164 HORSE-CHESTNUT. 



Qualities and general Uses. — The timber of the horse- 

 chestnut is white and soft, but not durable ; it is consequently 

 very little used in building. The various parts of the fruit 

 have been applied to several useful purposes : the nuts furnish 

 a grateful food to horses, deer, and poultry, and have been re- 

 commended for fattening cattle ; the milk of cows that feed on 

 them is said to be very rich. Before giving them to sheep, it 

 has been thought advisable to macerate them in caustic alkali, 

 or lime water, in order to take off the bitterness, afterwards to 

 wash them in water, and then boil them to a paste. If they 

 were allowed to germinate, and then divested of their bitter and 

 acrimonious qualities, they might probably afford a kind of 

 bread ; spirit might likewise be obtained from them by distillation. 

 They yield a large quantity of starch, and when boiled and 

 steeped in water, a saponaceous substance is procured, which 

 may be substituted for common soap, and used in bleaching 

 flax, hemp, and wool. A cosmetic powder may be also ob- 

 tained from them, equal to that prepared from bitter almonds. 



Sprogel, an ingenious German, has prepared a kind of paste 

 or size from the fruit, which is preferable to that made of 

 wheaten-flour. The nuts are first cleared of the hard shell, 

 as well as the inner skin ; then cut into three or four parts, dried 

 hard in an oven, and afterwards reduced to fine flour ; rain 

 watei-, with a little alum dissolved in it, is then poured upon 

 them, and the whole is worked into a proper consistence. No 

 moths or vermin will breed in the articles cemented with this 

 substance. Leonhardi observes, that the prickly husks may be 

 advantageously employed in tanning leather, and when burnt 

 to coal, they are said to produce an excellent black water-co- 

 lour. The brown, glossy integument of the fruit, bruised and 

 boiled in water with the addition of a little potash, makes a dark 

 brown dye, which imparts to cloth previously dipped in a so- 

 lution of green vitriol, a yellow brown, and to that prepared in 

 alum water, a faint red-brown colour. The leaves and bark of 

 the tree also communicate a brown dye. 



The bark, which is the part used in medicine, has a slight 

 aromatic odour, and an astringent, somewhat bitter taste. Its 

 virtues are extracted both by water and alcohol. The sulphates 

 of iron and zinc throw down from the infusion a dark-coloured 

 precipitate. The yellow colour of the infusion made either 



