460 EXPEKIMEXT STATlOxX ]!K( '( >I!D. 



of butter, cheese, evaporated fruits and eauued goods, luaearoui. aud other 

 prepared cereal products, etc. Studies on canning and preserving, the manu- 

 facture of special cereal foods, and other lines of work which have to do with 

 the preservation aud distribution of food products bear an important relation 

 to I)otli jn-oducer and consumer." 



The nutritive value of bi-ead as compared with breakfast foods, K. Har- 

 COURT (Aincr. Food Join:. 1 {Hldti). \o. 10. /*/'• J'^- J-')- — Hesults of digestion 

 experiments with corn meal farinas and several commercial breakfast foods 

 are reported and compared with average results ()i)tained by other investigators 

 with cereal goods and with bread. 



The author concluded that the special foods studied were less thoroughly 

 digested than white bread. From the data presented it is evident, in his 

 opinion, "that corn meal, rolled oats, and l)ri'a(l ww among our most economic 

 foods. It is. however, true that rolled oats, or e\en the farinas, do not agree 

 with everyone, and that the predigested goods may be useful food for ])eople 

 who have ditticulty in digesting starch. They may also have a place in a 

 hurry-up breakfast. It is evident that a curious name of a much advertised 

 food does not indicate a high nutritive value, and the intelligent buyer who 

 has to consider econt)my will hardly pass by the old forms of breakfast foods 

 aud bread unless their own actual experience has demonstrated that these 

 newer foods have a superior value to them." 



A proposed method for examining bleached flour, K. II. Shaw {Jour. Amer. 

 Vliciii. .S'oc, .is {JU06), Xo. 6. pp. 6S7. i!SS). — The connnercial processes for 

 bleachiug Hour artificially very generally make use of the higher oxids of nitro- 

 gen, and when devising' a method for the detection of l)leaching it was assumed 

 that some uitro body might exist either as residual nitric oxid or as a nitro 

 starch compound. 



The proposed method consists in extracting the tlour with lioiling alcohol, 

 cooling, filtering, evaporating nearly to dryness, extracting the residue with a 

 mixture of eipial parts of alcohol and ether, and filtering. The filtrate is evap- 

 orated to a sirup-like consistency and distributed in a film over the porcelain 

 dish used and a drop of sulphuric acid solution of diphenylamin is allowed to 

 trail over the film. lu the tests reported this left a blue path in every case 

 where the flour used had been artificially bleached, while no coloration was 

 perceptible in unbleached flour. 



"A flour bleached by a process using ozone alone as a bleaching agent would 

 probably not respond to the diphenylamin test. Such a process, however, is 

 not used in the West to the writer's knowledge. It is also possible, but highly 

 improbable, that a flour might be found which, fresh fr#!n the wheat, would 

 yield the blue color when tested. To decide these points a much larger numlier 

 of samples will be examined." 



A contribution to the history of the use of bark bread, F. T. Dillingham 

 {Bill. Ellipse!/ lust.. 3 (HKiG), pi. .'). pp. 1.20-1.2S). — The inner bark of trees, 

 particularly conifers, has been frequently used by inhabitants of northern coun- 

 tries as a food in times of dearth. The data on the subject are summarized, 

 as well as the results of studies of nine samples of bark. 



It was found that the barks apparently contain decidedly smaller quantities 

 than wood of mamian (the constituent on wliicli it was assumed the food value 

 would depend). " It is not to be denied, as yet, that the mannan in bark bread 

 may be of real importance for human sustenance ; but, to all appearance, 

 further \A;prk will be needed to account completcdy for the physiological sig- 

 nificance of this kind of food." 



Rolled oats, T. Macfarlane {Lab. Iiilaml h'cv. Dept. [Caiiaila] Bill. 127, pp. 

 12). — To determine whether the flaked and rolled oats manufactured aud sold 



