330 J. Dauglish on Fermented Bread. 
ged and uncontaminated,—there has not been wanting those 
who doubt whether the process of fermentation, by which bread 
has been hitherto prepared, is not realiy beneficial in other 
respects than that of imparting the vesicular structure to it; 
whether, in fact, the changes which the constituents of the flour 
—especially the starch—undergo, are not essential to healthy 
digestion in the stomach, 
Although I believe there are few members of the Medical 
profession who will be prepared to maintain that fermentation 
is beneficial, still, as some do hold such an opinion, and have 
asserted likewise that starch which has not undergone the fer- 
mentive process is wholly unfit for human food, I am desirous of 
stating what I believe are good reasons for rejecting the process 
of fermentation for the new one which I have introduced. 
In order to dispose of the assertion that starch requires to be 
prepared by the fermentive changes to render it fit for human 
food, it is but necessary to remark, that the proportion which the 
inhabitants of the earth, who thus prepare their starchy food, 
bear to those who do not, is quite insignificant. Indeed, it would 
appear that the practice of fermenting the flour or meal of the 
cereal grains is followed chiefly by those nations who use a mixed 
animal and vegetable diet, while those who are fed wholly on 
the products of the vegetable kingdom reject the process of fer- 
mentation entirely. Thus, the millions of India and China, who 
feed chiefly on rice, take it for the most part simply boiled; and 
that large portion of the human race who feed on maize, prepare 
an almost necessary ingredient in the manufacture of bread from glucogenie flour. 
But in operating by the new process, there is no time for glucogenic change to 
take 
place, and consequently no adv: e in the use of alum, with any deseription 
of fh h, Its certainty and uniformity. Owin lifferences ‘in the char- 
eter and rapidity of the fermentation, dependent on variations of temperature, 
quality of the yeast, de., the n ucture of fermented bread frequently pr 
‘ vagaries and irregularities from which the process is entirely free 5th. 
The character of the bread h l analysis shows tha flour has undergone 
ess deterioration in bread made by the nesv, than in that made by 
proce: In other words, the percentage of extractive matters issmaller. T 
d 
medical profession, the debris of the yeast being considered unwholesome 
to acidity. 6th. Its economy. cost of carbonic acid is allege 
of yeast. 
their constant night work and from the fatiguing and unwholesume cal! 
their labor, particularly the kneading In a pulitiee- rad 
process is important as removing bread-making from a domestic manual W 
manufacturing, machine work.” sed profitably on & 
=m acter of the apparatus, the process can only be used Pp 
large scale, and not in small bakeries, : : Fi fem 
