PRACTICAL PAPERS—BREAD-MAKING. 
315 
BREAD-MAKING-. 
BY PROF. W. W. DANIELLS, UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN. 
The almost universal use of bread, from early historic times, 
is one of the many instances that exist, of an empirical art 
reaching a high degree of perfection, far in advance of the sci¬ 
ence that explains the causes of the somewhat intricate pro¬ 
cesses followed in its manufacture. And we find, even at the 
present time, on account of the great difficulty experienced in 
making reliable observations, all of the causes of the changes 
produced in bread making are not certainly known. Berzelius 
and Liebig claim, and bring many facts to prove, that the oxy¬ 
gen of the air is the exciting cause of the fermentation that 
takes place in the raising of dough, while Pasteur and others 
maintain that living organisms—microscopic fungi—are the ac¬ 
tive agents in producing this change. But whatever the cause 
of these changes may be, the changes themselves are well and 
certainly understood. 
i 
The flour of wheat—the only flour ordinary used in bread¬ 
making in America— contains, in round numbers, the follow¬ 
ing percents of nutritive material: 
Gluten 
Starch 
Sugar 
Gum . 
11 
70 
5 
3 
Besides these ingredients are found about ten per cent, of 
water and one-half of one per cent, of ash, or mineral sub¬ 
stances. These proportions vary slightly with the locality 
from which the wheat is obtained. 
The object of bread-making is to prepare this highly con¬ 
centrated nutritive material for ready assimilation in the hu¬ 
man system. As the process of digestion depends upon the 
readiness with which the food will mix with the saliva and 
