s they be very
much injured, are equal to twice their weight of white turnips; it is
certain that they do not injure the health or impair the condition of
the animals which feed upon them.

SECTION VI.

SEEDS.

In seeds the elements of nutrition exist not only in the most highly
elaborated, but also in the most concentrated state; hence their
nutritive value is greater than that of any other class of food
substances.

_Wheat Grain_ is the most valuable of seeds, as it contains, in admirably
adjusted proportions, the bone, the fat, and the muscle-forming
principles. In the form of bread, it has been, not inaptly, termed the
"staff of life," for no other grain is so well adapted, _per se_, for
the sustenance of man; and many millions of human beings subsist almost
exclusively on it. The lower animals are in general fed upon the grain
of oats, of barley, and of the leguminous plants, and the use of wheat
is almost completely restricted to the human family.

Wheat grain, by the processes of grinding and sifting, is resolvable
into two distinct parts--bran and flour. In twenty-four analyses made
by Boussingault, the proportion of the bran was from 13.2 to 38.5
per cent. and that of the flour from 61.5 to 86.8 per cent. The floury
part is of very complex structure; it includes starch, gluten, albumen,
oil, gum, gummo-gelatinous matter, sugar,[34] and various saline matters.
The gluten and albumen constitute the nitrogenous, or flesh-forming
principles of flour, and make up from 16 to 20 per cent. of that
substance; the non-nitrogenous, or fat-forming elements, such as
starch and gum, form from 74 to 82 per cent. According to Payen, the
proportion of gluten diminishes towards the centre of the seed, from
which it follows that the part of the grain nearest the husk is the
most nutritious--so far at least as muscle-making is concerned. The
desire on the part of the public for very white bread has led to the
_fine_ dressing of Wheat-grain, and consequently to the separation from
that substance of a very large proportion of one of its most nutritious
constituents. Crude gluten may be obtained by kneading the dough of
flour in a muslin bag under a small current of water; the starch, or
fecula, and the gum, are carried away by the water, and the gluten in
an impure form remains as an elastic viscous substance, which on drying
becomes hard and brittle. It is to the gluten of flour that its property
of panification, or bread-