98 VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. 



been mixed with its own weight of water. The 

 ready firmed saccharine matter of the barley malt 

 appear* to have the singular property of speedily 

 converting the fecula of unmalted corn into a kind of 

 soluble matter which has the fermentative properties of 

 sugar. If malt and rice flour, diluted so as to have a 

 pas;y consistence, be mixed and mashed together, 

 and then left during three or four hours, the mixture 

 wiR present the appearance of a liquid which is slightly 

 saccharine to the taste, and having a sediment at the 

 bottom of the vessel, which is found, on examination, 

 ;o be composed of only the husks of barley and rice. 

 M. Dubrunfaut used for the purpose rice from which 

 the husk had not been removed previous to its being 

 crushed, and which in this state is known by the name 

 of paddy, or more properly paddee. 



The practice has obtained very much, during the 

 last few years, of importing this paddee, in preference 

 to shelled rice, its cost being lower in foreign markets, 

 and the importers avoiding a very large proportion of 

 the customs' duty chargeable on that already prepared 

 for use. Some very effective machinery has been set 

 up for the purpose of removing the husk and cuticle, 

 and these operations are performed full as perfectly, 

 and with less breaking of the grains than follows the 

 employment of the ruder methods usually pursued in 

 the countries of production ; the loss, by waste, is 

 also found to be less on the transport of paddee than 

 of shelled rice. 



