BREAD 497 



containing from 60 to 70 per cent, of the most nutritious part of the flour, a loss which, 

 for London only, is equal to at least 7,500 sacks of flour annually ; 



That tho unwiso preference given so universally to white bread, leads to the per- 

 nicious practice of mixing alum with the flour, and this again to all sorts of im- 

 positions and adulterations ; for it enables the bakers who are so disposed, by adding 

 alum, to make bread manufactured from the flour of inferior grain to look like the 

 best and most costly, thus defrauding the purchaser and tampering with his health. 

 On the other side, the partisans of white bread contend, of course, that all these 

 assertions are without foundation, and their reasons were summed up as follows in 

 the Bakers' Gazette, in 1849 : 



' Tho preference of the public for white bread is not likely to be an absurd pre- 

 judice, seeing that it was not until after years of experience that it was adopted by 

 them. 



' The adoption of white bread, in preference to any other sort, by the great body of 

 the community, as a general article of food, is of itself a proof of its being the best 

 and most nutritious. 



' The finer and better the flour, the more bread can be made from it. Fifty-six 

 pounds of fine flour from good wheat will make seventy-two pounds of good, sound, 

 well-baked bread, the bread, having retained sixteen pounds of water. But bran, 

 either fine or coarse, absorbs little or no water, and adds no more to the bread than 

 its weight.' 



And, lastly, in confirmation of the opinion that white bread contains a greater 

 quantity of nutriment than the same weight of brown bread, the writer of the article 

 winds up the white bread defence with a portion of the Keport of the Committee of 

 the House of Commons, appointed in 1800, 'to consider means for rendering more 

 effectual the provisions of 13 Geo. III., intituled " An Act for the better regulating the 

 Assize and making of Bread." ' 



In considering the propriety of recommending the adoption of further regulations 

 and restrictions, they understood a prejudice existed in some parts of the country 

 against any coarser sort of bread than that which is at present known by the name 

 of ' fine household bread,' on the ground that the former was less wholesome and 

 nutritious than the latter. The opinions of respectable physicians examined on this 

 point are, that the change of any sort of food which forms so great a part of the 

 sustenance of man might for a time affect some constitutions ; that as soon as persons 

 were habituated to it, the standard wheaten bread, or even bread of a coarser sort, 

 would be equally wholesome with the fine wheaten bread which is now generally 

 used in the metropolis ; but that, in their opinion, the fine wheaten bread would go 

 farther with persons who have no other food than the same quantity of bread of a 

 coarser sort. 



It was suggested to them that if only one sort of flour was permitted to be made, 

 and a different mode of dressing it adopted, so as to leave in it the fine pollards, 

 52 Ibs. of flour might be extracted from a bushel, of wheat weighing 60 Ibs., instead 

 of 47 Ibs., which would afford a wholesome and nutritious food, and add to the quan- 

 tity 5 Ibs. in every bushel, or somewhat more than |th. On this they remarked, that 

 there would be no saving in adopting this proposition ; and they begged leave to 

 observe, if the physicians are well founded in their opinions, that bread of coarser 

 quality will not go equally far with fine wheaten bread, and increased consumption 

 of wheaten bread would be the consequence of the measure. 



From the baker's point of view, it is evident that all his sympathies must be in 

 favour of the water-absorbing material, and therefore of the fine flour ; for each pound 

 of water added and retained in the bread which he sells represents this day so many 

 twopences ; but the purchaser's interest lies in just the opposite direction. 



The question, however, is not, in the language of the Committee of tho House of 

 Commons of those days, or of the physicians whom they consulted, whether a given 

 weight of wheaten bread mil go farther than an equal weight of bread of a coarser 

 sort ; nor whether a given weight of pure flour is more nutritious than an equal 

 weight of the meal from the same wheat used in making brown bread. The real 

 question is, Whether a given weight of wheat contains more nutriment than THE FLOUR 

 obtained from that weight of wheat. 



The inquiry of the Committee of the House of Commons, and the defence of white 

 bread versus brown bread, resting as it does, in this respect, upon a false ground, is 

 therefore perfectly valueless ; for whatever may have been the opinion of respectable 

 physicians and of Committees, either of those days or of the present times, one thing is 

 certain namely, that bran contains only 9 or 10 per cent, of woody fibre, that is, of 

 matter devoid of nutritious property ; and that the remainder consists of a larger pro- 

 portion of gluten and starch, fatty, and other highly nutritive constituents, with a few 

 salts, and water, as proved by the following analysis by Millon : 

 VOL. I. K K 



