484 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



is one of the first tricks of civilization; and ovens are of greater 

 influence on man tlian steam engines. The sacred writings men- 

 tion Pharaoh's baker as an important personage ; and the connec- 

 tion of the Israelites with Egypt arose out of the monopoly which 

 that ancient country held in wheat. The crowning glory of Jo- 

 seph's administration as Premier in Egypt, was to equalize the 

 grain market of the world for fourteen years ; thus preventing 

 during the seven years of famine the extinctien of the most civ- 

 ilized nation in the world. It was only after they left Egypt that 

 the Jews became an agricultural rather than a pastoral people; 

 substituted bread extensively in their diet and were prepared to 

 receive the sacred mysteries. Bread the emblem of their advance- 

 ment was kept continually in their innermost sanctuary. 



The Romans derived their first bakers from the Greeks or Per- 

 sians. They came to Rome with the army from Macedonia. In 

 nothing was the wise and cautions policy of their government more 

 fully displayed than in the regulations of this trade, by which the 

 art and mystery, while j^erpetuated in a class, was preserved to 

 the State. Before the fall of the Roman Empire, however, the 

 knowledge had escaped into Gaul, and probably Germany; and it 

 is undoubtedly as much to the improved condition of the northern 

 barbarians as to the declining condition of Rome that we are to 

 attribute the fall of the Roman Empire. It is easy to conceive 

 that the men whose blood I'uns in our veins would only brook 

 masters so long as their comforts were enhanced by them ; and that 

 once having learned the arts of civilization they would soon set 

 up for themselves. Beyond the southern line of the kingdoms of 

 Norway and Sweden, which by the way is the northern line of the 

 kingdom of wheat, civilization progressed very much more slowly, 

 and so late as the middle of the sixteenth century, the only bread 

 known in the northern part of those countries was unleavened 

 cakes kneaded by women. 



The present distribution of the principal cereals shows that the 

 most enlightened and advanced races of men correspond in 

 locality to those of these grains that are most rich in the prpteine 

 compounds. To the extreme north barley and oats are the only 

 grains. Rye occupies the south of Sweden and Norway, together 



