According to the researches of Dr. Charles T. Jackson, of Boston, who stands prëminent as a chemist, Indian corn, in general, is composed of variable proportions of starch, dextrine, gum or mucilage, sugar, gluten, oil, the phosphates of lime and magnesia, with a little phosphoric acid, silica, potash, and oxide of iron. Some varieties, however, are nearly or quite destitute of gluten, oil, or the salts of iron.
Among the curious results of Dr. Jackson’s experiments, he proved that the relative proportions of phosphates in grain, depend on the assimilating power of each species, or variety; for an ear of corn having been selected, which had on it two different kinds, namely, the Tuscarora and the sweet corn, more than double the amount of phosphates were obtained from the latter than from the former, notwithstanding the kernels came from the same ear, grew side by side from the same sap, and were derived from the same soil. Hence it may be inferred that a crop of sweet corn will sooner exhaust a soil of its phosphates than any other variety, and if a soil be deficient in these materials, more must be added to produce it in perfection. Some interesting facts were also noticed by him in the variable proportions of phosphates in different varieties of the same species of several kinds of grain, and a greater preponderance of them was observed in Indan corn, than in the smaller grains, as barley, oats, wheat, &c.—a fact which seems to explain their peculiar properties as food for animals; for the more highly phosphatic grains appear to be more likely to surcharge the system of adult animals with bony matter, often producing concretions of phosphate of lime, like those resulting from gout. It is conjectured that the stiffness of the joints and lameness of the feet, common in horses, which have been fed to freely with maize, is caused by the preponderance of the phosphates. Granting this to be true, young animals cannot fail to derive more osseous matter from corn than from any other kind of grain.
The horny or flinty portions of corn, when viewed in
