On the Employment of Sulphate of Cépper, &e. 279 
an explanation of the manner in which that process is affected by 
the various substances, which have been the subject of his trials. 
The art of bread making, one of the most ancient and the most use- 
ful, is probably as little understood, in theory, as almost any other. 
A perfect acquaintance with the theory of panification would proba- 
tbe of great utility, especially in the use of flour of an inferior 
quality, or of damaged flour. The least discovery in the rationale 
of this process may become of great importance. Of what great 
utility. has been the application of yeast, or how important in the fab- 
rication of bread has been the koa of the fecula of the 
potatoe! 
Whole volumes have been devoted to the culture of the corealia, 
and seldom do we meet with a page on the making of bread, the 
final object of such cultivation. 
While chemists have entered zealously into the process of sugar 
refining, extraction of gelatine from bones, the improvement of wine 
making, distillation, &c. bread, by far the most important article of 
our food, has scarcely engaged their serious attention. A few ma- 
chines for kneading dough, and those of recent invention, are nearly 
all that we find in the way of improvement. 
Tt is this continued ignorance with respect to the chemistry of the 
art, which causes bakers to lay so great a stress upon every secret 
Process. The remarkable effects of sulphate of copper and alum, 
greatly encourage their avidity. To obtain a whiter, more porous, 
and finer grained bread, and in greater quantity from a given weight 
: Oo flour, and at the same time to dispense with the preparation of 
leaven, are advantages too great to prevent the apprehension that they 
wil be greatly abused, and the public health grossly neglected. The 
ro er authorities ought not to be inactive in a matter of so much 
nee, 
