imately blended with water as to pass
the one, will enter and unite with the economy of the other, and vice
versa.

Supposing the malt to have obtained its utmost perfection, according to
the criterion here inculcated, to prevent its further progress, and
secure it in that state, we are to call in the assistance of a heat,
sufficient to destroy the action of vegetation, by evaporating every
particle of water, and thence leaving it in a state of preservation fit
for the present or future purpose of the brewer. Thus having all its
moisture extracted, and being by the previous process deprived of its
cohesive property, the body of the grain is left a mere lump of flour,
so easily divisible that, the husk being taken off, a mark may be made
with the kernel, as with a piece of soft chalk. The extractable
qualities of this flour are saccharum, closely united with a large
quantity of the farinaceous mucilage peculiar to bread corn, and a
small portion of oil enveloped by a fine earthy substance, the whole
readily yielding to the impression of water, applied at different
times, and different degrees of heat, and each part predominating in
proportion to the time and manner of its application. In the curing of
malt, as nothing more is requisite than a total extrication of every
watery particle, if we had in the season proper for malting a sun heat
sufficient to produce perfect dryness, it were practicable to produce
beer nearly colourless; but that being wanting, and the force of custom
having made it necessary to give our beers various tinctures and
qualities resulting from fire, for the accommodation of various tastes,
we are necessitated to apply such heats in the drying as shall not only
answer the purpose of preservation, but give the complexion and
property required; to effect this with certainty, and precision, the
introduction of the thermometer is necessary, but the real advantages
of its application are only to be known from experiment, on account of
the different construction of different kilns, the irregularity of the
heat in different parts of the same kiln, the depth of the malt, the
distance of the bulb of the thermometer from the floor; for though
similar heats will produce similar effects in the same situation, yet
the distribution of heat in every kiln is so irregular, that the medium
spot for the local situation of the thermometer as a standard, cannot
be easily fixed for ascertaining effects upon the whole. Th