We have seen that in the digestion of starch, it is acted upon by a diastase which is contained both in the saliva and in the pancreatic juice, which diastase converts starch into glucose or grape sugar. Malt has at a certain heat the same effect on the starch contained in wheaten and other meals. Before being converted into glucose, the starch is first changed into dextrine, then into maltose, and finally into grape sugar. In malted foods, the malt flour is mixed with the finest wheaten flour, and the process of conversion into sugar is started and then stopped. On mixing the malted food with water the process recommences, and is carried on rapidly, either while being cooked or in the stomach, and in a short time the whole of the starch is turned into grape sugar and is ready for absorption. In most of the patented malt extracts sold, the change of starch into sugar has been carried too far, and the maltine has, as a food, not much more value than treacle or syrup. Both Sir William Roberts and Dr. Cheadle are agreed that these "malted foods " are quite unsatisfactory as foods if taken only mixed with water; but that, provided they still contain a considerable amount of active diastase, they make, if mixed with milk or gruel, valuable and highly digestible foods for invalids and delicate children.