Starch combines with certain bases, the compounds have been termed amylates ; that of lead contains + 2Pb0).
Test for Starch.—Free iodine communicates a deep blue colour to starch. The resulting body is called iodide of starch, but its con stitution has not yet been satisfactorily ascertained. The colour disappears if the iodine be in excess, if the mixture be boiled, or if any unstable organic matter, such as urine, be added to it. By bringing iodide of starch into contact with yeast, M. Duroy has lately obtained what he calls colourleis iodide of starch, a sweet, gummy, uncrystal lisable neutral substance, very soluble in water, but insoluble in alcohol.
The amount of starch in various vegetables varies as they progress towards maturity, and is much influenced by soil and climate.
length is capable of containing a garrison more numerous than that which would be required for the end proposed by such a work. A star-fort with six or eight points has a great advantage over a simple rodent, though its construction is less simple : the crossing fires from the Laces seriously impede the advance of the enemy towards the salient points ; and the assailants, in passing the ditch, are completely exposed to the view of the defenders.
During the Seven Years War, the king of Prussia's intrenched camp at Jauernick contained a star-fort on a rising ground in its centre, from whence the movements of the Austrians could be observed ; and in this work the king's tent was pitched. The position taken up on the Nivello by Marshal Soult, while the British army was acting in the south of France (1813), was protected by a strong star-fort. The work was constructed on a terrace below the summit of a mountain called the Smaller ithune, and was intended to defend the entrance of a ravine. A platform below the summit of a ridge of high ground near the ljidassoa was, in like manner, fortified by a star-fort.
STARCH Pecula ; Amidon; Amylaccous matter.—The substance known in commerce and in domestic life as starch, is usually prepared from wheaten flour. Starch, however, exists in abundance in very many other vegetables, so that, strictly speaking, the term is a generic one. The flour of barley, oats, rye, arrow-root, sago, tapioca, rice ; the greater part of the common potato, harico bean, lentil, maize, millet, &c., is starch. The starch from these various sources is
identical so far as composition is concerned ; the elements carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen exist in exactly similar proportions in all. As usually met with, the several varieties differ somewhat in taste, but this is probably owing to admixture of traces of volatile oil. [ESSENTIAL OILS, of Starch.] They appear also to slightly differ from each other in capability of assimilation when taken as food ; a fact not yet satis factorily accounted for.
To the naked eye starch presents a white glistening appearance, and seems to be an aggregation of small shapeless particles. By the aid of the microscope, however, it is seen to consist of beautiful regular ovoid granules ; and under a magnifying power of from two to five hundred diameters, each granule is found to be marked by a series of circles converging from the circumference to a point termed the hilum. The size of the granule, the distinctness of the concentric lines, and the IVheat Starch.—Wheaten flour is mixed with water and exposed to the air, with occasional stirring, for several weeks. During this time a portion of the gluten of the flour undergoes putrefaction : fermentation is set up, and some of the starch is converted into carbonic acid and alcohol, acetic and lactic acids are also formed. During this change an exceedingly unpleasant prutreseent odour is given off from the mass ; the starch, however, ultimately subsides in the pure state, and colourless, the other .matters with which it was mixed in the flour, as well as some products of decomposition, remain ing in solution or floating on the surface as a scum, called slimes or flummery. The latter was formerly given to pigs for food, but is now used by the calico-printer as a resist paste. The peculiar, but well known columnar appearance of wheat starch, as met with in commerce, is acquired during the drying opertion. The moist starch is cut up into blocks about six inches square, and placed in carefully heated stoves ; as the water evaporates the masses shrink and split up into the characteristic irregular fragments.