NO GAIN DUE TO MALTING 265 



comparative lots, receiving on the one hand barley and on the 

 other an equal quantity turned into malt, were small, and not 

 much removed from the inevitable error in experiments of this 

 kind. But, as a rule, the differences were in favour of the 

 barley, so that we may conclude that nothing had been gained 

 by the changes which the malt had undergone which would 

 compensate for the loss of dry matter. This is indeed what we 

 should have expected ; we now know that the whole of the 

 barley is easily digestible except a certain amount of husk. 

 This husk is unaffected by the malting process, and is not 

 rendered thereby more digestible. The malting changes, in 

 fact, consist in a destruction of some of the most soluble and 

 readily digestible carbohydrates, together with a transformation 

 of albuminoid into amides and other nitrogen compounds of 

 less nutritive value. Thus the general conclusion may be drawn 

 that it is not economical to malt grain before using it as food 

 for stock ; since, putting on one side the cost of the malting 

 process, the result is only a loss of some of the most valuable 

 parts of the grain. 



It has, however, been pointed out by Dr H. T. Brown that 

 there may still be some foundation for the graziers' high opinion 

 of a little malt in a mixed diet. 



The greater part of the kernel of the grain of cereals consists 

 of starch-containing cells, which are invested by a thin 

 cellulosic membrane. As long as this membrane remains intact 

 it constitutes a formidable barrier to the free action of the 

 starch-dissolving enzyme of the pancreatic fluid, which plays 

 such an important part in the dissolution of the solid starch- 

 granules when once the food has passed the pyloric orifice. 



There does not appear to be any provision in the digestive 

 tract of the herbivora for the secretion of an enzyme capable of 

 attacking this investing membrane, the dissolution of which 

 under ordinary conditions is brought about in the stomach by an 

 enzyme pre-existent in the grain. Under certain conditions this 

 enzyme, cytase, may either be absent from the food-grain or 

 present only in minimal quantity, in which case the addition to 



