BREAD. 95 



more soluble matter than the interior. The temperature of 

 the interior is not raised much, if any, above 212. The 

 acidulous fermentation takes place to a limited extent even 

 in good white bread ; but this is apt to proceed further than 

 is desirable if the dough be allowed to ferment too long. In 

 that case the bread is sour and indigestible. 



Brown bread may be made either of unbolted flour, or of 

 flour to which a small quantity of bran has been added. A 

 bread called bran-bread is made of an excess of bran with a 

 small quantity of flour. The bread formerly issued to the 

 French soldier (pain de munition) was made from flour with 

 only 15 per cent, of its bran removed ; unbolted flour con- 

 taining about twenty per cent. The color of this kind of 

 brown bread is due, not to the color of the bran, but to pe- 

 culiarities in the process of panification. In the bran is 

 contained a peculiar principle called cerealine, which is ca- 

 pable of becoming a very active ferment. The effect of its 

 action is to change starch into dextrine, then into sugar, and 

 finally into lactic acid. Its most important influence, how- 

 ever, is exerted upon the gluten. This it transforms into 

 ammonia, a peculiar brown substance which gives the color 

 to the bread, and a new ferment capable of transforming su- 

 gar into lactic acid. These changes may take place to some 

 extent in bread which is inferior in quality from being al- 

 lowed to ferment too long, so that the acidulous action pre- 

 dominates. Brown bread is not as light as bread of the best 

 quality, and contains less gluten, a considerable quantity 

 having undergone transformation into ammonia and brown 

 coloring matter. It is not so easily digested, from the fact 

 that it is less easily penetrated by the gastric juice. Yery 

 fresh bread, particularly if it be warm, is less easily digested 

 than after it has been allowed to become " stale." In this 

 state the process of mastication compresses it into pasty 

 masses which are not easily penetrated by the digestive 

 fluids ; while bread eaten a few hours after baking is disinte- 

 grated by mastication, and absorbs the fluids of the mouth in 



