[ 176 j 



XXIX. Memoir upon the Germination and Fermentation of 

 Grains ami Farinaceous Substances. By Messrs. Vau- 

 auELix and Fourcroy *. 



Oix years have now elapsed since we undertook a course of 

 extensive inquiries upon vegetation, germination, and fer- 

 mentation, in the laboratories of the Museum of Natural 

 History. Although our experiments were very numerous a 

 lono - time ago, we did not wish to publish them until we 

 might consider our labours on the subject as completed. In 

 spite of all our exertions this period has not yet arrived ; the 

 multiplicity of our experiments, however, has presented us 

 with several facts, which, from their novelty, must be useful 

 to the arts and sciences dependent on them. Besides, as. 

 several chemists are about to publish memoirs and experi- 

 ments upon the same subject, we thought it advisable tx.»' 

 publish our observations in their present shape. - We shall 

 commence, therefore, by an analysis of the principal ali- 

 mentarv grains, and by the experiments we had made upon 

 their germination and fermentation. We shall give at the 

 conclusion our labours upon the chemical phenomena of 

 vegetation. 



§ I. Analysis of the Farina of IV heat. 



The water in which this farina has been macerated in 

 equal quantities for six hours, clear3 very slowly ; it is co- 

 lourless, of a mild insipid taste, with the smell of bruised 

 green corn ; it becomes frothy by agitation ; it does not 

 redden turnsole paper, and it is not acid like barley water ; 

 it is precipitated by gall-nuts, by the acids, and particularly 

 by the oxymuriatic acid ; almost imperceptibly by the oxa- 

 late of potash, and not at all by lime water. It does not 

 contain phospha'.e of potash, like the water which has been 

 used in the maceration of garden beans. 



This liquor speedily becomes sour, and even during filtra- 

 tion ; it precipitates yellowish flakes by means of heat ; re- 

 duced to one-half by evaporation, it becomes a little saccha- 



* From Annates dt Museum d'Histjire Naturellc, vol. vii. 



rine ; 



