162 Dr. Colquhoun's Essat/ [Sept. 



them, and yet the advantages which their use promises seem to 

 be far from inconsiderable. 



In preparing this Essay, it has been necessary not only to 

 consult tne views and experiments of former writers, but, in 

 order to elucidate some of the processes connected with the art, 

 to perform various experiments entirely new, and also in many 

 instances to verify carefully the results stated to have been 

 obtained by others. Wherever an experiment is quoted upon 

 authority merely, a reference is given, and where this is not 

 done, the author holds himself responsible for the accuracy of 

 his details. 



Baked bread, simply considered, may be described as being 

 a substance formed oy mixing a portion of the seeds of any of 

 the cereal grasses with a little water, and then cooking the 

 whole, by means of fire, into a solid consistent state. In the 

 earliest stage of the art, the process probably consisted of but a 

 very few steps. And indeed the first cook who discovered that 

 by previously moistening and then baking grain, a compact cake 

 of food could be formed, fitted to contain within a small bulk a 

 large supply of nutrition, to keep entire for an indefinite length 

 of time in proper situations, and to yield when masticated a 

 most agreeable relish to the palate, may perhaps be regarded as 

 having made a step in the art of baking bread, of more difficulty 

 in itself, and of greater importance to the species, than any 

 thing that subsequent improvement has supplied. For in all the 

 intricacies and refinements of our modern cookery of bread, 

 there can surely be found nothing to compare with that which 

 first taught man to use a great proportion of his food in a man- 

 ner peculiar to himself, and raised him above the practice of 

 devouring it as raw grain in common with the lower animals. 

 What may be conjectured to have been the second leading-step 

 of advancement in the art, that of reducing the grain to powder, 

 before applying to it the moisture which should form the solid 

 'cake after the application of heat, seems perhaps of more natural 

 and easy suggestion than the other; and accordingly we find at 

 this day few nations refined enough to practise baking at all, who 

 are yet so rude as not to make their cakes of bread out of 

 ground grain. 



But there still remained another distinct department of mani- 

 pulation, to be introduced into the art of baking, before it 

 contained all the rudiments of what has now been gradually 

 perfected into the modern system. And this latter improvement 

 certainly seems to savour more of refinement and civilization in 

 its introduction and regular use, at the same time that it is of too 

 old a date to have left even any tradition of its origin or inven- 

 tion. It consists in mixing with the constitution of the bread a 

 light gaseous body ; and, in actual practice, this is almost inva- 

 riably of the same kind with that which gives the foam to ale 



