52 THE PROTEIN ELEMENT IN NUTRITION 



values of white and wheat-meal breads on the growth and develop- 

 ment of the body ; this is probably associated with other con- 

 stituents of the wheat grain besides protein. A large number of 

 experiments have now been carried out with the view of con- 

 trasting the values of white bread, " standard " bread, and whole- 

 meal bread in nutrition and growth. Flack and Hill have shown 

 that white bread is very inferior from this standpoint. It is not 

 necessary to enter into details ; all that need be said at present 

 is that the superiority of wheat as a foodstuff appears to be due 

 partly to gluten and partly to an organic base. A similar base 

 can be extracted from the pericarp of rice or outer layers of the 

 rice grain by acid alcohol. It is not a phosphorized compound. 

 The absence of this from white rice apparently is the cause of 

 beri-beri.* There is a considerable amount of evidence that 

 white flour is depleted to a very large extent of this important 

 organic base, whilst, on the other hand, it is present in sufficient 

 quantity in " standard " and real wholemeal flour to meet the 

 requirements of the body. 



Another typical Indian food material is maize or Indian corn. 

 It is prepared for use in different ways. Usually the grain is ground 

 to meal in exactly the same way as wheat. Sometimes the indi- 

 vidual grains are separated from the cob and roasted, when they 

 swell up and burst ; in this form it is similar to the American pop- 

 corn. Often the cob, with adherent grains, is roasted ; the maize 

 is then eaten with butter and salt. Maize is extensively employed 

 as a food material by the people of Behar, United Provinces, and 

 other parts of India suitable for its cultivation ; strangely enough, 

 it is not used to any great extent in the feeding of prisoners. 



In India the average protein content of maize was found to be 

 9-55 per cent., fully 2-5 per cent, less than wheat contains. Its 

 fat is higher than any of the other Indian cereals, being almost 

 twice as high as in wheat. As already pointed out, zein is the 

 typical protein of maize, and it differs in its properties from the 

 gluten of wheat or the proteins of other cereals. Owing to the 

 absence of gluten corn-meal, cannot be baked into porous leaves 

 like wheaten-meal. The bread is usually, therefore, of the un- 

 leavened type, and is of a granular appearance. The germ and 

 husk are removed in the modern methods of milling, and the 



* Casimir Funk has recently isolated this body, which he terms " the beri- 

 beri vitamine," from the polishings of rice. He has determined its chemical 

 nature, and demonstrated its wonderful effects on the polyneuritis set up in 

 fowls by a diet of rice deprived of this substance (Journal of Physiology, 

 December, 1911). 



