444 
BAKER'S  BREAD   OF  PHILADELPHIA. 
The  above  mentioned  substances  being  used  to  make  a  fair 
looking  bread  from  damaged  flour,  and  to  cause  it  to  retain  a 
greater  weight  of  water,  another  class  containing  chalk,  plaster, 
lime,  clay,  &c,  is  employed  sometimes,  but  I  think  rarely  here, 
and  which  acts  in  increasing  the  weight  of  the  bread  ;  these 
cannot  be  added  to  any  great  extent  without  injuring  its  ap- 
pearance, and  are  readily  detected  by  the  quantity  of  ash  yielded 
by  incineration.  Finally,  potatoes,  starch,  &c,  are  added  in 
some  places  to  the  flour,  and  do  not  act  injuriously  to  the  health, 
although  they  diminish  from  the  nutritive  power  (for  relative 
weight)  of  the  bread,  and  may  be  regarded  as  adulterations  when 
the  loaf  is  sold  at  the  same  price  as  the  same  weight  of  pure 
wheat  bread.  Salseratus  with  the  acids  or  salts  used  to  liberate 
the  carbonic  acid,  are  only  injurious  when  in  excess  in  the  bread  ; 
they  act  economically  in  affording  the  carbonic  acid  which  puffs 
up  and  renders  porous  the  bread,  and  which  would  otherwise 
have  to  be  supplied  by  the  flo,ur  itself  by  the  action  of  the  yeast. 
I  am  not  aware  whether  an  extended  examination  of  the  bread 
for  adulterations  has  been  made  in  any  of  our  cities,  and  it 
seemed  interesting  as  well  as  important  to  ascertain  whether  we 
are  furnished  with  a  pure  article,  or  if  in  any  other  respect  an 
advantage  is  taken  by  the  bakers  over  the  consumers  of  bread. 
It  was  expected  that  a  careful  examination  of  the  bread  of  24 
bakers  taken  indiscriminately  from  all  classes  of  bakeries,  and 
from  different  parts  of  the  city,  would  supply  the  desired 
knowledge,  and  I  am  happy  to  be  able  to  say,  that  although 
adulterations  are  employed  in  a  very  few  instances,  our  bread  is 
generally  pure.  It  is  gratifying  to  learn  this,  and  although 
manifest  reasons  prevent  publishing  the  names  of  these  delinquent 
bakers  in  this  article,  there  is  a  law  to  reach  them,  and  I  am 
ready  at  any  time  to  give  their  names  to  the  proper  authorities. 
[Dr.  Wetherill  then  describes  his  method  of  analysis,  the  details 
of  which  we  have  not  space  to  give.  In  a  peculiar  muffel  ar- 
rangement, heated  by  gas,  the  bread  after  being  carbonized,  was 
introduced  on  a  platinum  dish  and  completely  incinerated.  The 
ashes  were  then  accurately  tested.  To  give  additional  certainty 
to  the  results,  portions  of  bread  were  adulterated  with  minute 
quantities  of  sulphate  of  copper  and  alum,  and  then  after  in- 
cineration examined  for  the  bases."] 
