t 405 3 
METHOD OF MANUFACTURING ISINGLASS. 
THE following paper was formerly published by Di% 
Mease, in his Archives, I think proper to publish it 
also ; for Isinglass at three dollars a pound is a sufficient 
inducement to find a substitute, which, in my opinion^ 
may be found in almost any fish. It is a great pity that 
fish-soup should be so little used in cookery, so excellent 
as it is. A glue having many properties of isinglass, I have 
made from the dried skin of Eels, from the heads of Cat-- 
fish, from the heads of Shad thrown away, from the Sus- 
quehanna Salmon or Bass, and from Perch. I do not know 
how isinglass dissolved, differs from any common fish 
gelly in its chemical qualities, but it is more tasteless, and 
therefore for some purposes more eligible. T. C. 
Method of Manufacturing While isinglass 
is such an essential in a variety of British manufac- 
tures and preparations, and for which we are indebt- 
ed chiefly to importation, the following account of 
the method of making it, will not only be entertaining, 
but furnish some useful hints for British ingenuity, in 
procuring a substitute equal to that imported from Russia 
• — -it is taken from an account published in the 63d voL 
of the PhiiosophiGal Transactions, by Humphrey Jack- 
son, Esq. 
The secret of isinglass rested a long time solely with 
the Russians, and made from the fish Huso^ or isinglass 
sturgeon ; and its name in Greek signifies fish-glue, \\z. 
Ich hyocolla. All authors who have hitherto delivered 
processes for making fish-glue, or isinglass, have greatly 
mistaken both its constituent matter and preparation. To 
prove this assertion, it may not be improper to recite what 
a writer of the name of Pomet says on the subject, as he 
appears to be the principal author, whom the rest have 
VoL IL 3 F 
