183 
seessive heat. The life of flour sufficient for the beneficial 
designs of fermentation, can only be found when the grain 
is properly cut : the more perfectly this is done, even ill 
making superfine flour, the better it will be found, and the 
bread produced vastly preferable in several respects ; to 
the eye it appears handsome; and in point of health, it is 
very advantageous. 
Wheat is frequently so closely squeezed between the 
mill stones that it is next to an impalpable powder when 
bolted; it eludes the eye of him who is unacquainted with 
the nature of the substance he handles ; it cannot make 
good bread for the reasons already mentioned. I should 
be thought calling in question the information of the Socie¬ 
ty if I were to offer any reasoning on the strength or elasti¬ 
city of air. 
If this paper was intended to ‘treat on the art of making 
good bread, I presume it could be made evident to 
every mind, how exquisitely this active principle diffuses 
and incorporates itself with the minutest particle of flour, 
in fermentation, by means of the tenacity of the gluten* 
forming and expanding a membrane of a texture exceeding- 
fine, not easily to be perceived by the naked eye, similar to 
the finest twilling in point of figure, with the utmost ex¬ 
actness ; is beautifully transparent and perfectly seen when 
exposed to the light of the sun in the smallest flake torn 
from a loaf while warm, before the steam is evaporated, 
which is made of flour properly manufactured. 
Nature indeed has not studied to amuse the idle fancy or 
vain curiosity of her sons, in the formation, or production, 
of the grain of wheat, but most admirably, as well as be¬ 
nignly consulted their health, combined with exquisite gra¬ 
tification. Expel partially, or extract this power altogether, 
and the remaining mass will be found an indigestible com¬ 
pound, and if mixed with water and yeast, instead of pro¬ 
ducing bread, it would hasten into a putrid body, or if 
baked, would be unfit for the purposes of nutriment. 
