250 STARCH, ITS VARIETIES AND CHANGES. 
A few years since, our agriculturalists were desirous that 
the restrictions on the malting of barley should be done away 
with, so that, as they considered, the fattening of their 
animals might be more quickly and more cheaply brought 
about. In the investigations, however, instituted by Dr. 
Thompson at the request of the government, respecting the 
comparative value of malt and barley for this purpose, it 
was clearly demonstrated by him that the latter is to be 
preferred. It is quite true that animals manifest a desire 
for barley that has been steeped in water and allowed to 
germinate, because of the partial conversion of the starch 
into sugar, by which it is rendered more palatable; never¬ 
theless, by the process a portion of the soluble nutritive con¬ 
stituents are removed. Indeed, Professor Thompson found 
the loss sustained by barley in malting amounted to 19 per 
cent., or nearly one fifth, consisting of 
Water.6’00 
Saline matter.0-48 
Organic matter.12'52 
19-00 
Moreover, two cows being fed by him, the one on barley 
and the other on malt, that fed on the first named gained 
eighty pounds in a given time, while the other lost forty-two 
pounds. 
Each being allowed the like quantity of hay, that fed on 
barley yielded both more dry milk and more butter than 
that fed on malt; and the Professor therefore concludes that 
“ malt is inferior to barley as an article of diet for cattle, as 
it gives less milk and butter, and diminishes the live weight, 
instead of increasing it, which barley does under the same 
circumstances.” He was now naturally led to a comparison 
of the chemical composition of barley and malt, and these 
substantiated the positions he had laid down. 
The last change we shall allude to is that which takes 
place during the digestion of farinaceous matters. This 
commences in the mouth through the action of the saliva, 
the result being their partial or complete conversion into 
glucose. This is brought about by catalytic action, induced 
by the ptyaline of the secretion, sometimes called salivine 
or salivary diastase, acting the part of a ferment. 
“ The saliva of the dog and of the sheep” says Brande, 
“ have been analysed by Gmelin, and that of the horse by 
Lassaigne. The saliva of the sheep contained so much car¬ 
bonate of soda as to effervesce with acids, and also sulpho- 
