The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1874-02-05
[From the Scientific Americana
The Value of a Kernel of Corn.

In considering the curious and inter
esting chemical nature of corn, we shall
use the word as applied to wheat, as well
as to maize. The two grains are chemi-
cally constituted very much alike, and
what may be said of one applies with
almost equal truth to the other. Both
are made up of starch, dextrin, gum,
sugar, gluten, albumen, and phosphates
of lime, magnesia, and potassa, with
SILICA and iron. Wheat contains about
double the amount of lime and iron, and
considerable more phosphoric acid, but
less magnesia and soda. The maize seeds
are rich IN peculiar oil, which. is Dour-
ishing and highly conductive to the
formation of adipose or fatty matter;
hence the high utility of corn in fatten-
ing animals. What a remarkable COM
bination Of chemical substances is stored
up in a kernel of corn ? 1t may almost be
said to be an apothecary shop in a min
iature; and the order and arrangement
of the mineral elements and vegetable
compounds, needed to render the COM
parison more apt, are not wanting, For
some reason Nature places the most valu-
able substances in kernel nearest the
air and sunlight, while the little cells of
the interior are full of the material used
to keep erect and tidy our collars and
neck bands-starch With moistened
cloth, we can rub off from the kernel
about three and half per cent of woody
or strawy material, of not much nutra-
tive value; and then we come to q coat
ing which holds nearly all the iron, pot
ash, soda, lime, phosphoric acid and the
nitrogenous ingredients This wrapper
is the storehouse upon whose shelves are
deposited the mineral and vegetable
wealth of the berry. Whence came these
chemical agents? By what superlative
cunning are they grouped within the en-
brace of this covering? They come of
course from the soil; and by that myste-
rious and silent power of vital force, they
have been raised, atom by atom, from
their low estate and fitted to perform the
high offices of nutrition in the animal Or
ganisms. And should we not appropri-
ate them to our use as the most carefully
adjusted of all materials designed for hui
man aliment2 Certainly we should;
but do we? Unfortunately we cannot
render an affirmative answer. The sharp
teeth of our burr mills drive ruthlessly
through the rich wrappers of the kernel,
and then torn fragments pass to the bolt
and from that to the barn or stable; the
animals obtain the nutritious gluten, and
the starch in the form of fine -four is set
aside for family use. But it is not de-
signed to enlarge upon this point. Let
US look at the chemical offices the SUBJ
stances found in the kernel of corn sub
serve in the animal economy.
Starch is the wood or coal which, under
the influence of oxygen, is to be con-
sumed or burned to maintain animal
warmth. 1t passes in pure fuel, it is oxy-
died, and the ashes rejected through
the respiratory organs. The warmth i'm
parted by this combustion is necessary
to the proper fulfillment of the functions
of the body. OF these functions, those
of digestion and assimilation are the
most important. The digestive apparat-
US receives the gluten and the starch of
the grain; the latter is pushed forward
to be burned, the former enters the cir
culation; and out of its contained iron,
potash, soda, magnesia, lime, nitrogen,
etc, are manufactured all the important
tissues and organs of the body. All of
the iron is retained in the blood, together
with much of the soda and phosphoric
acid the lime goes to the bones, and the
magnesia very abruptly leaves the body,
as it seems to be very plainly told that 1T
is not wanted. Such, in brief, are the
uses which the organic and inorganic
constituents of q kernel-o of corn subserve
in the chemistry of animal life.
undergo in the laboratory are almost
equally interesting and important. Fe-
oula, or starch, is body of great inter-
est, and is not found alone in corn
There is scarcely plant or part of plant
which does not yield more or less of this
substance. What curious vegetable is
the potato! Swollen or puffed out by
the enormous distention of the cellular
tissue in which the starch is contained,
itseems almost ugly in its deformity, 1t
is little less than mass of starch
when the watery part has been evapor
ated.
If we separate the starch from the
gluten in corn, and boil it a few minutes
with weak sulphuric acid, it undergoes
a remarkable change, and becomes as
fluid and limpid as water; and if we
withdraw the acid, and evaporate to dry
ness, we have new body, kind of gum
called dextrin. But If we do not inter