm of starch, with three ounces of any agreeable
simple water, and a little sugar, compose an elegant jelly, of which a
spoonful may be taken every hour or two. These gelatinous mixtures are
likewise an useful injection in some diarrhoeas, particularly where the
lower intestines have their natural mucus rubbed off by the flux, or are
constantly irritated by the acrimony of the matter.

STEAKS FRIED. Moisten the pan with butter, put in some beef steaks, and
when done, lay them on a dish. Put to the gravy that comes out of them,
a glass of port wine, half an anchovy, a sliced shalot with nutmeg,
pepper, and salt. Give it a boil in the pan, pour it over the steaks,
and send them