STARCHES. 659 
now the discovery equally of force-production from assimilated 
Starches, as, for instance, largely in white bread, or in potatoes, 
leads to a knowledge in signal advance of previous notions, 
whilst supported by modern experience. And therefore the 
conclusion is warranted that the bodily energies may be main- 
tained in their full vigour by starchy vegetable nourishment 
quite as well as by the more stimulating, (and more expen- 
sive) animal foods. The conversion of Starches into available 
nutriment takes place mainly by their combination with 
saliva in the mouth; but this saliva does not act upon raw 
Starch, therefore it must be first made soluble by cookery ; 
if through dry heat by becoming changed into soluble dextrin, 
which is a gummy substance familiar to everyone as the 
sticky material on the back of postage stamps. Similarly 
the crust of a loaf of bread consists chiefly of Starch which 
has been converted by the dry heat of the oven into 
soluble Starch, and dextrin. The carbohydrates of flour, or 
meal, are present mainly in the form of insoluble Starch, which 
must undergo conversion into soluble Starch, dextrin, maltose, 
and dextrose, before it can be assimilated as useful sustenance. 
This change is effected, or should be, chiefly by the saliva in the 
mouth, and is then continued in the stomach. The process of 
baking changes the Starch to a state of jelly, or mucilage, which 
in the crust is further baked brown, and hard. When we 
consider how large a part of our daily food consists of bread, 
and of vegetable Starches, the importance of our exceptional 
salivary power, and the necessity for keeping its secreting organs 
healthy, are at once evident ; other products being also formed 
besides the soluble dextrin, viz., maltose, and dextrose, which 
are fermentable sugars. Dextrin when it reaches the stomach 
becomes glucose, as likewise in the sweet- (stomach-) bread, leading 
on therefrom to the intestines. By contrast, cane sugar, when 
eaten, becomes sucrose in the stomach, and intestines. The 
glucose has to be stored in the liver; but if that organ is at fault 
the glucose is detained in the blood, and in other fluids of the 
body, causing diabetes. Otherwise the glucose serves for use 
throughout the body as required for supplying warmth, and 
vital energy. 
Starch forms the greatest part of all farinaceous substances, 
particularly of wheat flour. But carnivorous animals living 
exclusively upon flesh are found also to acquire glycogen within 
