300 Br. R. D. Thomson [Oct. 



of 167°, and exposure to hot air of the same temperature, 

 was sufficient to destroy the power of germination. When 

 the malt has remained from forty to eighty hours in the 

 kiln, according to the temperature and quantity of malt 

 employed it is cleaned, while still warm it is trodden upon 

 by the workmen, in order to break off the radicles or 

 commings. The malt is then passed through the fanners, or 

 the rootlets are separated by means of an instrument called 

 the harp. The malt thus purified weighs ^ less than the 

 raw grain. In Ireland the loss of weight is estimated at -J. 



The real loss may be estimated at 22 per cent. Of this, 

 14 parts consist of moisture, and are not peculiar to malt ; 

 so that, in reality, a loss of only 8 per cent, is sustained, of 

 which 1| disappear in the steep, 3 on the floor, and 3 by the 

 commings, the waste being J. The bulk of the malt is gene- 

 rally greater than that of the raw grain ; the average of 

 English barley being 105 bushels of malt for 100 grain, and 

 that of the bigg 99. The weight, however, of the malt, is 

 in the proportion of 75 bushels malt for 100 grain. 



We are now prepared to attend to the change which has 

 taken place during the process of malting. The alteration 

 which occurs in its chemical composition will be best under- 

 stood by a comparison of its analysis before and after 

 malting, by Proust. 



Here we observe that the gum has increased 11 per cent, 

 and the sugar 10 per cent., thus affording 21 per cent, of 

 additional fermentable matter. The gluten has diminished 

 2 per cent. I have little doubt that the original quantity 

 of starch ought to have been estimated at 8 per cent., and 

 that hordein consistsmerely of starch, whose properties are 

 obscured by the presence of gluten. The additional gum 

 is produced at the expense of the starch, and the sugar 

 proceeds first from the starch in the form of gum, and then 

 is transformed into sugar. The mode in which this change 



