114 Transactions of tse American Institute. 



crushing of the gluten coat, by -wliich portions of it are made fine 

 enough to pass tln-ough the bolt, to be mingled with tlie iiour, 



Impoetance of PnospHOKic Acid in Bkead. 



Important as this phosphoric acid is — as shown from the superior 

 healthfulness of bread made from whole meal — of the pumper-nickel 

 of Westphalia, which is made of whole meal of rye and wheat, and of 

 the black bread of the Prussian, Austrian, and Russian peasantry and 

 soldiers ; and useful as it is known to be as a remedial agent, where 

 the food is deficient in phosphates ; important as its presence in food 

 is, it was obviously of great moment to attempt its restoration to line 

 flour. Since my labors began in this field, Mege JMouries and others, 

 in Europe, have attempted to extract the gluten as a whole, and 

 incorporate it with the flour in the process of making fermented 

 bread. The task was beset with numerous difficulties, involving, 

 among other things, a mill and bakery in the same establishment, 

 and has met with little success. I conceived the idea of obtaining 

 the phosphoric acid in the form of a powder that should be without 

 attraction for atmospheric moisture, and which could be mixed with 

 its equivalent of bicarbonate of soda, and then with flour, so that on 

 stirring the prepared flour with water the phosphoric acid should 

 dissolve and combine with the soda, and thus liberate the carbonic 

 acid to inflate the dough. Could this idea be carried out, I foresaw 

 that there would be gained all the conveniences of quick bread, the 

 annoyances and uncertainties of making good bread in the use of 

 yeast would be averted, and the most important nutritive principle 

 oi the wheat, which has in great measure been lost in bolting, would 

 be restored to the flour and to the bread. Let me take a moment to 

 stir some self-leavening flour and water together for a loaf of bread, 

 and place it in the oven. 



ISTew Discovery. 



"While the sample is baking, I will mention a discovery I have 

 made during the last summer, which bears upon the significance of 

 phosphoric acid. Two or three years ago Liebreich, a German 

 chemist, discovered that the crystallized fatty body obtained by treating 

 the brain with alcohol is a grand phosphate- in Avhich there is present 

 beside phosphoric acid, cerebrin — a peculiar fatty body containing 

 nitrogen — olein, margarin, and stearin, with wliich you are all familiar 

 as constituents of tallow, lard or butter, glycerine, and a curious 

 ammonia in wliich one atom of hydrogen is replaced by the radical 



