this _diastase_ the starch is converted into a peculiar non-crystallizable
substance called _dextrine_, and as the plant matures, this dextrine is
transformed into crystallizable sugar.

"Dextrine is a substance that can be produced from starch by the action of
dilute acids, alkalies, and malt extract, and by roasting it at a
temperature between 284° and 330° F., till it is of a light brown color,
and has the odor of overbaked bread."

A simple form of dextrine may be found in the brown crust of bread--that
sweetish substance that gives the crust its agreeable flavor. Pure
dextrine is an insipid, odorless, yellowish-white, translucent substance,
which dissolves in water almost as readily as sugar. As stated above, it
is easily converted into _dextrose_, or _glucose_, as it is usually named.

This _glucose_ is often sold under the name of sugar, and is the same
against which so many of the newspapers waged such a war a year or two
ago. These critics were evidently, for the most part, persons who knew
little about the subject. Glucose, if free from sulphuric acid or other
chemicals, is as harmless as any other form of sugar. Most of our candies
contain more or less of it, and are in every way as satisfactory as when
manufactured wholly from other sugars.

It is, therefore, self-evident that, as sugar is a necessary article of
food, the process which aids the transformation of our starchy foods must
necessarily aid digestion. Do not understand me to say by this that, if
all our starchy foods were converted into sugar, their digestion would
thereby be completed. As I stated a moment ago, this sweet food, if taken
into the stomach day after day, would soon cause that particular organ to
rebel against this sameness of diet. In order the more clearly to