during the circulation through the lungs, arteries, extreme vessels and veins, to convey oxygen to every part of the body.
By soaking Indian corn, after it has been cut open, in a watery solution of sulphate of copper, (blue vitriol,) the result will give a decisive proof of the presence of phosphoric acid. The “chits,” or parts containing the germs, will be changed to a bluish-green, beautifully denning the limits of the phosphates of lime and of magnesia contained in the grain.
By soaking a kernel of corn split open longitudinally and thrown into a solution of sulphydrate of ammonia, the chit is soon changed to a dark olive-colour, which arises from the change of the salts of iron into a sulphuret of that metal.
By cutting open, in a similar manner, a kernel of maize, or any other kind of grain, and dropping upon it a small quantity of the tincture of iodine, a portion of its bulk will be immediately changed to an intense blue, indicating the presence of starch, with here and there a deep port-wine-coloured speck, which will define the parts composed of dextrine. If the oil is extracted from the transparent part of the corn by alcohol, or ether, the tincture of iodine will indicate the presence of starch in that part of the grain associated with the gluten.
By these means, we may readily cause any grain to define the extent and precise limits of each of its ingredients; and by the eye, we can form a pretty correct estimate of their relative proportions in different seeds.[1]
The varieties of Indian corn are very numerous, exhibiting every grade of size, colour, and conformation between the shrubby reed that grows on the shores of Lake Superior, to the gigantic stalks of the Ohio valley, the tiny ears with flat, close-clinging grains of Canada, the brilliant, rounded, little pearl, or the bright-red grains and white cob of the eight-rowed
- ↑ See Jackson’s Report on the Geology and Mineralogy of New Hampshire, pp. 255 et seq.
