COMPOSITION OF RICE. 511 



Perhaps no great degree of faith is to be placed in these analyses. If 

 they are to be depended upon, they show that very remarkable differ- 

 ences indeed may exist in the relative proportions of some of the consti- 

 tuents of rye flour. The flour of rye is said to be more absorbent of 

 moisture from the air than that of any other grain.* 



Rye delights in a sandy soil, and is cultivated in general in such as 

 are poor in vegetable matter, and to which manure is not very abun- 

 dantly added. The experiments of Hermbstadt, whose results are ex- 

 hibited in the following table, do not show any very striking difference 

 to have been produced upon the composition of the grain by the use of 

 the different animal manures : — 



KIND OP fg M 2 3 A ii c3e -SoiS 3^T3 



MANURK. ^ § =||3 ^1= l^^ci Zu^ 



^ K O*^ <B 9i 02OO -KPLio,^ tf^oa 



OxBlood 10 1 10-4 120 3-6 62-2 36 6-2 1-0 08 14 



Night-soil 100 107 119 3-2 524 35 63 0-9 0-9 13i 



Sheep's dung... 100 108 11-9 3-4 523 3-6 6-1 1-1 0-6 13 



Goat'sdung. ... 10-0 10-8 11-9 3-4 522 3*5 6-0 1-0 0-9 12A 



Human urine... 101 108 120 3-5 50-2 33 4-6 I'l 4-2 13 



Horsedung 100 10-7 119 28 512 40 4-6 1-0 3-6 11 



Pigeon's dung.. 101 10-5 11-6 3-7 522 3-7 4-7 09 2-3 9 



Cowdung 10-0 10-4 108 20 54-3 3-9 5-7 0-9 1-8 9 



Veget. manure.. 100 10-7 88 26 55-1 4-8 5-2 0-9 1-7 6 



Unmanured 10 101 86 26 56-3 4-7 5'4 0-9 1-3 4 



The above table exhibits a larger increase in the return or produce 

 from some of the animal manures than from others, but we do not see 

 any of those remarkable differences in the composition of the flour, whix;h 

 are observable in the results obtained by the application of different 

 manures to the wheat crop. 



The substance extracted from rye, and called gluten by Hermbstadt, is 

 different from the gluten of wheat, and is more like the glutine extracted 

 from the latter grain. When dough made of rye flour is washed in 

 water, it nearly all diffuses itself through the liquid, leaving little more 

 than the husk or bran behind. The starch deposits itself from the milky 

 liquid, or may be separated by the filter. When the liquid is evaporated 

 to dryness, and the dry mass boiled in alcohol, the so-called gluten is 

 dissolved out, and may be separated from the alcohol by distillation. It 

 must then be washed with water to free it from sugar. Like the gluten 

 of wheat, it is now insoluble in water, and is less cohesive than gluten. 

 Both of these forms of gluten are supposed to have the same composi- 

 tion as vegetable fibrin and albumen, and as the curd of mUk. 



§ 17. Composition of rice,, maize {Indian corn), and buck-wheat. 



1°. Rice is usually supposed to differ from other kinds of grain by the 

 larger proportion of starch which it contains. 



The large quantities of rice consumed by the native inhabitants of 

 India, and of other warm countries, has often appeared surprizing to 

 foreigners. Chemists have explained this alleged fact by supposing the 

 small per-centage of gluten contained in rice, as shown by the following 

 analyses, to be insufficient for the sustenance of the body — when no 

 pther food is used — unless this grain be eaten in exceedingly large quan- 



* A sample of rye meal, dried in my laboratory, lost only 14X per cent, of water, and of 

 rye bread leavened 44, and yeaated 46 per cent This rye meal may possibly have been 

 mixed. 



