824 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLIV. No. 1145 



United Kingdom every three weeks, or seven- 

 teen extra 2-lb. loaves per head of the popula- 

 tion per year. This is by no means a negligible 

 increase in the bread supply, and it is doubtless 

 considerations of this kind that have induced 

 the government to take action. 



If, however, we examine the result rather 

 more closely, we find that the increase in the 

 nation's food supply may not be so great as the 

 above figures indicate. In spite of repeated 

 statements to the contrary, bread made from 

 80 per cent, flour is not so nutritious, weight 

 for weight, as bread made from 70 per cent, 

 flour — at any rate, for the supply of protein 

 and energy for the general population. Al- 

 though 80 per cent, bread contains on the aver- 

 age rather more protein than 70 per cent, 

 bread, the digestibility of the protein in the 

 former is rather lower, so that the actual 

 weight of protein digested by the average in- 

 dividual from 1 lb. of 80 per cent, bread is 

 rather less than the amount digested from 1 

 lb. of 70 per cent, bread. Again, the energy 

 value of 80 per cent, bread is rather lower than 

 that of 70 per cent, bread. Still one more cor- 

 rection must be made in order to arrive at the 

 actual increase in the national food supply 

 which will result from the general adoption of 

 a milling standard of 80 per cent. It is 

 pointed out above that the recovery of 80 per 

 cent, of flour from cleaned wheat entails a de- 

 crease in the supply of the finer wheat offals 

 for stock-feeding to the extent of about 600,000 

 tons. These finer offals are largely used for 

 feeding pigs. Their transference to human 

 consumption would therefore decrease the 

 production of pork and bacon, and this must 

 be allowed for in estimating the total effect of 

 the proposed alterations in milling. After ap- 

 plying all these corrections it appears that the 

 general adoption of an 80 per cent, standard 

 would undoubtedly give a substantial increase 

 in the amount of digestible food for the supply 

 of protein and energy for the population of the 

 United Kingdom. 



The possibility that the food value of bread 

 would be substantially increased by the adop- 

 tion of the 80 per cent, standard, because the 

 content of the mysterious constituents known 



as vitamines would be increased by the in- 

 clusion of a greater proportion of the germ 

 and of the outer layers of the grain, is perhaps 

 scarcely worth discussing in this connection. 

 Such constituents are supplied by other items 

 comprised in an ordinary mixed diet, so that 

 the vitamine content of bread can have little 

 practical significance except in the very few 

 eases where bread forms the whole, or very 

 nearly the whole, of the diet. 



The price of wheat offals for feeding stock is 

 now so high that the adoption of the 80 per 

 cent, standard can not be expected to make 

 any considerable reduction in the price of 

 bread. Even the compulsory admixture of a 

 considerable proportion of other cereals, such 

 as maize, oats or barley, with wheat for bread- 

 making would not greatly cheapen the loaf, 

 because these cereals are not very much 

 cheaper than wheat. The important point in 

 raising the milling standard and in including 

 other cereals among the breadstuffs is that it 

 would widen the sources from which the na- 

 tional food supply is derived — a most desirable 

 end under existing conditions. To summarize, 

 the result of a compulsory 80 per cent, stand- 

 ard would be neither better bread nor cheaper 

 bread, but more bread.— Nature. 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS 



The History of Melanesian Society. By "W. 

 H. K. Eivers. Cambridge: The University 

 Press, 1914. 2 vols. Pp. xii + 400 + 610. 

 Ethnologists have learned to rejoice at the 

 sight of Dr. Bivers's name on the title page 

 of an ethnological monograph. His work 

 among the islanders of the Torres Straits 

 stands as a model of painstaking research and 

 critical method, originated in part by Dr. 

 Eivers himself, while his elaborate study of 

 the Todas of Southern India ranks with the 

 best descriptive monographs of modern ethnol- 

 ogy. In view of the author's methodological 

 labors, moreover, one's anticipations are 

 kindled as he glances through the pages of 

 this newest attempt to reconstruct and in- 

 terpret the history of an ethnographic district 

 of which the cultural complexities have 

 already taxed the ingenuity of Thilenius and 



