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16
cal chemist, operating in the most approved manner, did
not find reliable specimens of alum in any one of the
samples.
The quantity of combined water was estimated, in
consequence of the assertion sometimes hazarded, that
cheap bread contains more water than the best bread, and
that slack baking and alum are used in order to add
to the retentiveness of water, and that hungry stomachs
are thus cheated, by giving them bulk without value.
On the contrary, it was found that the loaf which
contained the smallest per centage of water, was a cheap
one; which at 1%d. per 4-lb., contained 1*26 lbs. of water,
or 31*62 per cent.; whereas a better loaf at 8^1*89 lbs. of water, or 47*37 per cent. A homemade
loaf, which was taken as a model of good bread,
contained 34*8 per cent.; and a loaf from Bond Street, at
9%d., also a model, contained 35*77; one loaf at 10rf.
36*49 per cent.
In the next place, respecting the gluten, or nitrogenized
constituents, which are important flesh-making
ingredients: a loaf, from a first-rate baker in Bond
Street, contained 11*6; that of a cheap baker in Grosvenor
Mews, 13*; home-made bread, 14*37; and a best
loaf from Oxford Street, 19*18 per cent., estimated in
each case from bread thoroughly dried. Later researches
of Lawes and Gilbert shew that a high rate of gluten is
by no means, as was once thought, a characteristic of the
best wheat.
The ash, supposed to be the bone-making ingredient,
varied from 1.5 to 3. per cent.
But when the outward qualities were compared, there
is no doubt that any person of common sense would
immediately have declared, that the best was the most