SCIENCE IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS. 189 
and in soil and also just dipping into water on muslin tied over the mouth of a 
sie Wherever possible, wheat should be grown as a crop in the school 
garden. 
A regular account of all that went on should be kept. 
To return to bread—having made flour (or before this, if desirable) they 
should assist in actually making a batch of bread in the kitchen and be led to 
observe (not be told merely, by the teacher) and record everything that happened 
and was done. : 
Wheat having been thus dealt with, barley and oats and even maize and rice 
should be studied in a similar way—and cakes should be made by the children 
(and afterwards eaten) from barley-meal, oatmeal, maize-meal and rice-meal, in 
order that the value of cereal grains generally as foods might be impressed upon 
them. A valuable lesson would be given if cakes were made, at this stage, from 
various kinds of meal. 
Stupy or Fiovr. 
It would be learnt in the kitchen that flour forms a paste which is scarcely 
sticky when mixed with not too much water, but that more water makes it 
sticky; the question arises—What does water do to flour? Some things—salt 
and sugar, for instance—dissolve in water: does flour? Each child should work 
a pellet of flour paste between its thumb and two fingers under water (in a 
common tumbler) : it would then be discovered that something is washed away 
from the sticky mass and that at last a peculiar stringy rather than sticky mass 
remains from which nothing more can be washed away even by running water. 
From the turbid water in the tumbler, a white solid gradually settles down 
which is not in the least sticky. The experiment should be repeated on a 
larger scale by each child with say 30 grams of flour. This should be put 
into a basin and mixed, by means of a short stout glass rod or stick, with about 
half its weight of water. he paste should then be kneaded between the 
fingers under a tap from which water trickles, the washings being collected in 
a basin over which a square of muslin is spread, so as to catch any sticky 
particles which may be broken away. When the washings are no longer milky, 
the stringy mass should be dried by rolling it on the palm of the hand, con- 
stantly drying the hand with a towel, just up to the point at which it shows 
signs of sticking—but no longer; then it should be placed on a 2 or 3 inch 
square of grease-proof paper and dried in a water oven. When dry it should be 
weighed. 
The washings should be poured into a large pickle-jar or cylinder and 
allowed to settle. After an interval, as much as possible of the clear liquid 
should be syphoned off and the residue collected on a filter, dried and weighed. 
In this way, the flour would be separated into gluten and starch and a fair 
estimate would be made of the amounts of each. ‘ 
On treating barley-meal, oatmeal, maize-meal and rice-meal in the same way, — 
it would be found that they did not yield the sticky substance (gluten) when 
kneaded with water. One reason why wheaten meal is more suitable for kitchen 
purposes than other kinds of cereal meals would then be made clear. 
Stupy or STarcH. 
Starch is in common use—for what purpose? For stiffening articles of 
clothing—collars, cuffs, shirt fronts, etc. What is it like and how is it used? 
Examine samples and describe it. Prepare a quantity for starching by mixing 
... grams with. . . cubic centimetres of cold water, using your forefinger to 
stir them together, then pour the paste in a thin stream into . . . cubic centi- 
metres of boiling hot water contained in a dish or saucepan of suitable size, stir- 
ring constantly, as you pour in the paste, with a wooden spoon or rod. Set the 
liquid aside to cool but cool a portion rapidly in a test tube under the tap. 
Taste it and solid starch. Describe the appearance of the liquid and everything 
that happens to it as it cools. Dilute a small portion considerably, to a 
known extent; then add a drop or two of a solution of iodine to a litre of the 
diluted liquid. You will thus become acquainted with the characteristic test 
for starch, 
