OF THE POTATOE. 439 
to flour, is at present extensively employed on 
the Continent, in the preparation of a very whole- 
some quality of bread, and the starch itself is 
consumed in making confectionary, jellies, sago, 
tapioca, in thickening paper, and in a variety of 
uses, by which such quantities of it are employed 
as to render its manufacture a really important 
and extensive department of industry.” 
“The most remarkable of all the applications 
of potatoe starch is, however, one to which the 
excise laws of this country would probably pre- 
sent invincible impediments. It is the preparation 
of sugar, and of spirits. Under the influence of 
certain chemical agents, simple, yet peculiar in 
their action, and to which it would not be my 
province here to refer in detail, starch is con- 
verted into sugar, and this sugar, by fermen- 
tation, yields spirit. On the Continent the 
manufacture of sugar from corn is almost aban- 
doned. Potatoe spirit is almost universally used, 
and in flavour, it so resembles brandy, that it is 
well known that a large quantity of the French 
brandy brought into London, is potatoe spirit 
from Hamburgh, coloured with burned sugar.” 
