1913] Ross Alken Gortner 533 



bread are the same, whether made from bleached or unbleached 

 flours; but, in all cases, the bread made from high grade bleached 

 floiir is whiter and more inviting in appearance. Eating bread 

 made from bleached flour has, as I personally know, produced no 

 ill effects, even when the test lasted for months at a time. 



The saliva of normal human beings almost always contains 

 nitrites, and the quantity of nitrites secreted by the average indi- 

 vidual in 24 hours in the saliva is far in excess of the quantity which 

 we found in the entire loaf of bread highest in nitrites. In order 

 to obtain the medicinal dose of the '' poison" (NaNOz), it would 

 he necessary to eat at least a poiind loaf of bread each day for a year. 



2. "M. C." also adds : "If it is not to conceal inferiority so 

 that a higher price can be had for the flour, why do miliers use the 

 process?" In the first place our experiments show that low grades 

 of flour cannot be successfully bleached, and, when bleached, can 

 in no case be confused with a high grade flour, for the color of the 

 small particles of bran in a low grade flour is not affected by the 

 nitric fumes and the bread produced from such a flour has an 

 uninviting color. 



It is merely a question as to where the wheat comes from, that 

 causes bleaching. At the last trial in St. Louis one of the witnesses 

 for the Government testified and protested against the use of the 

 bleachers, although he was himself a milier. On cross examination 

 he admitted that he had formerly used the process but had aban- 

 doned it. On further questioning it developed that, while he was 

 in the "yellow wheat belt," he had used the bleacher but now, in 

 Kentucky, the wheats gave a white flour, and he did not need to use 

 the bleacher to get the same resitlt. 



The wheats of Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa, etc., have a dark yellow 

 oil which, when milled, gives a very yellow tint to the flour. This 

 answers the " WHY " : it is because the farmers of Nebraska, Iowa, 

 Kansas, etc., wish to produceas saleable a flour as do their neighbors. 



The influence of the minute quantities of NO2 changes this yel- 

 low oil into a colorless Compound : very probably it is the old 

 reaction of oleic acid changing into elaidic acid. 



3. I am heartily in accord with the Pure Food and Drugs Act, 

 even if I do seem to fall in the class mentioned in the final para- 



