BREAD. 



11 , 



prepared is less dry and friable, lc8 misciblc there- 

 fore with the saliva and with our other food, and 

 perhaps less wholesome than might he desired. Aces- 

 cent fermentation is the only effectual mean? of cor- 

 recting these imperfections. It drives off a large 

 quantity of the fixed air ; but as a portion of it still 

 remains diffused, the mass is swelled into a larger 

 bulk. ; and, when heat is applied, the bread formed 

 is of a more spongy texture, more tender, friable, 

 and more miscible with the saliva and our other food. 

 Complete fermentation, however, cannot be given to 

 any of the farina except wheat, of which alone, 

 therefore, by its own spontaneous fermentation, the 

 most perfect bread can be formed. When the disco- 

 very of the circulation of the blood led physicians 

 to consider obstruction as 3 principal cause of dis- 

 ease, they were ready, at the same time, to suppose 

 a certain state of the fluids to be the chief csuse of 

 obstruction. Dr Boerhaave has given the gliilinosum 

 /lingite as one of the simple diseases of the fluids ; 

 the first cause of which he ascribes to the use of un- 

 fermented farinacea. " In entering upon the consi- 

 deration of this," says Dr Cullen, " we are willing 

 to own, that a farinaceous substance, formed by fer- 

 mentation into a perfect bread, is the most whole- 

 some condition in which farinaceous substances can 

 be employed as a part of oilr food ; and we are also 

 ready to allow, that the unfermented farinacea, taken 

 in immoderate quantity, especially at a certain pe- 

 riod of life, or in dyspeptic stomachs, may be the 

 cause of disease : but all this seems to have been ex- 

 aggerated ; for the morbid effects of unfermented 

 farinacea are truly rare occurrences ; and, indeed, the 

 ame unfermented farinacea are, for the most part, 

 very well suited to the human economy. However 

 considerable the use of fermented bread may be, the 

 use of unfermented farinacea is still very great and 

 considerable amongst almost every people of the 

 earth. The whole people of Asia live upon unfer- 

 mented rice ; and I believe the Americans, before 

 they became acquainted with the Europeans, cm- 

 ployed, and for the most part still employ, their 

 maize in the same condition. Even in Europe, the 

 employment of unfermented bread, and of unfer- 

 mented farinacea in other shapes, is still very consi- 

 derable ; and we are ready to maintain, that the mor- 

 bid consequences of such diet are very seldom to be 

 observed. In Scotland, nine- tenths of the lower 

 class of people, and that is the greater part of the 

 whole, live upon unfermented bread, and unferment- 

 ed farinacea in other forms, and at the same time I 

 am of opinion, that there are not a more healthy 

 people any where to be found. In the course of fifty 

 years that I have practised physic amongst them, I 

 have had occasion to know this ; and have hardly 

 met with a disease of any consequence that I could 

 impute to the use of unfermented farinacea. Physi- 

 cians, who represent these as a noxious matter, must 

 at the same time acknowledge, that in every coun- 

 try in Europe it is often used with perfect impuni- 

 ty. To obviate, however, the conclusion I would 

 draw from this fact, they allege that it is only safe when 

 used by robust and labouring people ; but we give it 

 in this country, not only to the farmer's labouring 

 servants, but to our sedentary tradesmen, to our wo- 

 men, and to our children ; and all of the latter live 



and grow up in good health, except a very few <! 

 peptics, who are not free of complaints, which those 

 also are liable to who lire on fermented W!K- I 

 breed. 



From these considerations, it will appear, that a 

 great deal too much has been said or th- noxious 

 ts of unfrrmented farinacea. It will surprise 

 modern physicians to find, that Celsu.i (who, like 

 other ancients, can hardly be in the wrong) should 

 say, that unfermented bread is more wholesome t! 

 fermented bread. I am ready to allow that he wa 

 in the wrong ; but I am disposed to suspect, that it 

 happened from his observing that the lower people, 

 who lived on the unfermented, were generally more 

 healthy than those of the better sort, who lived upon 

 fermented bread." (&) 



Since the preceding observations were drawn up, 

 \ve have met with the following new theory of the 

 fermentation which takes place in bread, by M. Du- 

 portal, professor of physic and chemistry in the aca- 

 demy of Montpellier, which we shall give in his own 

 words : 



" The making of bread is a domestic chemical 

 operation, since in it those substances which are the 

 most essential to the sustenance of man undergo a 

 change in their nature. These substances are found 

 united in the meal of the farinaceous seeds, especial- 

 ly in those of wheat, which furnishes the best bread. 

 M. Chaptal has found this latter farina to consist of 

 starch, gluten, mucilage, and sugar. We may add 

 to them the ferment, the vegetable albumen, calca- 

 reous phosphate, &c. which must be reckoned in 

 the number of materials which compose it. What 

 share has each of these principles in carrying on the 

 pannary fermentation ? It is generally believed, that 

 the farina being reduced into a paste, Ae mucous 

 saccharine principle undergoes the vinous fermenta- 

 tion ; that the starch has a tendency to become acid ; 

 and that the gluten and albumen enter into putrefac- 

 tion. 



I cannot entirely accord with this doctrine. It 

 appears to me 'to be more correct, to suppose that 

 the ferment, after having conrerted the sugar of 

 the farina into carbonic acid gas, and into alcohol, 

 changes this into acetic acid ; that at the same time 

 the gluten and the albumen are in part decomposed, 

 acetic acid is again produced, some ammonia, and 

 more carbonic acid gas, &c. ; and that, the starch 

 uniting with the undecomposed gluten, there results 

 a compound, the further alteration of which is pre- 

 vented by the action of fire, which combines still 

 more intimately these principles. This theory of the 

 pannary fermentation seems to me to be supported 

 by the following facts : 



1st, Those farms which are deprived of the fer- 

 menting principle, or those which scarcely contain 

 any of it, always afford heavy bread, although the 

 muco- saccharine principle forms a part of them j for 

 this substance not being a fermentable principle, it 

 cannot ferment of itself, although it does so by means 

 of a ferment. Thus, it is customary to add to the 

 dough a leaven taken from bread already fermented, 

 or the yeast of beer, as is the practice in Paris. 



2d, Dough n always acid, notwithstanding that 

 the volatile alkali formed in the operation neutralizes 





