182 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



facture represents an extraction from the wheats of commerce 

 of say 70 per cent, or less. One noteworthy fact in this con- 

 nection is the small but almost constant proportion of wheat- 

 meal breads consumed. An exceedingly small number of people 

 eat a little occasionally, and so provide themselves with a pleasant 

 change in diet, perhaps with a mild aperient. Basing an opinion 

 upon the amount of trade done in wheat-meals by millers, I do 

 not think that more than 1 per cent, of the bread consumed in 

 England comes into the class of wheat-meals of various kinds 

 or degrees of fineness. In recent years a demand has been 

 created for germ breads. The best known of these is Hovis. 

 They are not wheat-meal breads. The percentage of germ in 

 wheat — the yellow oily part found at the thick end of a grain of 

 wheat, in which alone, as its name implies, is the germ of future 

 wheat plants — is about ih per cent. It contains active ferments, 

 and in its raw state is far better out of flour than in it. It is 

 not difficult to keep it out of flour in milling, but owing to the 

 technical difficulty of .separating it free from the husk of the 

 wheat, millers only extract as a separate product say \ per cent, 

 of the wheat ground. The makers of various germ meals cook 

 it, and so destroy the ferments it contains ; and, having done 

 so, mix it with the ordinary flours of commerce in the propor- 

 tions of say 75 per cent, flour to 25 per cent, cooked germ. The 

 percentages of oil and albuminoids contained in raw germ are 

 high — about 8 per cent, and 27 per cent, respectively — and a 

 human being can digest it satisfactorily ; but it is obvious that 

 so long as makers of germ meals or bread use a proportion of 

 germ so very much in excess of that which is extracted in 

 milling, only a very small proportion of the population can be 

 fed on germ bread. 



What constitutes good bread ? The first essential is a 

 pleasant flavour. It has occasionally a definitely bad flavour. 

 That may arise from the flour used, or from faults in the bake- 

 house. Flour is peculiarly susceptible to taint. Railway trucks 

 which on some previous journey have carried tar or a tarry 

 product have tainted flour through and through ; the juxtaposi- 

 tion of paraffin, or even oranges, has caused similar damage. 

 An exceedingly small proportion of musty or mow-burnt corns 

 is fatal to good flavour. An actively bad flavour can also arise 

 from bad or faulty fermentations. Mr. Kirkland, the teacher of 

 Bread-making at the Borough Polytechnic, has described the 



