No. 9. 



An Essay on Indian Corn. 



139 



An £ssay on Indian Corn, 



Delivered by Peter A. Broivne, JLsq., L. L. 

 D., before the Cabinet of Natural Science 

 of Chester county, Fa. 

 Continued. 



6. Are there any recent discoveries that 

 will shed any light upon this subjecti I have 

 heard of some which I will briefly state. 

 Tlye iNIessieurs Peale, of Philadelphia, always 

 anxious to enrich their museum, a few years 

 since procured from Peru two very interest- 

 ing collections of Inca mummies. These 

 mummies, consisting of a man, a woman, and 

 a child, were dug out of the earth in the de- 

 sert of Atacama, in the valley of the same 

 hame, capital of the above province of South 

 America. This place was a celebrated de- 

 posit of the dead bodies of the ancient Incas. 



The Peruvians entertained the idea, that, 

 after death, they were destined to cross the 

 sea to the west, and hence when they died in 

 the neighboring mountains, their bodies were 

 brought down into this valley to be interred. 

 They also believed that they would require 

 some of the good things of this life to sup- 

 port them on their journey to the " undis- 

 covered country," they therefore enclosed 

 with the bodies portions of provisions. 



After the mummies in question were 

 brought to Philadelphia, they were unwrapt, 

 and inside of the envelope were found mate, 

 (an heib) mixed with lime, several small 

 bags of Indian corn meal, and one ear of In- 

 dian corn.* 



Now we know, from history, that Pizarro, 

 in order to facilitate the conversion of the 

 natives, in 1555, forbid all interments in 

 Ariea, and from that period, this valley has 

 remained a desert; we have therefore the 

 positive proof that at least 382 years ago,- 

 (and how nmch longer we cannot tell,) In- 

 dian corn was the food of the Peruvians. 



In the 2d part of tirst volume of the Trans- 

 actions of the Geological Society of Penn- 

 sylvania, page 145, is a letter from J. C. 

 .lohnson, M. D. of Louisville, Kentucky, to 

 R. Harlin, ]\I. D. of Philadelphia, dated the 

 6th of July, wherein the writer says: — "■ 1 

 send you by Mr. Frazer, the fossilized corn, 

 ^of which I spoke when I first saw you. It 

 is found in the alluvial bank of the Ohio 

 river, about twenty miles below Wheeling, 

 both above and below the mouth of Fish 

 Creek, and extending up the Creek some 

 distance, and four or five miles on the Ohio; 

 it may extend farther, but shows itself onlj' 

 that distance by the washing of the river 

 against the bank. 



" The stratum is generally from eight to 

 ten inches thick, and from five to sis feet 



* A cast of tliis ear is deposited in the Academy ol 

 Natuial Science of Cliester County. 



below the surface, and contains nothing but 

 the corn grains closely impacted together 

 with the black dust, which you perceive 

 among the corn, has ever been found with 

 the grains. The same stratum has been met 

 with in places distant from this in digging 

 below the surface. This is all that I could 

 learn relative to this interesting and unac- 

 countable deposition. "Why, or how did it 

 get from the cob % 



"It certainly must have been charred, or 

 it would not have been thus preserved. It 

 could not have been reduced to this black 

 cinder, like the loaves of bread and grains of 

 different kinds found a Pompeii; or rather 

 it could not have resulted from a like cause. 

 I do believe, that if all the corn raised on 

 the Ohio, and all its tributaries, above this 

 point was collected in one mass, it would 

 not amount to one-tenth of this deposition." 



If the article alluded to in the above letter 

 is really Indian corn, whether in a fossilized 

 or any other state, it having been found 

 where described, is an unanswerable argu- 

 ment in favor of the position that has been 

 assumed. The fact is, that so much does it 

 resemble grains of corn, that there is scarcely 

 an individual to whom it is presented who 

 does not instantly pronounce that it is the 

 Zea maizei ; and yet when we take into con- 

 sideration the immense quantity that is said 

 to be discovered, all belief in it seems to 

 waver. No idea can be formed of an ancient 

 population of this continent dense enough to 

 have cultivated and stored away such an in- 

 exhaustible harvest; and against the sup- 

 position of its having been the sponfaneou), 

 production of the earth, the large size of the 

 grain is a powerful argument. There is no 

 doubt but the maize was a diminutive grain 

 in its natural state. Dr. Darlington is of 

 opinion that it did not much exceed in size 

 the grains of wheat. The grains upon the 

 ear found inside of the envelope of the Pe- 

 ruvian mummy, are quite small; and the 

 corn raised even at the present day in Peru 

 is far from being of a large grain. 



If, for the sake of further inquiry, we were 

 to admit that it was corn, it is not correct to 

 call it fossilized corn, in the proper sense of 

 that word, unless bearing the obvious and 

 characteristic marks of vegetable organiza- 

 tion, it has undergone one of the three fol- 

 lowing processes, viz. of intromission of the 

 mineral matter at present composing it, into 

 the interstices and vacuities of the original 

 organized body, or, second, substitution of 

 the present mineral matter into the spaces 

 which have been produced by the partial 

 removal of the original organic substance ; 

 or, third and lastly, by impregnation and 

 co?isolidatio)i of the chemically altered or- 

 ganic matter itself. Now it is obvious that 



