No. 151.] 433 



serves to keep meal from souring, as it has been observed that a flint 

 corn meal will keep sweet for years, even when put up in large 

 quantities, without being kiln-dried; while the meal of Tuscarora 

 corn will become sour in a very short time. 



The colors of Indian corn usually depend on that of the epider- 

 mis or hull, and sometimes on that of the oil. If the epidermis be 

 transparent, the color may depend either upon the oil, or the com- 

 bined particles of which the corn is composed; but if the hull be 

 opaque, the grain will present the same color. For example, the 

 yellow color of the golden Sioux is derived from the yellow color 

 of the oil; and the Rhode Island flint-corn on the colorless particles 

 of its starch and oil, which are distinctly seen through its transparent 

 hull; but red and blue corn owe their lively hues to the colors of 

 their epidermis, and not to the oil. 



The proportions of oil in corn, as far as it has been examined , 

 varies from an entire absence to eleven per cent., according to the 

 varieties employed. 



When corn is hulled by means of potash ley, a portion of the 

 oil is converted into soap, and the epidermis becomes detached. The 

 caustic alkali also liberates ammonia from the mucilage around the 

 germ. 



Oily corn makes a dry kind of bread, and is not sufficiently ad- 

 hesive to rise well without an admixture of rye, or other flour. 



The oil of corn is easily convertible into animal fat by a slight 

 change of composition, and consequently serves an excellent purpose 

 for fattening poultry, cattle, and swine. Starch, also, is changed 

 into fat, as well as the carbonaceous substances of animals, and during 

 its slow combustion in the circulation, gives out a portion of the 

 heat of animal bodies; while, in its altered state, it goes to form a 

 part of the living frame. Dextrine and sugar act in a similar man- 

 ner, as a compound of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. 



From the phosphates of grain, the substance of bone and the saline 

 matters of the brain, nerves, and other solid and fluid parts of the 

 body, are, in a great measure, derived. 



The salts of iron go to the blood, and these constitute an essential 

 portion of it, whereby it is enabled, by successive alterations of its 



[Assembly, No. 151.] 28 



