INDIAN CORN. 41 



The colours of Indian corn usually depend on that 

 of the epidermis or hull, and sometimes on that of tho 

 oil. If tho epidermis be transparent, the colour may 

 depend either upon the oil, or the combined particles 

 of which the corn is composed ; but if the hull be 

 opaque, the grain will present the same colour. For 

 example, the yellow colour of the golden Sioux is 

 derived from the yellow colour of the oil ; and the 

 Rhode Island white flint-corn on the colourless par- 

 ticles of , its starch and oil, which are distinctly seen 

 through its transparent hull ; but red and blue 

 corn owe their lively hues to the colours of their 

 epidermis, and not to the oil. 



The proportions of oil in corn, as far as it has been 

 examined, varies from an entire absence to eleven per 

 cent., according to the varieties employed. 



When corn is hulled by means of potash ley, a por- 

 tion of the oil is converted into soap, and the epidermis 

 "becomes detached. The caustic alkali also liberates 

 ammonia from the mucilage around the germ. 

 Oily corn makes a dry kind of bread, and is not suf- 

 ficiently adhesive to rise well without an admixture of 

 rye, or other flour. 



The oil of corn is easily convertible into animal fat 

 by a slight change of composition, and consequently 

 serves an excellent purpose for fattening poultry, cattle, 

 and swine. Starch, also, is changed into fat as well as 

 the carbonaceous substances of animals, and during its 

 slow combustion in the circulation, gives out a portion 

 of the heat" of animal bodies ; while, in its altered 

 state, it goes to form a part of the living frame. Dex- 

 trine and sugar act in a similar manner, as a compound 

 of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. 



From the phosphates of grain, the substance of bone 

 and the saline matters of the brain, nerves, and other 

 solid and fluid parts of the body, are, in a great 

 measure, derived. 



The salts of iron go to the blood, and these consti- 

 tute an essential portion of it ? whereby it is enabled, 

 by successive alterations of its degree of oxidation 



