TROPICAL FOOD MATERIALS 37 



of employing the cereals and legumes as food consists in separating 

 the grain from the chaff and dirt, often very imperfectly ; they 

 are then washed, sun-dried, and ground between millstones into 

 meal. The great mass of the population live, therefore, on a 

 wholemeal dietary ; in certain cases, however, some of the 

 finer material is sifted out, and made use of in confectionery. 

 In the larger towns and amongst the wealthier classes finer 

 grades of flour prepared in properly equipped mills are made 

 use of. 



Rice forms the staple food of the great majority of the popula- 

 tion of Lower Bengal, Eastern Bengal, and Assam, Burma, and 

 the different parts of India where there is a sufficient supply of 

 water for its cultivation. The rice in use is of two kinds Burma 

 rice and country rice. Burma, or Rangoon rice, the so-called 

 " white " rice, is prepared direct from unhusked " paddy " 

 i.e., as obtained from the rice-fields ; it is milled by machinery, 

 and the husk, pericarp, and surface layers of the seed are removed. 

 The result is a clean white rice grain, deprived to some extent of 

 its outer layers, and slightly of its protein and mineral con- 

 stituents. 



Indian, or country rice is prepared by soaking the " paddy " 

 for from twenty-four to forty- eight hours in water ; it is then 

 transferred to lightly covered cylinders, in which it is steamed 

 for from five to ten minutes ; subsequently it is removed to open 

 paved usually sun-baked mud courts, and dried by exposure 

 to the sun. The sample obtained by this process is yellowish- 

 brown in colour, and usually much contaminated with dirt. The 

 outer layers of the grain, however, are not lost, so that, weight 

 for weight, it should contain more protein and mineral matter 

 than Burma rice. 



Rice is the poorest of all cereals in protein ; when cooked it 

 swells up, and absorbs about three to three and a half times its 

 weight of water. Very little of the protein is removed when it 

 is boiled in a large quantity of water and the excess strained off. 

 From analyses of the drained material there appears to be a loss 

 of about 0-20 per cent, of the protein. 



Being very deficient in the protein element, it will be obvious 

 that, in order to obtain an adequate supply of this important 

 material, a people whose diet consists almost wholly of rice must 

 consume large quantities. This is found to be the case, and in 

 all fixed dietaries where rice is the main constituent it is present 



