Preparations  of  Malt, 
l  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
t       Dec  ,  1876. 
lative  organs  of  the  human  system,  and  to  insure  the  proper  amount  of 
these  principles  depends  upon  the  proper  observance  of  four  rules,  viz.  : 
1st.  The  barley  must  be  malted  properly  and  carefully,  to  insure  the 
formation  of  as  large  a  quantity  of  diastase  as  possible,  that  by  its  action 
in  mashing  all  the  starch  may  be  converted  into  sugar.  The  chemical 
change  may  be  thus  represented,  the  starch  taking  up  the  elements  of 
water  : 
Starch.  Glucose.  Dextrin. 
3C6H10O5+H2O    =    C6H12Oe    +  2C6H10O6 
2d.  The  ground  malt  must  be  mashed  carefully,  with  due  regard  to 
the  temperature,  so  as  to  insure  the  largest  amount  of  sugar  being 
extracted  with  the  smallest  amount  of  water. 
3d.  The  evaporation  of  the  extract  with  a  low  degree  of  heat,  to 
avoid  charring  any  of  the  delicate  constituents  of  the  extract. 
4th.  The  most  scrupulous  cleanliness  must  be  observed  at  all  times 
in  and  about  all  mash-tubs,  kettles,  capsules  or  other  vessels  used  in 
its  preparation. 
A  word  as  to  the  object  of  the  preparation  may  not  be  out  of  place. 
It  is  well  known  that  in  the  human  economy  the  salivary  glands  and 
the  pancreas  secrete  analogous  principles,  each  having  for  its  object  the 
conversion  of  amylaceous  principles  into  saccharine,  that  existing  in  the 
salivary  secretion  being  known  as  ptyalin  and  that  of  the  pancreatic  juice 
as  pancreatin.  In  the  malted  barley  there  is  found  a  substance  an- 
alogous to  these,  and  having  just  as  strong  and  subtle  power  of  chang- 
ing starch  into  sugar  as  the  pepsin  in  the  gastric  secretion  has  the 
power  of  converting  albuminous  substances  into  peptone.  This  sub- 
stance in  malted  barley  is  called  diastase,  and  is  formed  during  the  pro- 
cess of  germination  or  malting.  A  small  portion  of  this  substance  has 
the  power  of  converting  an  almost  indefinite  proportion  of  starch  into 
sugar. 
These  facts  being  known,  it  is  obvious  that  when  the  animal  system 
is  incapable,  through  deficiency  of  the  natural  secretions,  of  convert- 
ing starch  food  into  sugar,  we  must  add  some  artificial  saliva,  as  it  were, 
to  perform  the  work  and  make  good  the  deficiency,  and  hence  it  is 
that  the  heavy  feeling  in  the  stomach  observed  after  eating  heartily  of 
potatoes,  corn-starch  and  other  graminaceous  or  amylaceous  food,  is 
promptly  removed  by  taking  a  small  quantity  of  a  good  extract  of  malt. 
Barley  grown  in  high  latitudes  like  Michigan,  Canada  and  the  like, 
