STABILITY IN THE NATURE OF STARCH, 
itninate. Immersion in water of the tempera- 
Sure of 167o for 15 seconds was sufficient to 
destroy the power of germination in most in- 
stances ; but this invariably occurred, if the 
exposure to this high temperature was protract- 
ed for 5 minutes. The method in which the 
heat operates in these cases, appears to be in 
some measure elucidated by the researches of 
Biot, Persoz, and Raspail,who observed that 
the temperature 1670 is that at which the 
grains , of starch burst. Hence, it appears, 
that in dry air barley may be exposed to a 
range of temperature equivalent to 205o at 
least, and^ may still retain its germinating 
powers unimpaired. 
We have two quantitative analyses of barley, 
one by Einhof and the other by Proust. The 
following are their results. Einhof obtained 
from Hordeum vulgare. 
Starch not quite free from gluten 67.187, 
Volatile matter9*375, Saccharine matters. 208, 
Husk with some gluten and starch 6‘770, 
Mucilage 4'583, Gluten 3*515, Albumen 1*114, 
Phosphate of lime and loss 2*243 
100 000 » 
Proust obtained Yellow resin 1* Gum 4 
Sugar 5, Gluten 3, Starch 32, Hordein 55, 
100* t 
Tn these results we observe considerable dif- 
ferences, which are to be attributed to the 
mode in which the analyses were conducted. 
Einhof determined the weight of the starch 
and gluten together, when they had been de- 
posited from water in which the meal con- 
tained in a linen bag had been kneaded. 
The water from which the starch was 
separated was filtered and boiled ; coagulated 
albumen .subsided, and by evaporation an 
extract was afforded which was treated with 
alcohol. It gave gluten and sugar. These 
substances were separated by mixing the 
alcoholic solution with water and distilling the 
alcohol. The gluten felldown, and the sugar 
remained dissolved in the fluid. The alcohol 
left undissolved some gum and phosphate of 
lime. The former was taken up by water and 
left the latter in a pure state. The matter 
im the linen bag consisted of vegetable fibre, 
mixed with a little gluten and starch. The 
hordein of Proust was obtained equally well 
by means of hot or cold water, which dissolv- 
ed the starch and left the hordein in an 
insulated state. Raspail considers thissubstance 
to be the pericarp of the seed or what we term 
bran. The propriety of thisopinion is streng- 
thened by the circumstance that there is very 
little of it existing in pearl barley. The sub- 
stances reckoned by the French chemists as 
constituents of starch, viz. amidone, diatase, 
amidine, and dextrine, there is strong reason 
to consider as products of the analytical opera- 
tions.J 
It is a remarkable circumstance, in reference 
to the starch which forms such a principal 
constituent of the seed of barley, that it is 
possessed of a most durable nature when pre- 
* Gblen, vi. 83, Thomson’s Chemistry, iy, 
t Ann. of Phil, xiir 201. 
i Records of General Science, i, 196. 
served in dry magazines. This fact is illustra- 
ted in a very striking point of view by some 
researches of the French chemists.* In 1817 
a dep6t of barley was discovered in the citadel 
of Metz, which had remained closed up from 
the year 1523, and notwithstanding that it had 
remained in this state for 294 years, it afforded 
excellent bread when converted into meal. 
A similar magazine was also recently detected 
in some villages destroyed by the Turks ira 
1526, where the corn appeared to have lost 
none of its qualities proper for forming an. 
essential article of food. 
These though remarkable instances of the 
capacity Which the starch of barley possesses 
of with standing decomposition, must yield 
infinitely in importance to observations which 
have been made upon grain preserved in the 
collections of M. Passalacqua, That gentle- 
man brought from the ruins of Thebes, in 
Egypt, some grain, which, when examined by 
D’Arcet, Vauquelin, Bailly.and Fontennelle, 
was found to be slightly acid, and to contain 
Its proper quantity of starch, but no gluten. 
Raspail subsequently confirmed the accuracy 
of these chemists. When Passalacqua sold 
his collection of antiquities to the king of 
Prussia, Champolion found between the limbs 
of a mummy which he recognised as the re- 
mains of Pharoah, son of Marsaroun Main- 
oute, or priest of a great tribe, attached to the 
worship of the goddess Netpha, the Egyptain 
Rhea mother of Osiris and Isis,) a small 
brown compact loaf, surrounding a number 
of grains of barley, which had germinated 
and been slightly scorched. These seeds, 
which must have! been above 3000 years old, 
were examined by M. Julia Fonteiineile, who 
could detect no gluten in them, but found 
that the starch, by its action on iodine, was 
not impaired in its properties, A little acid 
was also present, as was demonstrated by tha 
reaction on; 
When exposed to the air and moisture, 
however, staich undergoes a remarkable 
change. M. Lassaigne examined some wheat 
which was found in pulling down a house ia 
Paris, at the Quai de la Greve. It possessed 
a black colour, as if it had been converted into 
charcoal. It contained neither starch nor 
gluten, but amch ulmine or ulmic acid, Tha 
appearance of the grain led this chemist to 
believe that it had been partially converted 
into coal, in a manner similar to that in which 
trees and smaller vegetables have been changed 
into coal, jet, and pekt. Wheat found at 
Royat, near Clemont, (Auvergne) in ;the 
mountain called the Granaries of Caesar," M. 
Lassaigne ascertained had undergone a similar 
change. 
The precise researches of Raspail enable us 
to comprehend in some measure the cause of 
this stability in the nature of starch. Accor- 
ding to him, starch consists of grains which 
vary in form and dimensions, the diameters not 
exceeding, in maturity, *00393 inch ; but 
before they have attained their full size, being 
exceedingly more minute. Those of the Hor- 
dium vulgare dixe about *0098 inch in diameter. 
* Journ, de Chim, medicale, i, 63, gnd. ser. 
