rough mass nearly colorless, and almost entirely soluble in distilled
water; this solution coagulates between 158 deg. and 167 deg. Fah., and the
coagulum is insoluble in acids and weak alkalies; the solution is
precipitated by all diluted acids, by phosphoric acid at all the degrees of
hydration, and even by a current of carbonic acid. All these precipitates
redissolve with an excess of acid, sulphuric acid excepted. Concentrated
sulphuric acid forms an insoluble downy white precipitate, and the
concentrated vegetable acids, with the exception of tannic acid, do not
determine any precipitate. Cerealine coagulated by an acid redissolves in
an excess of the same acid, but it has become dead and has no more action
on the starch. The alkalies do not form any precipitate, but they kill the
cerealine as if it had been precipitated The neutral rennet does not make
any precipitate in a solution of cerealine--5 centigrammes of dry cerealine
transform in twenty-five minutes 10 grammes of starch, reduced to a paste
by 100 grammes of water at 113 deg. Fah. It will be seen that cerealine has a
grand analogy with albumen and legumine, but it is distinguished from them
by the action of the rennet, of the heat of acids, alcohol, and above all
by its property of transforming the starch into glucose and dextrine.

It may be said that some albuminous substances have this property, but it
must be borne in mind that these bodies, like gluten, for example, only
possess it after the commencement of the decomposition. The albuminous
matter approaching nearest to cerealine is the diastase, for it is only a
transformation of the cerealine during the germination, the proof of which
may be had in analyzing the embryous membrane, which shows more diastase
and less cerealine in proportion to the advancement of the germination: it
differs, however, from the diastase by the action of heat, alcohol, etc.
It is seen that in every case the cerealine and the embryous membrane
act together, and in an analogous manner; we shall shortly examine their
effects on the digestion and in the phenomena of panification.