8 GRAHAM FLOUR. 



of grain, triturated or ground, but not bolted, which was accounted 

 the most wholesome and nutritious part of their rations." 



He further quoted from Samuel Prior in regard to the French- 

 English war at the close of the eighteenth century, during which it 

 was shown that owing to the great scarcity of grain due to the small 

 crops in England and to the fact that imports into that country 

 were cut off by the French, Parliament found it necessary and expe- 

 dient to pass an act (to be in force for two years) that the army at 

 home be supplied with bread made of unbolted wheat meal in order 

 that wheat might go as far as possible and for the better supply of 

 the army on the Continent. Throughout Great Britain the soldiers 

 who were supplied with such bread were at first greatly dis- 

 pleased and refused to eat it, and even threw it away in great rage- 

 However, "after two or three weeks they began to be much pleased 

 with it and preferred it to the fine-flour bread." The result of this 

 experiment was that in a few months the health of the soldiers 

 improved so much as to become a matter of favorable comment on 

 the part of the army surgeons and officers, who " publicly declared 

 that the soldiers were never before so healthy and robust and that 

 diseases of every kind had almost entirely disappeared from the 

 army." Owing to the fact that the newspapers and the civic physi- 

 cians recommended this bread generally as the " most healthy bread 

 that could be eaten, " it became so universally used that in many 

 towns it was almost impossible to find a loaf of fine-flour bread. 

 Subsequently, due to the heavy importation of fine flour from 

 America and to larger crops at home, and to the fact that the act of 

 Parliament was no longer in effect, the people gradually returned to 

 their old habits of eating fine-flour bread. 



Graham, who was a noted temperance reformer and lecturer, con- 

 vinced from his own experience and that of previous ages of the 

 efficacy and value of whole- wheat bread, started about the time 

 his book appeared (1839) a country- wide agitation in favor of a 

 return to the use of bread made with the whole of the wheat, ground 

 but not bolted. He gave specific directions in regard to the treat- 

 ment of the wheat used for bread making, namely, that it must be 

 plump, mature, and free from rust and other diseases; it must be 

 thoroughly cleansed, not only from chaff, cockles, tares, and such 

 substances, but also from smut and every kind of impurity that may 

 be attached to the skin of the kernel. In other words, the wheat 

 should be washed and cleaned from all impurities, ground by means 

 of sharp stones, coarse rather than fine, inasmuch as the coarse- 

 ground flour makes a bread sweeter and more wholesome. 1 From 

 that time to this unbolted wheat meal has been popularly known as 

 " Graham flour." 



J Its alleged nutritive or therapeutic advantages over ordinary, flour are not considered in tfcis bulletin. 



