486 
USES OF THE HORSE-CHESTNUT. 
yellow colour, and exercising its absorption therefore, as such substances do, on the more 
refrangible rays, would not show a pure red fluorescence. Either it would be non-fluor- 
escent, or the fluorescence of its solution would contain (as experience shows) rays of re- 
frangibilities reaching, or nearly so, to the part of the spectrum at which the fluorescence, 
and therefore the absorption, commences; and therefore the fluorescent light could not 
be pure red, as that of chlorophyll is found to be even in the blue and violet. The 
yellow substance separated by M. Fremy, by the aid of neutral reagents, is, in fact, non- 
fluorescent. Hence the powerful red fluorescence in the blue and violet can only be 
attributed to the substance exercising the well-known powerful absorption in the red, 
which substance must therefore powerfully absorb the blue and violet. We can affirm, 
therefore, a priori , that if this substance were isolated, it would not be blue, but only 
a somewhat bluer green. The blue solution obtained by M. Fremy owes, in fact, its 
colour to a product of decomposition, which when dissolved in neutral solvents is not 
blue at all, but of a nearly neutral tint, showing, however, in its spectrum extremely 
sharp bands of absorption. 
USES OF THE HOUSE-CHESTNUT. 
Of all the waste substances which might be profitably employed in domestic eco¬ 
nomy, there is none which has given rise to more discussion or on which so many 
attempts have been made as the fruit of the horse-chestnut, which contains a 
large quantity of starch. At various periods the utilization of this product has at¬ 
tracted public attention, and many speculator’s have essayed to make it an object of 
commerce. 
When first introduced from Constantinople, the fruit of the horse-chestnut was 
considered edible • and Parkinson, writing in 1629, included it among his fruit-trees, 
and described the nut as of “ a sweet taste, and agreeable to eat when roasted.” Very 
little use has ever been made of the nuts in this country; though in Turkey they are 
mixed with horse food, and are considered good for horses which are broken-winded. 
When ground into flour, they are used in some places to whiten linen cloth, and are 
said to add to the strength of bookbinders’ paste. They contain, moreover, so large a 
quantity of potash, as to be a useful substitute for soap, and on the latter account they 
were formerly extensively employed in the process of bleaching. The nuts contain a 
great deal of starch. 
In March, 1776, Lord William Murray obtained a patent for extracting starch from 
horse-chestnuts, which was merely by peeling them, grating the nuts, washing the 
pulp several times, and baking it or drying it. 
Various attempts have been made to utilize them by producing sugar and spirit 
from them; and on removal of the bitter principle, excellent edible fecula and mac- 
caroni have been made from horse-chestnuts in France. 
“Fecule de marrons d’lnde” is now made by H. de Callias, sold at twenty-two - 
francs the kilo., 18, Hue de Bellevue, Passy, near Paris. The process adopted by this 
maker permits the purifying of the fecula without having recourse to the peeling, 
which was formerly considered indispensable, and hence the extraction of the starch is 
as easy and cheap as that from the potato. The following is given as the cost:— 
* Francs. 
Collection of 20,000 kilogrammes of horse-chestnuts in the park 
of St. Cloud.400 
Conveyance to the factory of the Abbey de Val (Seine-et-Oise), 
belonging to M. Becappe ....... 280 
Manufacture and total other charges.200 
880 
Horse-chestnuts are much used on the Continent, especially in the Rhine districts, 
for fattening cattle and for feeding milch cows. Hermstadt gives the following ana¬ 
lysis of a sample dried in the air, and with 2P8 per cent, of the shell removed 
