202 M. Proust's Analysis of Barley. [Sept. 



sugar, and gluten, in the proportions of *04, -05, and "03 respect- 

 ively. The author remarks, that these sums, making in the 

 whole "12, are exactly the quantity of loss which M. Sage found 

 wheat to experience by being treated with cold water. 



But besides these products, M. Proust informs us that he has 

 discovered in barley a large quantity of a new principle, which 

 had hitherto been confounded with starch, and which is pro- 

 cured by washing the meal in the same manner as when we 

 wish to obtain gluten ; but instead of this substance, we perceive 

 on the fingers a rough, gritty matter, which is the body in ques- 

 tion. M. Proust gives it the name of hordc'ine. 



This hordeine, or hordein, is not soluble in water, and may be 

 separated from the starch by boiling ; it will then be left in the 

 form of a yellow, granulated powder, which, he says, from its 

 appearance, might be taken for sawdust. The following are the 

 -comparative analyses of wheat and barley. 



Wheat. 



Yellow resin P0 



Gummy and saccharine extract 12*0 



Gluten 12-5 



Starch 74-5 



100-0 

 Barley. 



Yellow resin 1 



• Gummy and saccharine extract 9 



Gluten 3 



Starch 32 



Hordein 55 



100 



To the large quantity of this substance, which is of so hard a 

 texture, and is probably less nutritive than the other vegetable 

 principles, M. Proust attributes the greater heaviness of barley 

 bread and its inferior powers of nutrition. 



With respect to the nature of this principle, we are informed 

 that it resembles the woody fibrous bodies that contain no azote. 

 By distillation, we obtain i of its weight of a carbonaceous 

 residue, also vinegar, oil, and gas, but no ammonia. 



When bailey germinates, it loses nearly -i- of its weight, and 

 also has its chemical composition, or the nature of its consti- 

 tuents, very much changed. The following is the comparative 

 state of the substance before and after it has undergone this 

 operation. 



