THE 

 LONDON, EDINBURGH and DUBLIN 



PHILOSOPHICAL MAGAZINE 



AND 



JOURNAL OF SCIENCE. 



[THIRD SERIES.] 



NOVEMBER 1843. 



XXXVIII. On the Results of the Panary Fermentation, and 

 on the Nutritive Values of the Bread and Flour of different 

 countries. By Robert D. Thomson, M.D., Conductor of 

 the Laboratory and of the Classes of Practical Chemistry in 

 the University of Glasgow* . 

 SEVERAL years have elapsed since the author first had 

 ^ his attention directed to the comparative chemical and 

 medical values of fermented and unfermented bread as articles 

 of food. The common idea, which yielded the palm of supe- 

 riority to the former, did not appear to be based on solid data, 

 and it was therefore considered desirable that, in reference to 

 a subject of such importance to the nourishment of man, the 

 arguments in favour of such an opinion should be subjected to 

 a careful examination. Judging a priori it did not seem evi- 

 dent that flour should become more wholesome by the de- 

 struction of one of its important elements, or that the vesicu- 

 lar condition of bread could alone be gained by a process of 

 fermentation. 



When a piece of dough is taken in the hand, being adhe- 

 sive and closely pressed together, it feels heavy, and if swal- 

 lowed in the raw state, it would prove indigestible to the ma- 

 jority of individuals. This would occur from its compact nature 

 and from the absence of that disintegration of its particles, 

 which is the primary step in digestion. But if the same dough 

 were subjected for a sufficient length of time to the elevated 

 temperature of a baker's oven (450°), its relation to the digest- 

 ive powers of the stomach would be changed ; because the 

 water to which it owed its tenacity would be expelled, and the 

 only obstacle to its complete division and consequent subser- 



* Abstract of papers read before the Philosophical Society of Glasgow, 

 14th February 1842, and 26th April 1843; and now communicated by 

 the Author. 



Phil. Mag. S.3. Vol. 23. No. 153. Nov. 1843. Y 



