BREAD. 43 



limiting the diet to one vegetable substance, or even two of similar 

 kinds, cannot reclaim or sustain the health of the body. Besides this, 

 the peculiar constitution of some may not render certain substances 

 either agreeable or nutritive, as is often the case with oily, starchy, 

 and saccharine matters. But much depends on the habits of individ- 

 uals. 



The mode of preparing vegetable food will appear important after 

 what has been said of its chief principles. Bread is first among the 

 forms in which vegetable principles are combined. That made of 

 wheat-flour is most common in this and perhaps most European coun- 

 tries. 



Bread. 



This is applied, figuratively, to the food of man, and literally to food 

 prepared from wheat, rye, oats, barley, rice, maize, peas, beans, etc. 

 It is still unleavened in the East, after a lapse of 4,000 years, since its 

 use there was recorded. The improvements which have been made 

 in it in Europe are of comparatively recent date. In thinly settled 

 countries, and in the early history of all, the making of bread, is the 

 business of the household, but by the growth of cities it has become 

 a trade. Such was the case with the Jews, as the bible speaks of 

 "Baker's street." 



Bakers were unknown in Rome 850 years after its foundation. In 

 England the tenants of a manor under feudal laws were obliged to 

 grind at their lord's mill and to bake at his oven, and subsequently at 

 the corporation ovens." The bread of the Jews was mostly made 

 of wheat, barley or lintels and beans. Corn was ground in the East 

 then as now by females, in a hand-mill, and in quantity sufficient only 

 for the day. It was regarded as the symbol of all food ; hence the ex- 

 pression, give us this day our daily bread." Wheaten bread, in the 

 16th century, was a luxury and reserved for the rich, while the poor 

 fed on coarse kinds. 



Unleavened bread is a simple mixture of meal and water, made into 

 a tough cake. The component parts of the flour are little altered. 

 Thus oat meal cakes of the north of England and of Europe are un- 

 leavened. The soldiers of Scotland used to carry a griddle or girdle to 

 bake their cakes on, and this is now a common appendage of every 

 northern cottage. A plate of iron is also used in the East, though 

 commonly the bread is baked in a pit in the centre of the floor. Lea- 

 vened bread is of two kinds, that fermented of sour dough, or leaven, 

 and that fermented with barm or yeast. The bread of leaven alone 

 is sour, hence a small piece of sour leaven is kneaded with fresh dough, 

 which soon ferments the whole mass, and hence the scriptural phrase 

 a little leaven," etc. The use of barm and yeast was a great im- 

 provement. It is the foarn collected on the surface of beer in fermen- 

 tation, and it was brought into use in baking bread, by the Parisians ; 



