292 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



native strong wheats have been selected for improvement 

 and it would now appear to be possible for India to grow 

 strong wheats for export purposes which will command a 

 higher price and so give a greater return per acre to the 

 cultivator. 



Possibly, in the future, the public fashion in bread will 

 change in character to meet the altered circumstances — in the 

 meantime the strongest wheats are bound to increase in cost. 

 If by the addition during milling of minute traces of sub- 

 stances natural to flour we are able to increase the strength 

 of some wheats, there seem to be the very strongest economic 

 grounds for supporting the practice. It has been shown that 

 at bottom wheats of all kinds are practically of equal value in a 

 mixed diet and it is difficult to see how any other objection to a 

 proper way of improving any of them can be substantiated. 



The question of bleaching must be considered separately. 

 If it be carried out in a proper manner (electrically), the effect 

 is to add nothing deleterious and only to produce a very, very 

 minute change at most, whilst the appearance is improved and 

 the palate helped. As before said, the question is one of ethics 

 and cannot well be argued on any other grounds. 



The milling industry is clearly alive to the importance of 

 the questions raised by Dr. Hamill's report, as will be obvious 

 when the following resolutions adopted at a recent general 

 meeting of the Incorporated National Association of British 

 and Irish millers are considered : — 



" (i) That in the opinion of this association wheaten 

 flour sold as such without any qualifying designation should 

 be the unbleached and untreated produce of properly cleaned 

 and ' conditioned ' wheat only. 



"(2) That a Board of Reference consisting of several highly 

 qualified physiologists, chemists and business men should be 

 appointed by the Government to consider — 



" (a) Whether flour may properly be submitted to bleaching 

 processes. 



"(b) Whether flour may be treated with substances which 

 are not ' foreign ' to wheat, flour or bread ; 



" (c) If so, to determine what substances are natural to wheat, 

 flour or bread and within what proportions such substances 

 are permissible ; 



" (d) To consider the desirability of adding substances as 



