CHEMICAL SCIENCE. 223 



PHOSPHATED BKEAD. 



The folio-wing article has been communicated to the Scientific 

 American by Prof. E. N. Horsford, of the Lawrence Scientific 

 School, Cambridge : 



My attention was called five years since to the necessity of a sub- 

 stitute for cream of tartar, as an article of domestic consumption. It 

 was represented to me by extensive dealers that the production of 

 cream of tartar was no longer equal to the demand, and that the 

 greatly increased consumption in the arts and for culinary purposes 

 had caused its price to rise, until it seemed possible that for some 

 important purposes its further use must be given up. It was also 

 stated that its high price had led to frequent adulterations, some of 

 them of more than questionable character in their relations to 

 health. Upon these representations, I undertook the solution of the 

 problem as one of great public importance. 



Among the essential qualities of a substitute for cream of tartar, 

 in the preparation of all forms of light bread, cakes, and pastry, are, 

 that the article should be at least as unobjectionable as cream of tar- 

 tar in its relations to the animal economy, that it should be pulveru- 

 lent, and that, when mixed with bicarbonate of soda and flour, it 

 should, on the addition of moisture or application of heat, yield a 

 neutral salt, and set free carbonic acid. If, in addition to these 

 qualities, an article could be devised which should possess, in the 

 form in which it is used, unquestionable excellence as an element of 

 food, its value would be placed beyond doubt. 



I tried in a great variety of ways, as numerous others have tried, 

 without success, to find some form of muriatic acid which could be 

 mixed with bicarbonate of soda, so as, after raising the dough or 

 paste, common salt should be found in the product. To this most 

 desirable end insuperable difficulties presented themselves. I sought 

 some form of harmless organic acid, suited to all the conditions of the 

 problem, but this effort and many others were alike fruitless. At 

 length it occurred to me to find, if possible, an acid constituent pres- 

 ent in all the cereals and healthful food, and place this in the neces- 

 sary conditions to fulfil the wants of the problem, and, at the same 

 time, in such form that when taken into the system it would be 

 suited to the agencies there in action, to be absorbed if needed, or 

 readily and healthfully removed if not required. Of all such con- 

 stituents no one is so important as phosphoric acid. Physiological 

 and chemical research have shown that wherever in the body there 

 is an organ of important functions, there nature has provided a store 

 of phosphates. They are present in the juices, the tissues, the mus- 

 cles, and in large measure in all the brain and nervous matter, and in 

 larger measure still in the bones. The grains we consume contain 

 them ; the flesh we eat contains them ; the bones we boil and dis- 

 solve contain them. The French army was formerly supplied with 

 rations of dissolved bone, prepared at high temperatures in Papin's 

 digester, in the form of small cakes, which a little hot water resolved 

 into soup. The bran which we withdraw from our wheat contains 

 fourteen times as much phosphoric acid as the flour which we convert 

 into bread. The natural provision in the animal economy for the 



