of Grains and Farinaceous Sulstances. 179 



by the oxymuriatic acid, and is no longer precipitated by 

 infusion of galls. 



After three months' putrefaction (March, April, and May) 

 the gluten had a brown colour, and exhaled only a weak 

 smell, but presented a great diminution in volume and mass. 

 Separated, and then submitted to desiccation, it dried into 

 lumps, the smell of which resembled that of the earth of 

 burying-places : it softened under the finger like wax ; it 

 melted and burned with a name and a smell like fat, yielded 

 very little carbon, and dissolved in alcohol, to which it gave 

 a brown colour; the portion not dissolved was dry, pulve- 

 rulent, inodorous, insipid, and very like the ashes of char- 

 coal ; it burned with the sharp smell of wood, without am- 

 monia, and left reddish gray ashes, in which iron and silex 

 were found. 



In this putrid decomposition of gluten azote is united to 

 hydrogen, and a portion of carbon to oxygen, in order to 

 form ammonia and carbonic acid. The carbon united more 

 abundantly to hydrogen had produced the fat; and the prin- 

 ciples superabundant to the formation of the carbonic acid, 

 ammonia and fat, remained combined in a state something 

 like that of a ligneous body. 



§ III. Analysis of Barley. 



Good wholesome and fresh ground barley contains almost 

 always the acetic acid completely formed, and an animal 

 matter more abundantly soluble in water than that of the 

 farina of wheat, on account of the presence of the acid. 

 Some barleys are not acid at all. 



The water in which the farina of barley is diluted in equal 

 volume, forms a thick, gluey, mucilaginous soup ; when 

 clarified, it is of an amber colour ; its surface becomes 

 brown, and the colour fades by degrees. After the depar- 

 ture of the acid, the water in which the barley is dissolved 

 remains milky, and does not clarify, except by repeated fil- 

 trations. When drawn oft", this water clarifies by itself, and 

 becomes purple. It is very acid, and very nauseous ; it con- 

 tains an acid formed by fermentation, and an animal matter 

 in large quantity, which the acid renders soluble. 



M 2 The 



