MAIZE GRAIN AS FOOD 697 



Proteins and phosphoric oxide are both considerably CHAP, 

 higher in malt vinegar than in either spirit or sugar vinegar. XIV - 



Sulphuric acid, on the other hand, is, as a rule, high in 

 sugar vinegar, but never so in genuine malt vinegar. 



Juritz (1) finds that vinegars prepared from rice and 

 maize grits, i.e. the maize grain from which the embryo and 

 hull have been removed, do not contain as much as 30 per 

 cent of phosphoric oxide in their original solids, that is to 

 say, less than half the quantity found in genuine malt 

 vinegar solids ; in such cases the phosphoric oxide sometimes 

 falls even as low as 15 per cent in the vinegar solids. He 

 concludes an interesting discussion of the analytical problems 

 which would be involved in limiting the definition of malt 

 vinegar to the product obtained from whole grain, as follows : — 



" One thing is clear from even a casual consideration of 

 all the questions concerned. If the manufacture of maize 

 vinegar is ever to become a large local industry, two alterna- 

 tives are open : either (a) the use of maize grits must be 

 studiously avoided in the general interest, lest the market be 

 flooded with the products of fermentation of damaged rice — 

 products which would be indistinguishable from vinegar pro- 

 duced from maize grits, but would possess a sufficiently evi- 

 dent distinction from whole-maize vinegar, or (b) definite 

 standards will have to be laid down by legislation, discrimin- 

 ating more clearly than at present between vinegar prepared 

 from whole grain containing a certain proportion of phos- 

 phates and nitrogen, and vinegar made from more exclusively 

 starchy materials like rice or maize grits" (Juritz, 1). 



Maize for the Manufacture of Beverages. 



Maize whisky could be bought then for 15 cents a gallon. — Leland, 

 " Mem.," 1. 13, 1893. 



653. Maize Juice. — The Indians of Virginia appear to have 

 made use of the saccharine juice of the maize stalk in the 

 preparation of a beverage, for Bruce (1) informs us that 

 "except the juice sucked from the crushed fibre of the maize 

 stalk, they had no knowledge of any spirits ". 



The Aztecs also seem to have made use of the juice of 

 the stem, for Prescott (1) states that Zuazo extols the " honey " 

 of maize as equal to that of the bees. He says that the Peruvians, 



