PURE AND IMPURE FOODS, 



395 



the persimmon contains a large amount of 

 water, about 65 per cent. It is especially 

 rich in sugar, containing about 20 per cent. 

 Some fibre, a little protein, fat, etc., make 

 up the remainder. Judged by its sugar 

 content, the persimmon is perhaps the 

 sweetest of our common fruits. 



Persimmons are usually consumed in the 

 fresh state. They keep well, however, and 

 when stored in a cool place can be made 

 to preserve their freshness for weeks. 

 Some varieties are especially suited for 

 drying. They may be preserved by placing 

 the ripe fruit in a glass jar and pouring 

 over it a syrup made of granulated sugar 

 and water. It is not necessary to heat the 

 fruit before canning. They may be used 

 as occasion demands for making puddings, 

 etc., end in other ways which will readily 

 suggest themselves. 



WHiTE BREAD AND WHOLE WHEAT 

 BREAD. 



The statement is so frequently made that 

 whole wheat bread is superior to white 

 bread, and it rests on so little besides per- 

 sonal opinion, that any scientific work on 

 the subject is of interest. Some experi- 

 ments on this subject were recently re- 

 ported in the Analyst. In addition to the 

 usual statistics of weight, etc., extended 

 analyses were made, as well as artificial 



digestion experiments, with ordinary white 

 bread, ordinary whole wheat bread, and a 

 patent whole wheat bread. The latter was 

 made from a flour in which especial atten- 

 tion was paid to fineness in grinding. The 

 experiments include salivary digestion, 

 gastric followed by pancreatic digestion, 

 and pancreatic digestion. The principal 

 conclusions follow, " Although we do not 

 desire to draw any sweeping conclusions 

 from the experiments, owing to their lim- 

 ited number and somewhat restricted char- 

 acter, we feel justified in saying that they 

 tend to bear out the opinion now generally 

 held in scientific circles as to the great 

 superiority of white bread as far as diges- 

 tibility pure and simple goes. It is usu- 

 ally believed that whole meal bread con- 

 tains considerably more nitrogen than the 

 white article, but this was certainly not 

 the case in the breads examined by us, 

 and although they were selected with care 

 there was sufficient variation in ordinary 

 flours to account for this apparent anom- 

 aly. The whole meal breads certainly com 

 tain considerably more ash, phosphoric 

 acid and soluble matter. The results ob- 

 tained with the patent brown bread in 

 which the grain and husk are finely com- 

 minuted support the contention that the 

 digestibility and wholesomeness of whole 

 meal bread can be greatly improved by 

 careful and thoroughly grinding and dis- 

 integration of the cellulose." 



BOOK NOTICES. 



A VALUABLE BIRD BOOK. 



A. R. Dugmore's "Bird Homes" is a 

 most interesting and valuable book. "If a 

 man would catch trout he must put his 

 heart on the hook," and if a man would 

 see birds as Mr. Dugmore has seen them 

 he must certainly have his heart in the 

 work. 



The chief aim of the book is to portray 

 our feathered friends in their home build- 

 ing and domestic life; but the keen ob- 

 servation and loving patience of the author 

 throw many a side light on every form 

 and stage of bird life. His photographs 

 are a most pleasing and effective feature of 

 his work, conveying, as they do, exact in- 

 formation, and placing within the reach 

 of all a comprehensive knowledge of nest 

 formation, egg markings, bird plumage, 

 and all the accessories of bird existence. 

 The camera enables the naturalist of to- 

 day to accomplish some things which even 

 an Audubon could not hope to perform 

 with pencil and brush; and the best of it 



all is that it has largely replaced the shot 

 gun as an instrument of scientific re- 

 search. It brings the birds, to hand and 

 liberates them unharmed. Mr. Dugmore's 

 pictures stir up vivid recollections of 

 boyhood days — "sweet summer days, 

 that were as long as 20 days are now" — 

 when we found the arched nests of the 

 corn bird and the meadow lark, the unob- 

 trusively exposed domicile of the grouse 

 and the quail, the cunningly secure nesting 

 place of the woodpecker and the blue 

 bird in the hollow apple tree, and the 

 pendant home of the vireo and the oriole. 

 It is indeed a notable book, and one to be 

 coveted*»in every home where dwells a love 

 for the feathered songsters that help so 

 much to make this world a beautiful place 

 to live in. 



If I have any criticism to make, it is 

 that too little is said about bird protection. 

 The author, it is true, mildly deprecates 

 the destruction of birds and the indiscrim- 

 inate collecting of eggs; but he does not 



