TEANSACTIOXS. 85 



bined with well devised experiment. By means of analysis 

 we learn at once that the nutritive ingredients in different 

 specimens of the same article of food, and, of course, 

 the actual value of the article, vary very widely. The 

 chemical constitution of the cereal grains, wheat for ex- 

 ample, is by no means constant, and the amount of nutrition 

 yielded by a given quantity of this grain is modified by 

 the meteorological character of the season, the qualities of 

 the soil and of the fertilizers applied to it, the mode of 

 cultivation and the time of harvesting, as well as by many 

 obscurer causes. Thus, wheat generally contains sixteen 

 or seventeen per cent, of gluten, which is easily separated 

 by washing ; but there are varieties, or occasional crops of 

 wheat from which no gluten can be obtained, and there are 

 others where some of the berries from the same seed yield 

 the usual proportion of gluten, the rest are apparently 

 without it. If the flour is used for bread, this difference 

 in the character of wheats is not readily noticeable, or 

 if observed it is usually referred to other causes than a 

 difference in chemical character ; but in countries where 

 macaroni, wliich can only be made from wheat abounding 

 in gluten, is largely manufactured, the proportion of this 

 ingredient becomes at once a matter of familiar observa- 

 tion, and of very serious importance. Hitherto no tests 

 of the true value of different samples of grain, at once 

 certain in their indications and easy of application, have 

 been discovered, and wheat and other cereals are at present 

 judged of in the market only by their external character- 

 istics. It seems not improbal>le that, with the advance of 

 organic chemistry, some ready means will be devised of 

 determining the proportion of nutritive ingredients in dif- 

 ferent qualities of grain and other edible vegetables. — 

 Then the price will be determined by the amount of nutri- 

 tive matter, and both buyer and seller will come to have 

 a common interest in the cultivation of such crops, and 

 the adoption of such methods of husbandry, as will yield 



