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WISCONSIN STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
eous dough when it becomes so tenacious and elastic that the sur¬ 
face will not be broken by the gas, to be generated in the interior. 
Then dividing it into loaves it is set aside from six to eight hours 
in a temperature of 80° to 100° Fahrenheit, to “rise.” Some chem¬ 
ical changes take place during the rising of the bread, which have 
been called “ panification,” in which process some of the natural 
alimentary substances are transformed into compounds, and gases 
are eliminated, and in this way the dough is raised by the forma¬ 
tion of little cavities in it, and given its porous character which be¬ 
comes fixed in the process of baking. When the dough is suffi¬ 
ciently raised, it is put into the oven and baked. Heat at first in¬ 
creases the development of gas, but when the temperature reaches 
212° Fahr., the process of fermentation is arrested and the process 
of baking being continued, the dough is fixed in its expanded 
condition, the alcohol generated during fermentation being driven 
off by the heat. The outside parts of the loaf are exposed to a 
temperature of about 375° and become hardened, forming the crust 
which contains more soluble matter than the interior. The inside 
of the loaf does not acquire a temperature much above 212.° Acid¬ 
ulous fermentation takes place to a limited extent even in fine 
white bread, but must not be allowed to proceed too far, otherwise 
the bread will become sour and indigestible. Bread should not be 
eaten warm, but allowed to become “ stale,” as then it is more 
easily digested. Various kinds of brown bread are made from 
grains differently prepared, but as an article of diet they are all in¬ 
ferior to good loheat bread. Notwithstanding the great value of 
bread as an article of diet, and admirably adapted as it is to the 
wants of the physical man, it is doubtful if he can, for any length 
of time, subsist on that alone. It comes to us on the authority of a 
young Epglish physician that Dr. B. Franklin, when a journeyman 
printer, had lived for two weeks on bread and water alone, that he 
consumed ten pounds of bread per week and found himself at the 
end of that time well nourished and in good health. This same 
young Englishman himself fell a victim to ill-judged experiments 
on his own person, of the effects of different kinds of food. He 
lived forty-four days on bread and water, twenty-nine days on 
bread, sugar and water, and twenty-four days on bread, water and 
olive oil, when his constitution gave way and he died from the effects 
of his own experiments. The impossibility of sustaining the human 
