238 INDIAN CORN. 



its adaptation to the varied wants of the system, have 

 been well stated in the following extract from an arti- 

 cle found in several contemporary journals, though 

 we are not certain of its original source : 



" During excessive fatigue in low temperature, 

 wheat flour fails to sustain the system. This is owing 

 to a deficiency in the elements necessary to supply 

 animal heat ; and the strong desire for oleaginous sub- 

 stances, under these circumstances, has led to the 

 belief that animal food is necessary to the human sup- 

 port. But late scientific experiments have led to 

 better acquaintance with the habits of the North 

 American Indians, and show that vegetable oil answers 

 the same purpose as animal food ; that one pound of 

 parched Indian corn, or an equal quantity of corn 

 meal, made into bread, is more than equivalent to 

 two pounds of fat meat. 



" Meal from Indian corn contains more than four 

 times as much oleaginous matter as wheat flour ; more 

 starch, and is consequently capable of producing more 

 sugar, though less gluten ; in other important com- 

 pounds it contains nearly as much nitrogenous mate- 

 rial. The combination of alimentary compounds in 

 Indian corn renders it alone the mixed diet capable 

 of sustaining man under the more extraordinary cir- 

 cumstances. In it there is a natural coalescence of 

 elementary principles which constitute the basis of 

 organic life, that exists in no other vegetable produc- 

 tion. In ultimate composition, in nutritious proper- 

 ties, in digestibility, and in its adaptation to the various 

 necessities of animal life in the different climates of 



