126 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



" The tables given were all of them calculated from the direct re- 

 sults of the different analyses, and not from the average per cent, state- 

 ments. By comparing the results of the determinations as given in 

 the above tables, we shall arrive at the following conclusions. 



" A much larger amount of starch is contained in all the speci- 

 mens analyzed, than of nitrogenous constituents. Food, to be prop- 

 erly constituted, should contain the elements which support respiration 

 and furnish fat, as well as those which form the tissues. We shall, 

 however, see, by comparing tables 2 and 3, that the proportions of 

 starch differ very much less when compared with each other, than the 

 nitrogenous ingredients do. The proportions of starch in the first six 

 and last four specimens are about equal to each other, whilst we have 

 in Farina twenty times as great a quantity of nitrogenous constituents 

 as in Corn-Starch No. 1, or Tapioca. I have, therefore, in the last 

 table, given the nutritive powers of the different specimens based upon 

 the amount of the nitrogenous constituents, the starch being nearly 

 enough equal in all to compute their nutritive power upon the nitrogen 

 alone. Arrowroot was taken as the standard. 127.5 parts of corn- 

 starch are required to equal in nutritive power 100 parts of arrow- 

 root, &c. 



" We shall also see, — 



" That the specimens analyzed may be divided into two classes, ac- 

 cording to their relative quantity of nitrogen. The first of which will 

 include the starches ; the second, farina, maccaroni, rice flour, and 

 prepared potato. 



" That the members of the second class are very much better fitted 

 for nutrition than those of the first class, farina being sixteen times as 

 nutritious as arrowroot, and twenty-three times more nutritious than 

 tapioca. 



" That the members of the second class contain, with the excep- 

 tion of rice, less moisture" than the first. 



" That two specimens of corn-starch may differ from each other 

 largely, one containing three times as much nitrogen as the other. 



" That the members of the first group contain from one sixth to one 

 ninth their total weight of moisture which may be expelled at 100° C. ; 

 those of the second, from one seventh to one tenth. 



" With regard to the ashes we find, — 



" That potato, dried at 100° C, gives over four times as much ash 

 as any other specimen analyzed. 



