THE CHEMISTRY OF COOKERY. 259 



of State and municipal legislation throughout the country and the en- 

 actment of uniform laws that, while securing the adequate protection 

 of the public, would no longer embarrass by needless and unreasonable 

 requirements the manufacture and sale of articles in universal demand. 



+*+ 



THE CHEMISTRY OF COOKERY. 



By W. MATTIEU WILLIAMS. 

 LI. MALTOSE AS A COOKING AGENT. 



A FEW years ago the " farmer's friends " were very sanguine on 

 the subject of using malt as a cattle-food, and at agricultural 

 meetings throughout the country the iniquitous malt-tax was elo- 

 quently denounced because it stood in the way of the great fodder- 

 reform. The malt-tax was repealed, and the subject fell out of sight 

 and hearing immediately thereafter. Why was this ? 



The idea of malt-feeding was theoretically sound. By the malting 

 of barley or other grain its diastase is made to act upon its insoluble 

 starch, and to convert it more or less completely into soluble dextrine, 

 a change which is absolutely necessary as a part of the business of 

 digestion. Therefore, if you feed cattle on malted grain instead of 

 raw grain, you supply them with a food so prepared that a part of the 

 business of digestion is already done for them, and their nutrition is 

 thereby advanced. 



From what I am able to learn, the reason why this hopeful theory 

 has not been carried out is simply that it does not "pay." The advan- 

 tage to the cattle is not sufficient to remunerate the farmer for the 

 extra cost of the malted food. 



This may be the case with oxen, but it does not follow that it 

 should be so with human beings. Cattle feed on grass, mangel- 

 wurzels, etc., in their raw state, but we can not ; and, as I have already 

 shown, we are not even graminivorous as they are we can not digest 

 raw wheat, barley, oats, or maize. 



We can not do this because we are not supplied with such natural 

 grinding apparatus as they have in their mouths, and we have a much 

 smaller supply of saliva, besides a shorter alimentary canal. 



We can easily supply our natural deficiencies in the matter of 

 grinding, and do so in our flour-mills ; but at first thought the idea of 

 finding an artificial substitute for saliva does not recommend itself. 

 When, however, it is understood that the chief active principle of the 

 saliva so closely resembles the diastase of grain that it has received 

 the name of animal diastase, and is probably the same compound, the 

 aspect of the problem changes. 



Not only is this the case with the secretion from the glands sur- 



