Rice Starch is principally used for laundry purposes it will be found distinguished from all others by its singular purity and brightness of color. It will not stick to the iron in the slightest degree. It may be used with hot or cold water, and articles starched with it do not lose their stiffness in damp weather. A few of the principal sources of the various known starches are sago, arrowroot, yams, the manioc-root and horse chesnuts in addition to those resorted to by manufacturers, viz.: wheat, potato, maize and rice, the latter being a great novelty and illustrating more than any other the progress of chemical science. Wheat starch is the oldest known. It is alluded to by Pliny in the 'Natural History,' and the discovery of the method of its extraction is attributed by him to the inhabitants of the Island of Chios. The starches used three centuries ago, when such enormous ruffles and frills were in fashion were made from wheat; in fact down to modern times it was the only known source of starch. Owing to a scarcity of wheat at the commencement of the present century the use of wheat for the manufacture of starch was prohibited by a legislative enactment. The restrictions thus imposed were considered most oppressive, no one could manufacture starch without a licence and a tenement rent was exacted. The details of manufacture were subject to Government regulations and a duty of 3¼d. per pound was levied, amounting to more than 75 per cent. of the present market value of the article. These hindrances to the extension of the manufacture were wisely removed by our Legislature in the year 1833. Starch is one of the principal constituents of vegetable substance. It is stored up in the seeds, roots and piths of plants and by its decomposition furnishes the materials for keeping up respiration and supplying the animal heat. It has an organised structure and when examined by the microscope presents the form of rounded grains or granules composed of concentric layers which differ in size and shape in the starch of different plants the granules varying in diameter from 1000th to 300th of an inch. However the composition is the same, consisting of seventy-two parts of carbon and eighty-one of water. "In its pure state starch is a fine white powder without taste or smell. It is not soluble in water or alcohol, or ether, but mixed with boiling water it swells, bursts, and forms a kind of mucilage, which cools into a semi-transparent paste or jelly." The process of manufacturing starch from rice was discovered and patented about the year 1840 by Mr. Orlando Jones, founder of the house of the same name. His invention consists in the treatment of rice by a caustic alkaline solution during the steeping, grinding and macerating of the grains. The alkali used is either caustic potash or soda, of such a strength as to dissolve the gluten without destroying the starch; it must consequently vary with the character of the grain