TROPICAL FOOD MATERIALS 



53 



remaining endosperm is ground alone and purified by means of 

 air currents. About 30 to 35 per cent, of the entire weight of the 

 grain is rejected as offal, which consists of the hull, germ, floury 

 particles, and some of the flinty portions of the corn. The effect 

 of these losses is to lessen the protein, fat, and mineral con- 

 stituents, and raise the carbohydrates. Thus 



This method of milling has almost entirely replaced the old- 

 fashioned crushing of the corn between grooved mill-stones to 

 the desired fineness the coarse particles of the skin and bran 

 only being rejected. In India the old method is the only one in 

 use, so that it is corn-meal or wholemeal that is employed as food 

 material. 



Maize-meal, either baked or in the form of porridge, is very well 

 digested and absorbed by the intestinal tract. In a large number 

 of experiments* on prisoners in Bengal where maize was given 

 along with rice, it was found that the protein element was as 

 well absorbed as that of wheat, when the two foodstuffs were 

 given under the same conditions. 



Rubnerf places the absorption of the protein of maize at 

 81-8 per cent., and its dry matter at 82 per cent. Later work 

 on the digestibility of foods prepared from corn-meal in America 

 would show that the protein constituent is slightly less thoroughly 

 digested than that of wheat ; but the difference is too slight to be 

 of much practical importance. Thus, Harcourt states that 

 74 per cent, of the protein and 99 per cent, of the carbohydrates 

 of corn-meal porridge are absorbed, and experiments at the 

 Marine Experiment Station gave similar figures. With the finer 

 cornmeals from which the germ, hull, and other coarser particles 

 have been removed, the absorption of protein ranges from 77 to 

 86 per cent. The carbohydrates are almost completely utilized 

 by the body. Of the different cereals experimented with in 

 India, maize is decidedly superior to all with the exception of 

 wheat ; it is, therefore, difficult to understand why greater 



* Scientific Memoirs, Government of India, No. 37, p. 158. 

 t Rubner. Zeit. f. Bidog., 1879, xv. 



