STARCHING (Clear). Muslins, &c., are ‘clear-starched’ or ‘got-up’ by laundresses in the following manner:—Rinse the articles in three waters, dry them, and dip them into thick-made starch, which has been previously strained through a piece of muslin; squeeze them, shake them gently, and again hang them up to dry; when they are dry, dip them twice or thrice into clear water, squeeze them, spread them on a linen cloth, roll them up in it, and let them lie an hour before ironing them. Some persons put a morsel of sugar into the starch, to prevent its sticking whilst ironing, and others stir the starch with a candle to effect the same end; both these practices are as injurious as unnecessary. The best plan to prevent sticking is simply to use the best starch, and to make it well, and to have the irons quite clean and highly polished. Mr W. B. Tegetmeier recommends the addition of a small piece of paraffin (a piece of
paraffin candle-end) to the starch, to increase the glossiness of the ironed fabric.
STARS. (In pyrotechny.) Prop. 1. (Brilliant—Marsh.) Nitrate, 521⁄2 parts; sulphur and black antimony, of each 13 parts; reduce them to powder, make them into a stiff paste with isinglass, 11⁄2 parts, dissolved in a mixture of vinegar, 61⁄2 parts; and spirits of wine, 13 parts; lastly, form this into small pieces, and whilst moist, roll them in meal gunpowder.
2. (White—Ruggieri.) Nitre, 16 parts; sulphur, 7 parts; gunpowder, 4 parts; as the last.
3. (Golden rain.)—a. (Ruggieri.) Nitre and gunpowder, of each 16 parts; sulphur, 10 parts; charcoal, 4 parts; lampblack, 2 parts; mix, and pack it into small paper tubes.
b. (Ruggieri.) Nitre, 16 parts; sulphur and gunpowder, of each 8 parts; charcoal and lampblack, of each 2 parts; as the last.
c. (Marsh.) Mealed gunpowder, 663⁄4 parts; sulphur, 11 parts; charcoal, 221⁄4 parts; as before. Used for the ‘garniture’ of rockets, &c. See Pyrotechny.
STAVES′ACRE. Syn. Stavesacre seeds; Staphisagriæ semina, Staphisagria (Ph. L. & D.), L. “The seed of Delphinium Staphisagria, Linn.” (Ph. L.) This article is powerfully emetic and cathartic, but is now scarcely ever used internally. Mixed with hair powder, it is used to kill lice. An infusion or ointment made with it is said to be infallible in itch, but its use requires some caution.
STAYS. Syn. Corset. Stays, “before womanhood, are instruments of barbarity and torture, and then they are needed only to give beauty to the chest. It is the duty of every mother, and every guardian of children, to inquire the purpose for which stays were introduced into female attire. Was it for warmth? If so, they certainly fulfil the intention very badly, and are much inferior to an elastic woollen habit, or one of silk quilted with wool. Was it to force the ribs, while yet soft and pliable, into the place of the liver and stomach, and the two latter into the space allotted for other parts, to engender disease and deformity to the sufferer and her children for generations? Truly, if this were the object, the device is most successful, and the intention most ingeniously fulfilled.” (Eras. Wilson.)
“Only observe,” exclaimed Dr John Hunter—“only observe, if the statue of the Medicean Venus were to be dressed in stays, and her beautiful feet compressed into a pair of execrably tight shoes, it would extort a smile from an Heraclitus, and a horse-laugh from a Cynic.”