BREAD. 



Bread. 



Of the al 



|i 



lifferent 

 kinds of 

 bread. 



In the absence of any of the farinaceous vegetables 

 which we have mentioned, various substitutes for 

 bread have been employed in different parts of the 

 world. By far the most valuable of these substitutes 

 is the fruit of the bread tree, which is common in many 

 parts of the East. It abounds particularly at Suri- 

 nam, where extensive alleys may be seen of this tree 

 alone, loaded with the most luxuriant crops of fruit. 

 As this tree it to be described in a separate article, 

 we forbear entering into any minute account of it at 

 present, or of the manner in which it is prepared. 

 See BREAD Fruit Tree. In Iceland, Lapland, Crim 

 Tartary, and various parts in the north, a kind of 

 bread is made of dried fish, beaten first into powder, 

 and then made up into cakes. But the strangest sub- 

 stitute for corn that has ever been employed, is a sort 

 of white earth, found in the lordship of Moscow, in 

 upper Lusatia, of which the poor, in times of fa- 

 mine, have frequently been compelled to make bread. 

 This earth is dug out of a hill where saltpetre had 

 formerly been worked : when heated by the sun it 

 cracks, and small globules proceed from it like meal, 

 which ferment when mixed with flour. On this 

 earth, baked into bread, many persons have subsisted 

 for a considerable time. A similar earth is found 

 near Geronne in Catalonia. 



In the western partsof Louisiana, too, the cavage in- 

 habitants have a strange custom of eating a whiteearth 

 or clay with salt. A This custom they seem to have 

 borrowed from the example of the wild cattle, goats, 

 and even turkies, which eat earth of a similar de- 

 scription in the salt-pits of that country. The row- 

 ers, too, who ply on the river Mississippi, fre- 

 quently drink such quantities of muddy water, as 

 cannot fail to leave in their stomach a considerable 

 residuum of earth. These facts suggested to M. 

 Buchoz, that an European might, without danger, 

 imitate, in this respect, the example of the Ameri- 

 cans. To put this idea to the test of experiment, 

 he ate a large piece of clay, kneaded with a little 

 brine. He found it rather unpleasant to the taste, 

 but followed by no bad consequences. He tried to 

 render it pleasanter and more nutritious. The re- 

 sult of his experiments was, that gum-water, glue, 

 the fresh juice of fruits, the paste and the decoction 

 of the roots of marsh-mallows, succeeded equally 

 well in forming, with this clay, a good and very nu- 

 tritive bread. " I doubt not," continues he, " that, 

 with the aid of a little leaven, and long trituration, 

 a mineral bread might be made, which would prove 

 the greatest resource in time of famine." It is dif- 

 ficult to believe that any kind of earth can be a nu- 

 tritive food ; yet, it is certain, that several nations, 

 and particularly the negroes, are accustomed to eat 

 some species of earths found in their country, the 

 want of which, when absent from home, they bit- 

 terly regret. It seems probable, however, that they 

 employ these earths, not as aliments, but merely as 

 tonics, to rectify the stomach, and to restore its 

 powers. The continued use of it, even for a short 

 i- time, would, in all probability, be deleterious. 



What kind of bread is the most nutritive and whole- 

 sorae > ' s a question which has occasioned much discus- 

 ** n among physicians. The whole tribe of cerealia, 

 that is, of the gramineous or culmiferous plants em- 



ployed as the food of men, contain a farinaceous 

 substance of a similar nature. Different species of ' 

 these cerealia are employed in different countries, 

 with nearly the same benefit, according to the facili- 

 ty of cultivating them in certain soils and climates. 

 There is, however, some difference in the qualities 

 of the cerealia, which deserves to be mentioned. 

 Barley, which contains in its farina a smaller pro- 

 portion of oil than some other grains, is found, ac- 

 cordingly, to be less nourishing. This is ascertain- 

 ed by the experience of our peasantry, as well as by 

 experiments upon brutes, which are not found to 

 derive equal nourishment from the same quantity of 

 barley as of oats. Rye, which, on being decocted 

 in water, yields three-fourths of its weight of muci- 

 lage, may be presumed to be sufficiently nourishing. 

 Water, when triturated with it, acquires no milki- 

 ness, which shews that its oil is at least under a pe- 

 culiar combination ; and if it really contains a due 

 portion of oil, it is difficult to explain why it should 

 be, of all the cerealia, the most acescent. These 

 peculiarities might seem to detract from its nourish- 

 ing quality, were not this sufficiently established by 

 the experience of all the northern nations on the 

 continent. With us it is little employed as an ali- 

 ment ; and people unaccustomed to it generally find 

 it laxative. Rice is proven, by the experience of all 

 Asia, to be sufficiently nourishing ; nor does its nu- 

 tritious matter seem to be attended with any noxious 

 quality. " It has been supposed," says Dr Cullen, 

 " among physicians, to be possessed of some drying 

 or astringent quality, and has therefore been com- 

 monly employed in diarrhoea and dysentery, prefer- 

 ably to the other farinacea : but this opinion I take 

 to be groundless ; for it does not give any mark of 

 astringent quality with the vitriol of iron ; and if it 

 has ever been found useful in diarrhoea, it must, as 

 Spielmann properly judges, be owing entirely to its 

 demulcent power ; which, however, is not stronger 

 in it, than in several others of the farinacea." Oats 

 are used by many people in the north of Europe as 

 a farinaceous food, but particularly by the people of 

 Scotland, and its nutritive qualities are sufficiently 

 known. Various, and indeed contrary,mistakes, how- 

 ever, have been formed concerning it. The Frencli 

 suppose it to be refrigerant, but it is merely so as 

 being a vegetable aliment not heating. The Eng- 

 lish vulgar, from its tendency to produce a slight 

 heartburn, have supposed it to be heating ; and, from 

 a mistake with regard to the state of diseases, have 

 imagined it the cause of cutaneous affections, not 

 more frequent in Scotland than in other countries. 

 The heat at the stomach is owing to the acescency 

 which oat bread, commonly unfcrmentcd, is apt to 

 occasion ; and, unfermented bread of wheat meal is 

 liable to give the same heartburn and sense of heat at 

 stomach. Maize, which is entirely an American grain, 

 affords a farina of the best quality, and extremely 

 nourishing both to men and brutes. By itself, or 

 even with yeast, it does not ferment so well as to give 

 a light bread ; but it may be made into a very per- 

 fect bread, by being mixed, in pretty large propor- 

 tions, to the flour of wheat. All these farinaceous 

 substances which we have mentioned, may be made 

 indeed into bread ; but in many cases the bread so 



