496 Journal of Applied Microscopy. 



The extreme outer coat (1) is the epiderm or husk, and constitutes what in 

 milling is called bran. It consists essentially of cellulose and contains no im- 

 portant nutritious element. The next inner layer (2), quite thin, contains some 

 oil and albumen. 



The rectangular, symmetrically arranged cells (3) are filled with gluten, and 

 as these cells follow the contour of the grain and extend around the deep furrow 

 on the side, they constitute no inconsiderable portion of the entire kernel, the 

 gluten, in different varieties of wheat, amounting to from ten to twenty per cent. 



The entire interior (4) is filled with cells of irregular shape containing starch, 

 the cell walls themselves are extremely thin, and have an element of gluten in 

 their composition. 



The finest and whitest wheat flour consists, of course, almost entirely of 

 starch, the more nutritious, nitrogenous, elements in the gluten being excluded in 

 the process of milling. 



In sections of wheat, rye, oats, and Indian corn, only a single row of gluten 

 cells is seen, while in barley there are three, but the cells being much smaller, 

 the quantity of gluten contained is not so greatly in excess as the number 

 might indicate. 



The teachers of cooking employed in our public schools are now required to 

 possess not only a simple knowledge of preparing palatable dishes, but must 

 bring to their profession such scientific attainments as enable them to instruct 

 their pupils in the nutritive value of various articles of food. 



These teachers now uniformly recommend and teach their pupils to make 

 bread and biscuits of flour from what is called the whole wheat, which contains 

 the entire gluten element of the grain, the indigestible epidermal coat only 

 being removed in grinding. 



Bread made from this flour, although darker in color and requiring a some- 

 what different process in its preparation, is very sweet and palatable, and 

 possessing all the chemical elements of a complete food, is undoubtedly destined, 

 in the near future, to replace the white, starchy bread now in general use. 



J. D. Hyatt. 

 Principal of Public School No. 85, New York City. 



Filling Fermentation Tubes. 



Formerly I was much annoyed by reason of the sugar bouillon boiling over 

 during sterilization, wetting the cotton plugs, and leaving a large air bubble in 

 the closed end of the tube. I concluded that the air contained in the bouillon 

 was responsible for the trouble, and tried filling the tubes with hot bouillon only, 

 from which the air had been thoroughly expelled by a stay of some minutes in 

 the sterilizer immediately before use. This simple expedient practically 

 eliminates the trouble from wetting of the plugs, and the air bubble which 

 remains in the closed arm of the tube after sterilization is so small that it is 

 readily absorbed as the tubes cool. W W. Alleger. 



