HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



I think therefore that M. Girard's conclusion, that 

 only the inner farinaceous portion of the grain should 

 be used for human alimentation, and that it should 

 be the aim of the miller to completely eliminate from 

 his flour all the other parts, is refuted rather than 

 supported by what he tells us concerning the cerealin. 

 On the other hand, the facts concerning the non- 

 digestibility of the bran indicate considerable ex- 

 aggeration in the claims of some of the whole-meal 

 candidates. 



Assuming that the cerealin does act on the starch 

 and gluten as stated, it is a benefactor, and we may 

 do well to retain the outer skin of the wheat for its 

 sake alone, even though the other nitrogenous and 

 mineral constituents may not be assimilable. Besides 

 this, there is the physiological question of the stimu- 

 lating action of such a husky material on the bowels 

 to be considered. Is it good or evil ? Evidently the 

 whole-meal question is not yet settled. 



I may add that Dr. Randolph has, in the "Notes 

 from the Physiological Laboratory of the University 

 of Pennsylvania," a paper on the nutritive value of 

 branny foods. He concludes, after a prolonged course 

 of experiments, that the carbohydrates of bran are 

 digested by man in a slight degree only ; but as the 

 nutritive salts of wheat are chiefly contained in the 

 bran, those who feed on bread alone should take it 

 brown for the sake of these salts, while those who 

 use other food supplying such salts should select 

 white bread ; and that in an ordinary mixed diet the 

 retention of the bran is a false economy, as it quickens 

 peristaltic action and thereby prevents the complete 

 digestion and absorption, not only of the proteids 

 contained in the branny food, but of other food 

 matters mixed with it. To this I think the " bread 

 reformers " may fairly reply, that the peristaltic 

 movement is a part of the machinery of digestion, 

 the promotion of which may be beneficial ; it is certainly 

 needed in some cases of sluggish action, and it 

 probably increases the secretion of animal diastase 

 (intestinal juice) in the intestines. On the whole, 

 I am inclined to conclude that whole-meal bread is 

 best for vegetarians, though perhaps not so for those 

 who eat flesh. 



The following letter from Dr. Keegan shows that 

 the difference between us is still less than even his 

 first letter indicated : — 



Mr. Williams, in his reply (p. 200) to my remarks, 

 dwells upon the savagery, brutality, and obtuse moral 

 sense of some of Homer's heroes, and upon the 

 general obscenity saturating (as he avers) much of 

 the old classic literature. Now, the works of Homer 

 are generally known to be a collection of legends 

 relative to a social state far in the depths of human 

 history, and therefore it may be doubted if their 

 perusal is eminently calculated to demoralise persons 

 reared in the light of more advanced and exalted 

 ideas. With regard to the other matter, it may be 

 replied, that a similar sort of immorality pervades, to 



some extent, the literature of every people in the 

 world. The works of our own peerless dramatists 

 of the time of Elizabeth and of Charles II. are not 

 utterly free from a blackguardly indecency of a very 

 pestiferous nature, written though they be in that 

 "truly classic language which all mankind will 

 eventually speak." Of the study of literature in 

 general it may be observed, that therein we engage- 

 in the survey of the inner moving world of the human 

 soul, and the more ideal and abstract (if at the same 

 time moral) this be portrayed, the more humanising 

 and morally edifying and beneficial it is in effect. In 

 the study of the classic languages and literatures 

 (notably the Latin), there is, in addition to this 

 humanising element,' the intellectual gymnastic, fur- 

 nished by the various processes involved in the 

 translation or constructing into English, or vice versa. 

 The eminent value of classical study lies, as it seems 

 to me, in the combination of these two elements of 

 culture. In the study of physical science, the 

 humanising or moral element is wanting, or else 

 feeble ; in the study of our native literature the 

 analytical intellectual faculty is not so vigorously 

 exercised. No doubt there is what Professor Tyndall 

 styles " an emotion of the intellect incident to the 

 discernment of new truth ; " but it is at best a rather 

 dry and not very soft sort of sentiment. Indeed, Mr. 

 F. Galton expressly avers that " the influence of 

 scientific men is not directed to persons and to 

 human interests, and they are deficient in the purely 

 emotional elements," &c. I cordially endorse Mr. 

 Williams's approval that physical science should be 

 carried upwards to social and moral science, and I 

 have read with the keenest interest his attestation 

 anent the proceedings, in this particular, of certain 

 worthy gentlemen and excellent scholars of Oxford. 

 But Mr. Williams seems to include such studies as 

 those of logic, metaphysics, moral and social science, 

 in the same category with physical science. Most 

 people will probably think that as regards educational 

 efficacy they are widely different. The former are 

 probably less humanising than literature and art ; 

 but they are of eminent value in this respect, and 

 they are intimately allied thereto. Nevertheless, it 

 would be idle to disparage the eminent utilitarian and 

 intellectual benefits of the study and applications of 

 physical science. Nobody nowadays yields allegiance 

 to the ancient philosophy which, according to Seneca, 

 teaches men "to be independent of all material 

 substances and all mechanical contrivances." Our 

 great aim should be that in the dispensation of this 

 material knowledge its "celestial harmonies and 

 breathings of paradise " be not utterly ignored and 

 overriden. If only "the sublime consciousness of 

 their own humanity " be more frequently stirred in 

 the breasts of our eminent scientists, their influence 

 over the age and the ignorant vulgar will doubtless 

 be more elevating than it seems to be, and men 

 would probably learn to reconcile forces (such as 



