of Grains anJ'-Farinnceom Substances. 161 



recommended by'Scheele, who, ho doubt, meant this kind 

 of vinegar alone. 



Barley, exhausted by washings in cold water, when di- 

 gested a few days in alcohol, gives a yellow colour to it ; 

 when distilled this alcohol contracts the smell and taste of 

 spirits dis'illed from grain; it leaves a thick oil, yellow, 

 brown, and greenish, which is even got from barley not di- 

 luted, and which is then mixed with the saccharine sub- 

 stance. This discovery accounts for the bitterness of the 

 wa'er of peeled barley, and for the necessity of throwing 

 away the first decoction of this grain. 



One hundred parts of the farina of barley, macerated for 

 thirty hours in alcohol, gave it a golden yellow colour, and 

 the sharp taste of spirits distilled from grain. This alcohol 

 is precipitated by means of water, and becomes much more 

 odorous. When distilled, it preserved its smell, and left 

 eight gfammes of an oily matter, yellow, brown, and bitter, 

 and which condensed into a species of soft beer. This matter 

 contained sugar, which the water had separated from it, and 

 was reduced to nearly an' eighth of its primitive weight, in 

 such a manner, that the oil of the barley only made a hun- 

 dredth part of the grain. 



This oil becomes clotty like olive oil ; it volatilizes on red 

 hot iron ; it burns like any other fat oil, and 'forms a soap 

 with alkalis. It is manifestly this oil which gives a bitter 

 rancid taste to barley bread, and the disagreeable smell and 

 taste which belong to spirits from grains. We may observe, 

 that this fixed or fat oil is not dissolved in alcohol, but by 

 employing the latter in very great quantity. 



The farina of barley, treated twice by alcohol, was washed 

 four times with water ; the waters evinced the same appear- 

 ances as already said, only the vinegar which they yielded 

 / was of a lively taste and smell ; this certainly depends upon 

 the alcohol which remained in the farina. 



The husks, steeped in water, placed in fine linen and agi- 

 tated in plenty of water, deposited starch ; there remained in 

 the linen 1 a sort of gray gluten, flaky and a little elastic, 

 which gave the same products, when exposed to the fire, as 

 M 3 that 



