ANIMAL NUTRITION DISCUSSION AT DUNDEE 423 



the public should know how much there is yet to be done by 

 way of observation and experiment before our knowledge of this 

 important subject can be said to be in any way complete. How 

 far the newer conceptions that I have touched upon will 

 intrude into practice the future alone can tell. The united 

 efforts of the practical stock-breeder and of the laboratory investi- 

 gator will be required before the degree of their importance can 

 be determined. 



ACTIVE CONSTITUENTS OF GRAIN 

 (Prof. Leonard Hill) 



In order to test the worth of the claims made during a recent 

 newspaper agitation as to the superiority of standard bread, 

 we obtained a large number of young rats and mice, caged them 

 in lots of twenty in the same way and fed some lots on white, 

 some on standard and some on whole meal flour and 

 water. We soon found that white flour was not a food on 

 which life could be maintained, whilst standard or whole meal 

 flour proved to be very much better. White flour to which we 

 added the germ sufficed to maintain the animals in health and 

 in some cases through two or even three generations. The 

 fashion for standard bread has died away because people prefer 

 the colour and taste of white bread. White bread is a better 

 foil to other tastes and so adds to the pleasures of the palate. 



White flour also bakes into a loaf of better quality. It is a 

 matter of indifference to most of us whether we eat white bread 

 and discard the active subtle principles in the outer layers of 

 the wheat berry, because we obtain these principles from meat, 

 milk, eggs, the growing tips of vegetables, etc. In the case of 

 slum children or the children of the Labrador fisher-folk, fed on 

 white bread and tea, however, it is a matter of great moment ; 

 such a diet is the cause of beri-beri (rampant in Labrador) and 

 probably of scurvy and contributes to other slum diseases. 



Flack and I have succeeded, by adding an extract of bran 

 and sharps to the dough, in making a white loaf excellent in 

 taste and flavour and containing the principles necessary for 

 life. On this bread we have successfully fed pigeons, whilst the 

 birds in the control experiment fed on the best ordinary white 

 bread all died. There is no reason therefore why a white bread 

 should not be made containing the essential active substances. 



