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BREAD.

it to the blood. In this light, bread may be considered as a soilfrom whence the nourishment is drawn. I do not say that breadcontains no nourishment, but that its use, as an article of diet, doesnot solely depend on the quantity of nutriment it contains, but insome measure on its fitness as a vehicle for conveying the nutri-tious particles through the intestinal tubes. Hence it follows, thatthe finest bread is not always the best adapted for answering thepurposes of nutrition.

The richest food will not nourish an animal, unless the aliment-ary canal is sufficiently distended. A dog has been fed on therichest broth, yet could not be kept alive ; while another, whichhad only the meat boiled to a chip, and water, throve very well.This shows the folly of attempting to nourish men on alimentarypowders and other concentrated food.

The great art, therefore, of preparing food, is to blend the nutri-tive part of the aliment with a sufficient quantity of some light far-inaceous substance, in order to fill up the canal, without overcharg-ing it with more nutritious particles than are necessary for thesupport of the animal. This may be done either by tread, or oth-er farinaceous substances, of which there is a great variety, as willappear from the sequel.

Bread is one of the most expensive modes of using grain, andnot adapted to the narrow circumstances of the lower orders of thepeople, as it is bmtheneù with two heavy additional charges, inpassing through the hands of both the miller and the baker.Besides, the former often grinds down extraneous matter with thewheat, and the latter as frequently bakes it up with the addition oflime, chalk, alum, and other pernicious substances. Since thearticles of diet have become branches of manufacture, the publicneither know what they eat, nor what they drink.

People imagine, as the finest flour contains the greatest quantityof nourishment, that it must therefore be the most proper formaking into bread ; but this by no means follows. The finest flourcomes the nearest to starch, which, though it may occasionallyprove a good medicine, makes bad bread. Household bread, whichis made by grinding down the whole grain, and only separatingthe coarser bran, is, without doubt, the most wholesome.

The best household bread I ever remember to have eaten was inthe county of York. It was what they call meslin bread, and con-sisted of wheat and rye ground together. I am not quite certainas to the proportion, bvit I think there might be two parts of theformer to one of the latter. This bread, when well fermented, eatslight, is of a pleasant taste, and soluble to the bowels. After usingit for some years, I found that bread, made entirely of flour, wasneither so agreeable to the palate, nor so conducive to health.

Bread is often spoiled to please the eye. The artificiallywhitened, drying, stuffing bread, though made of the heart of thewheat, is, in reality, the worst of any ; yet this is the bread whichmost people prefer, and the poorer sort will eat no other.

All the different kinds of grain are occasionally made intobread, some giving the preference to one and some to another,according to early custom and prejudice. The people of SouthBritain generally prefer bread made of the finest wheat-flour,