498 BREAD 



Composition of TTJteat "Bran. 



Starch 52-0 



Gluten 14-9 



Sugar 1-0 



Fatty matter 3-6 



Woody 97 



Salts 6-0 



Water 13-8 



100-0 



And it is equally certain that wheat itsolf the whole grain does not contain 

 more than 2 per cent, of unnutritious, or woody matter, the bran being itself 

 richer, weight for weight, in gluten than the fine flour ; the whole meal contains, 

 accordingly, more gluten than the fine flour obtained therefrom. The relative pro- 

 portions of gluten in the whole grain, in bran, and in flour of the same sample of 

 wheat, wero represented by the late Professor Johnston to be as follows : 



Gluten of Wheat. 



Whole grain 12 per cent. 



Whole bran 14 to 18 



Fine flour 10 



Now, whereas a bushel of wheat weighing 60 Ibs. produces, according to the mode of 

 manufacturing flour for London, 47 Ibs. that is, 78 per cent, of flour, the rest being 

 bran and pollards ; if we deduct 2 per cent, of woody matter, and 1 per cent, for 

 waste in grinding at the mill, the bushel of 60 Ibs. of wheat would yield 58 Ibs., or 

 at least 96| per cent., of nutritious matter. 



It is, therefore, as clear as anything can possibly be, that by using the whole meal 

 instead of only the fine flour of that wheat, there will be a difference of about ith 

 in the product obtained from equal weights of wheat. 



In a communication made to the Koyal Institute nearly four years ago, M. Mego 

 Mouries announced that he had found under the envelope of the grain, in the internal 

 part of the perisperm, a peculiar nitrogenous substance capable of acting as a ferment, 

 and to which he gave the name of 'cerealine.' This substance, which is found 

 wholly, or almost so, in the bran, but not in the best white flour, has the property of 

 liquefying starch, very much in the same manner as diastase ; and the decreased firm- 

 ness of the crumb of brown bread is referred by him to this action. The coloration 

 o.f bread made from meal containing bran is not, according to M. Mege Mouries, due, 

 as has hitherto been thought, to the presence of bran ; but to the peculiar action of 

 corealin ; this new substance, like vegetable casein and gluten, being, by a slight modi- 

 fication, due perhaps to the contact of the air, transformed into a ferment, under the 

 influence of which the gluten undergoes a great alteration, yielding, among other 

 products, ammonia, a brown-coloured matter analogous to ulmine, and a nitrogenoxts 

 product capable of transforming sugar into lactic acid. M. Mego Mouries having 

 experimentally established, to the satisfaction of a committee consisting of MM. 

 Chevreul, Dumas, Pelouze, and Peligot, that by paralysing or destroying the action 

 of cerealin, as described in the specification of his patent, bearing date June 14, 

 1856, white bread, having all the characters of first-quality bread, may be made, in 

 the language of the said specification, ' with using either all the white or raw ele- 

 ments that constitute either corn or rye, or with such substances as could produce, to 

 this day, but brown bread.' 



Cerealin, according to M. Mege Mouries, has two very distinct properties : the 

 first consists in converting the hydrated starch into glucose and dextrine ; the second, 

 which is much more important in its results, transforms the glucose into lactic, acetic, 

 butyric, and formic acid, which penetrate, swell up, and partly dissolve tho gluten, 

 rendering it pulpy and emulsive, like that of rye ; producing, in fact, a series of de- 

 compositions, yielding eventually a loaf having all the characteristics of bread made 

 from inferior flour. 



In order to convert the whole of the farinaceous substance of wheat into whito 

 bread, it is therefore necessary to destroy the cerealin ; and the process, or series of 

 processes, by which this is accomplished, is thus described by M. Mego Mouries in 

 nis specification : 



' The following are the means I employ to obtain my new product : 



' 1st. The application of vinous ^rmentation, produced by alcoholic ferment or 

 yeast, to destroy the ferment that I call "cerealine" existing, together with the frag- 



