(From α, neg. and a mill, because it is made of com without a mill, or without grinding). It is the faecula of wheat, and with us called starch; named also amidum.

It is the purest farina of the wheat, but deprived of its gluten; and made also from potatoes. It was invented in the isle of Chios, and is valued according to its lightness, newness, and smoothness.

Starch is often very useful as a mild glutinous astringent, and, mixed with milk, an excellent aliment in fluxes and catarrhs; 3 i- of starch dissolved and boiled in iij. of water, with a little sugar, forms an elegant jelly, of which a table spoonful may be taken every hour. If dissolved in thin gruel, it is lenient, incrassat-ing, and of service against sharp defluxions, hoarseness, a dry cough, spitting of blood, diarrhoea, dysentery, internal ulcers, heat of urine, gonorrhoea, etc.

In diarrhoeas and dysenteries, when the stools are bloody, and the intestines relaxed, the following far excels astringents, or any other kind of clysters:

Gelatin ex. amylo. iv. extract. thebaic gr. iij.

Sp. vini. Gallic. opt. ii vel. i. m. enem. pro re nata injiciendum.

In spasmodic affections of the neck of the bladder, and in that distressing sense of weight and uneasiness, when, in gonorrhoea, the prostate gland is affected, the former clyster of starch, with opium, is an useful remedy, omitting the spirit.