118 Transactions of the Ajierican Institute. 



stamps. This was a great convenience, and some persons to whom, 

 as to, the general public, the nature of the adhesive material was not 

 known, sought to find out the secret.. Tlie government officers were 

 reticent. At length an enterprizing contributor to a provincial 

 newspaper announced that an analysis of the material had revealed 

 in the stamps the presence of — arsenic! The newspaper article ran 

 the rounds of the press, and so alarmed the people wlio had been 

 innocently applying their tongues to the gummed surfaces, that the 

 Government was compelled to come out with the statement that the 

 preparation was simply British gum. 



What is Stale Bread? 



There is a peculiar quality which bread acquires after a day or two 

 which we recognize in calling it stale. It is said to be more healthy 

 than fresh bread. Such bread may be freshened by placing it for a 

 few moments in an oven, or by toasting. Let me tell you why it is 

 believed to be more healthy, though less palatable. Fermented 

 bread, at the temperature of 212 deg. still contains the germs of 

 ferment. If taken into a sensitive stomach while still warm, it is 

 conceived that some of these ferment producing spores or seeds find 

 their way into the circulation, and there produce decomposition of 

 surrounding fluids. These phenomena of fermentation are conceived 

 to be mainly dynamic — that is, one complex body falling apart com- 

 municates a blow to a neighboring complex body and separates it 

 into less complex forms. This is no more true of the effect of ferment 

 in the percussion which flashes sugar into alcohol and carbonic acid 

 than, it is believed, it is of ferment in breaking up the delicate and 

 elaborate organic compounds which are built up in the processes of 

 diiirestion. If the bread be left to drv and become cold, most of these 

 germs of ferment plants die. In a moist and ^varm place they con- 

 tinue to live much longer, and, besides, the bread becomes covered 

 with and penetrated by mold, which is a kindred vegetable organism, 

 I may mention that bread made from self-leavened flour, without the 

 use of ferment, may be eaten while fresh and hot with impunity. It 

 is no more likely to do harm to any digestive apparatus, however 

 sensitive, than hot beefsteak. Moreover, it is much less liable to 

 mold in damp weather. But what is stale bread? Boussingault, 

 some years ago, undertook the solution of this problem. lie first 

 showed that to become stale was not necessarily, as had been previ- 

 ously supposed, attended with a loss of weight, as of water. Ke 



