MALTING 183 



ananas, afford malic acid ; tlio house-lcck and purslane contain the malate of 

 lime. 



The acid may be obtained most conveniently from the juice of the berries of the 

 mountain-ash or barberries. This must be clarified, by mixing it with white-of-egg, 

 and heating the mixture to ebullition ; then filtering, digesting the clear liquor with 

 carbonate of lead, till it becomes neutral ; and evaporating the saline solution, till 

 crystals of malate of lead be obtained. These are to be washed with cold water, and 

 purified by re-crystallization. On dissolving the white salt in water, and passing a 

 stream of sulphuretted hydrogen through the solution, the lead will bo all separated in 

 the form of a sulphide, and the liquor, after filtration and evaporation, will yield yellow 

 granular crystals, or cauliflower concretions, of malic acid, which may be blanched by 

 re-dissolution and digestion with bone-black, and re-crystallization. 



Malic acid has no smell, but a very sour taste, deliquesces by absorption of moisture 

 from the air, is soluble in alcohol, fuses at 150 Fahr., is decomposed at a heat of 

 348, and affords by distillation a peculiar acid, the pyromalic. It consists, in 100 

 parts, of 41'47 carbon, of 3'51 hydrogen, and 55'02 oxygen ; having nearly the same 

 composition as citric acid. A crude malic acid might be economically extracted from 

 the fruit of the mountain-ash, applicable to many purposes ; but it has not hitherto 

 been manufactured on the great scale. 



AIAXiIiEABXXiXTY is the property belonging to certain metals of being extended 

 under the hammer by beating, or under the roller. Gold is a remarkable example of 

 a malleable metal. 



XVCAXiXiXiAllXiZ: IRON. See IBOX. 



IVXAXiM ROCK. A local name for the sandstones of Sussex and Surrey, called 

 also fire-stone. It belongs to the Upper Greensand formation. This Malm forms the 

 soil which produces the greater part of the hops for which these counties are cele- 

 brated. See SANDSTONE. 



ItlAXiTHA. Bitume glutincux, or mineral pitch. It dissolves in alcohol, as also 

 in naphtha, and oil of turpentine. It seems to be inspissated petroleum. 



HALTING. The process by which barley or other grain is prepared by germina- 

 tion under artificial conditions, for the purpose of brewing. The changes produced in 

 its constituents, and the requisite properties of good malt, having been already given 

 in the article BEER, we now proceed to describe the requisites of a malt-house, and 

 the mode of operation. 



The necessary apparatus for the production of malt is extremely simple : that is to 

 say, first, a cistern or vessel for steeping the grain ; secondly, a floor on which it may 

 be thinly spread and allowed to germinate ; and, lastly, a kiln or stove in which the 

 newly-formed malt may be dried. These need not be of any specific size, neither is 

 any special position, or arrangement needed; but in this country, front the large 

 amount of duty levied on this manufacture, fiscal regulations interfere with, and in- 

 fluence the whole arrangement. 



The regulations as to the manufacture of malt are embodied in the acts 7 & 8 Geo. 4. 

 c. 52, and 11 Geo. 4. c. 17- The former act is an admirable specimen of legislative 

 injustice ; the latter was intended to ameliorate the provisions of its predecessor, and 

 does, in a degree, effect that object, The first contains no less than 83 clauses ; and 

 the regulations in it are enforced by 106 penalties, amounting in the aggregate to the 

 incredible sum of 15.000/. How much of this is negatived by the subsequent act 

 it is not very easy to determine, though, as far as it goes, the effect of No. 2 is to 

 stultify the regulations of No. 1 . The cistern or steeping vessel must be of a determinate 

 form and construction ; it must have been approved of by a supervising officer ; its 

 cubical contents must have been very accurately ascertained by actual admeasurement, 

 and it must be placed in such a situation that the officer gauging it may have sufficient 

 light, and a clear open space of 48 inches, at the least, above every part of such cistern, 

 for the purpose of facilitating the process of gauging ; and, lastly, if such light be an 

 impossibility, from local obstacles, the maltster must enter into an engagement to 

 keep, at his own expense, lamps or candles burning, for the convenience of the 

 officer. From what wo have now said, as well as from the notoriously uncertain 

 character of grain, it might naturally be inferred that the process of steeping would 

 be left entirely to the judgment of the maltster, who would determine according to his 

 experience, and the nature of the resulting phenomena, when the grain had been 

 steeped long enough in the water, and when it had not. The law, however, allows 

 him no such privilege ; whether the grain be old or dry, or new _and moist, is all 

 one, 'maltsters are required to keep their corn or grain covered with water for the 

 full space of 40 hours, under the penalty of lOO/.' Nor will any change occurring in 

 the appearance of the grain, and seeming to require its immediate removal, justify op 

 excuse the maltster in so doing, unless indeed he shall have anticipated the occurrence 



