I 



121 



more or less collapsed, while a large quantity of alumina was found, 

 arising from the addition of alum, made no doubt for the purpose of 

 overcoming the damaged wheat, and making the flour bake as well and 

 as white as the best. Another sample of French flour, of great weight, 

 was found to contain a very considerable quantity of gypsum ; while in 

 a third the characteristic starch grains of pea meal, and a little bone 

 dust were brought to light.='= 



With these few exceptions we have found flour to be genuine ; but in 

 all, more or less of alumina was detected; which we think arises from the 

 addition of small portions of alum in the process of grindiuw, and we 

 certainly are not prepared to say that this slight addition is capable of 

 exerting any injurious effect upon health ; for our experiments go to 

 establish the theory proposed by Liebig, that during the process 

 of baking the alum is destroyed : but of this we shall have to speak more 

 fully in reference to the next ai'ticle of food which claims our attention, 

 namely bread. 



Bread, emphatically termed the staff of life, has long been looked 

 upon with suspicion, and many are the laws and regulations which have 

 from time to time been formed lor the protection of the public against 

 fraud in this most important and necessary article of diet ; yet how 

 defective these laws are, and how easy it is to evade their power and 

 intention is daily proved by the amount of alumina found in the bread 

 as supplied to the public, and the rapidity with wliich a loaf loses 

 weight by keeping. 



We have not found that other grain than wheat is employed in the 

 manufacture of bread in this part of the country, f but we do find that 

 substances are mixed with the flour, which cause it to retain a larger 

 proportion of water, and cause a damaged or inferior flour to produce 

 as saleable a bread as the best. Mitchell tells us that it is a universal 

 custom in England to mix boiled potatoes with the dough ; such an 

 addition would of course greatly increase the weight of bread produced, 

 but diminish its nutritive properties at least twenty per cent. We 

 scarcely feel prepared wholly to contradict this statement, but in 

 numerous samples of bread we have examined, we liave failed to dis- 

 cover any appreciable quantity of potato starch, or the starch granules 

 of any other grain, and our samples have been drawn from all sources, 

 though confined to white bread. 



But for the purpose of increasing the weight of the bread, and of 



• Since reading tliis paper Mr. Evans has examined two samples of flour, which contained 

 large quantities of the sporules of the uredo fungus, that produces tlio smut iu wlicat, and in 

 one they existed to a most injurious extent. 



+ Since this was in type we liave discovered a pretty uniform admixture of Mai/.o or 

 Indian Corn Flour iii the bread of one of our most esteemed bakers. — H, S. K. 



