132 BULLETIN OF THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN. 



"Our modern methods of bread-making, in which, the dough is formed 

 in large masses or loaves, or small masses under the name of bis- 

 cuits, buns, rolls, etc., present the starch or farinaceous elements of 

 cereals in a half-raw, imperfectly cooked condition, prepared to inter- 

 fere with digestion, rather than to promote this most important vital 

 process. Half-cooked mushes and porridges assist in the work of mis- 

 chief, and as a result, the American people have come to be almost 

 universally afflicted with amalaceous dyspepsia, or starch indigestion. 

 This fact explains the extensive use of malt preparations, and the re- 

 cent introduction of various starch-digesting ferments or diastases of 

 various origin, some of malt, others from vegetable fungi." 



It is then to be very greatly desired that those who provide 

 food for students should take especial care in the cooking of 

 cereals and breads. While it is of supreme importance that 

 whenever starch foods are eaten they should be thoroughly 

 cooked, yet this is especially necessary in respect of the morn- 

 ing meal when a stomach full of half cooked starch will be a 

 serious drawback to the student during the best hours of the 

 day. It may as well be recognized that no matter how skillful 

 the teaching it must fall on barren soil if it is received by those 

 who are devoting all their strength to breaking up starch. 



Poods, as for instance, Malt Breakfast Food, Granola, etc., 

 are now being manufactured which are either subjected to the 

 degree of heat necessary to carry starch quite a ways along in 

 the process of conversion into dextrin, or the same end is at- 

 tained by malting; and these, it seems, should be found 

 more freely upon the tables of students than is indicated 

 in our returns. I have, however, spent some days at one 

 Jboarding house in the city where the morning cereals seemed 

 all thoroughly cooked, and were most palatable and nutritious ; 

 but I have obtained dishes at other places where students board 

 that were not fit for mortal man to entertain in his system. 

 The freer use of thoroughly baked, or better still twice baked 

 tread, is much needed in our community. In the baking of 

 bread in the ordinary way the middle of the loaf does not rise 

 above 212°, although the outside reaches 400° or more. Many 

 people choose the crust for its more agreeable taste, which re- 

 sults from the conversion of the starch into dextrin by the ac- 



