Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 15.djvu/361

M A L M A L 339 (cupric oxide) only to the extent of 63 per cent, as com pared with dextrose, but its power of right-handed polar ization is three times as great = +154. According to Dubrunfaut the efficient ferment in barley is maltin, a much more richly nitrogenous and active body than diastase, which he considers to be only a product of tho decomposition of maltin. By the processes of malting 100 parts by weight of barley yield about 80 of kiln-dried malt and 2 to 3 of dried radicle and plumule called " malt dust." The pro gressive modification in composition is shown in the accompanying table of analyses extracted from the report presented by Mr (now Sir) J. B. Lawes to the Board of Trade " On the Relative Value of Unmalted and Malted Barley as Food for Stock, 1866," an inquiry which re sulted in showing that the advantages claimed for malt as a feeding material were largely illusory : f w !* j| I 1 4} Days on the Floor. 8 Days on the Floor, 12J Days on the F loor. 141 Days on the Floor. Screened JIalt, Malt Dust. 2 5C 1-56 8-16 10-19 11-67 12-14 11-01 11-35 Starch, dextrin, and ) fat j" 80-42 81-12 74-72 72-16 70-73 70-09 72-03 43-68 Albumenoids 9-80 4-(i9 9-83 5-22 9-89 4-96 10-14 5-1S 10-27 4-98 10-39 5-03 9-95 4 8 1 2fi-90 9-67 Ash 2-50 2-27 2-27 2-23 2-35 2-17 8-40 17-64 42-70 41-87 41-65 40-71 40-44 6-6G 11-7:} Since the article BREWING was written the malt tax then in force in the United Kingdom has been repealed, and in its place, under the provisions of the Inland Revenue Act 1880 (43 & 44 Viet. cap. 20), an equivalent duty on beer has been substituted. By that enactment numerous modifications have been made practicable in the use of malt for feeding and other industrial purposes, and much greater latitude has been given to brewers in the selection and use of raw materials for the manufacture of the beverages hitherto known as malt liquors. Taking as the unit of measurement the bushel of malt, which is defined by statute as equivalent to 42 Ib of malt or corn of any description, or to 28 Ib of sugar, the malt duty, which under the provisions of the repealed statutes amounted to 2s. 7d., with 5 per cent, additional, has been transformed into a beer duty of 6s. 3d. charged upon every 36 gallons of wort of a specific gravity of 1057; and every brewer is deemed to have brewed 36 gallons of worts of that gravity who has used 2 bushels of malt in brewing. In the case of brewers for sale, should the quantity of worts produced and the specific gravity of such worts exceed by more than 4 per cent, the quantity and gravity above specified, the duty is charged for the excess over and above such 4 per cent. Brewers for domestic use and for the use of their own farm labourers are exempt from duty when the annual value of the house occupied by the brewer is not more than 10, and all brewers for domestic use who occupy houses exceeding in value that amount, and who consequently are subject to the beer tax, must brew their beer on their own premises only. The malt tax, which in reality was a duty on raw grain, had long been regarded as a grievous impost, and its repeal was systematically agitated for by the agricultural interest. The tax, it was alleged, operated injuriously on the cultivators of barley, and prevented stockholders from freely using malt for the feeding of cattle and of ewes at the lambing season, &c. On the part of brewers it was maintained that the operation of the tax restricted them to the use of the heaviest and most expensive classes of barley alone ; and that they were consequently precluded from using many varieties of grain and saccharine materials which under other conditions they might employ with advantage both to themselves and to the consumers of beer. No sooner, however, was it proposed by the Government to effect the change so long clamoured for- not indeed the entire abolition of taxation on malt liquors, but the freeing of a raw material from fiscal impost than the agricultural community discovered they had made a mistake, and that, while it was really the beer drinker who paid the malt tax, its operation had rather tended to give the British barley- grower a monopoly of the trade in that raw material, and to artificially enhance the value of the heavier qualities of the grain. Further it was found that the idea of using malt for feeding purposes to any considerable extent, a right which stockholders already possessed under the pro visions of the "Gladstone Act" (27 & 28 Viet. cap. 9) was entirely illusory ; and as a matter of fact no demand has arisen for malt for such purposes. On the other hand, the freedom of choice as to raw materials which the Inland Revenue Act 1880 has given to brewers has not been without influence on the industry, although the modifica tions have up to this time been by no means so numerous and important as had been anticipated. Barley continues to be the principal, and, supplemented by sugar, almost the only, raw material of wort ; but brewers no longer have any interest in confirming themselves to the heaviest and plumpest growths, and consequently much light foreign- grown barley is now used. It was also expected that raw grain, and particularly maize, would be largely used with malt in the mashing?, especially as a method had been devised and. patented by Mr R. Blair Robertson of Glasgow for removing the germ of that grain, which contains a peculiar acrid oil, and which communicates a bitter un pleasant flavour to the wort in which it may be infused. To a. limited extent a " maize beer, ." in which one-third part of Robertson s patent prepared maize is mashed with two-thirds of malt, is being brewed with quite satisfactory results, but the mixture does not appear to have com mended itself generally to the trade either on the score of quality or of cheapness. Malt is also the raw material from which the whisky of Scotland and Ireland is principally distilled, and it is the source of the greater part of the best qualities of table and pickling vinegar. Chiefly on account of the great solvent power over starch possessed by the diastase or maltin it con tains, malt is extensively used as a combination in prepared farinaceous food for infants, and in the form of a malt extract it possesses considerable reputation in pharmacy. MALTA is the chief island of the Maltese group, con- Plate sisting of Malta, 35 50 N. lat. and 14 30 E. long., Gozo, 36 5 N". lat. and 14 10 E. long., Comino, which lies between them, and the two islets Cominotto and Filfla, a crown colony, and one of the Mediterranean possessions of Graat Britain. Malta is 17 miles long by 9 j- broad, con taining an area of about 95 square miles (about two-thirds tin size of the Isle of Wight), and Gozo is 9 miles long by 5 wide, with an area of 20 square miles. The islands lie directly south of Sicily, distant from 55 to 60 miles, near the centre of tho Mediterranean basin, where they appear as the remains of an ancient chain of islands, much worn and still wearing away by the sea. Gozo, which has the same general character as Malta, possesses more moisturo and richer soil, and therefore more verdure. A cluster of single hills, remarkable for their steeply conical shape, on one of which stands Rabato, the principal village, is near the middle of the island. Along the northern and eastern shores of Malta the coast-line is frequently broken by deep indentations and bays (St Paul s, St George s, and St Julian s Bays) ; on the peninsulas in and round the most remarkable of these Valetta and its fortifications are built. The geological formation is late Eocene, the prevailing rocks being white, grey, reddish, or yellow sandstone, with

III.