149

nefarious practices be tolerated, which havebeen sanctioned by the conductors of thisinstitution, the medical profession wouldsoon sink into irretrievable disrepute, andthe names of surgeons and physicians wouldform as many blots on the pages of its history.The abettors of the quackery which ob-

tained at this Infirmary, are, in every re-

spect, as culpable as was the quack him-self; he was upheld by them, supported bythem, and even now they are exercisingthe full measure of their nefarious traffic.

The tale which we now unfold, will, we

hope, convince the Governors that theyhave been most shamefully deluded; thattheir alms have been most infamously be-stowed, and their benevolent intentions

for the greater part, entirely frustrated.

Let them inquire of Dr. FARRE, and his

colleague the Druggist, why pupils werenot admitted into the Infirmary until

nine years after its establishment. Dr.

FAnnE, the coadjutor and biographer of

Mr. SAUNDERS, speaks of that gentleman inthe most glowing terms of eulogy ; and in

reply to some individuals who had spokenrather reprehensively of the Hole and

Corner" manner in which the surgical busi-ness of the Infirmary had been conducted, theDoctor thus valliantly writes : " Finally, ifhis enemies would search into his verybosom, his private correspondence is now

open to their examination." Now it hap-pens that we possess a portion of Mr.Saunders’s private correspondence, and as it

furnishes indisputable testimony of the realmotives of the writer for concealing hisoperation from the profession, we will, as

the Doctor seems to be so ignorant on thispoint, enlighten his understanding, and

gratify him with a sight of it ; indeed, it is

so argumentative, so conclusive, and givessuch a peculiar impress to the memory ofMr. SAUNDERS, to the scientific and libe-

ral characters of his colleagues in hum-

bug, puffing and secrecy, that we will hereinsert it, without adding another word of

our own, as we should be sorry to lessen

the effect which it ought to produce on themind of the professional reader :-

London, 2d Jan. 1809.My DEAR SIR,***** YOU DISTRESS ME MUCH BY ASK-

ING FOR MY MODE OF OPERATING ON CHIL-

DRE_’; BORN BLIND WITH CATARACT, and I

hope, zvheit 1 decline it, you will consider meas acting contrary to my natural temper anddisposition. You must be acquainted withmy situation here, with two opponents en-grossing the public attention. From thefree communication between medical men,if I had made many acquainted with it, MYOPPONENTS WOULD HAVE KNOWN IT BEFORE

NOW, AND BEEN ACTING UPON IT, so that Ishould have lost the credit which’1: havenow gained over them, by doing what theydecline ; only two people, of whom Mr. 0.is one, are acquainted with my notions, andthese are most intimate friends, who have ebeen in the closest contact with me, andfrom whom I conceal nothing. Mr. COOPER,WHO HAS REPEATEDLY ASKED ME, DOES NOTKNOw IT. After this I trust you will excuse

me, for I should give just cause of o.ffence to himand many other friends who have asked me invain, but have been satisfied with my rea-sons, considering the predicament in whichI stand:’ ’ ’ *

Yours, faithfully,J SAUNDERS.

We shall return to this subject again andagain.

J . SAUNDERS.

ON THE ART OF BAKING BREAD.

THE popular turn of late years given tothe study of chemistry has led to many va-luable discoveries in the arts, and has mainlycontributed to support that pre-eminencewhich the manufacturers of this countryhold over those of all others. Much has

been done by the chemists of Paris, and bythe Polytechnic School of Vienna, to excitea general taste among the people of thesecountries for this interesting and useful

! science; but thus far the population of thiskingdom has outstripped t!:at of any other

portion of the globe ia a practical acquaint-

ance with this branch of physics. It is im-

possible to select any class cf £ society to

150

which chemistry can be said to be uninte-resting ; but to none does it offer so manyinducements to study its laws and operationsas to medical men. Considered abstractedlyfrom all pharmaceutical processes, it pre-sents a wide field of investigation to theirattention, and may indeed be termed the

’life of unorganised nature. Of how much

importance in the removal of the numerousailments of man is a knowledge of chemistry,for by it the supplies of nutriment may bedirected, both in regard to quality and form,with a precision exactly suited to the con-dition of the body, whether in the healthyor diseased state. Every man practisingmedicine should know, not only how to selectnutritious from innutritious aliment, but heshould also know why he does so ; for with-

out such knowledge his acquaintance withdietetics must be very limited and empirical.As an article of diet, what material holds amore conspicuous place than BREAD’1 it is

the chief food of infancy ; it forms a princi-pal ingredient in the diet of manhood; and,in the lower classes of society, is at all

periods the main support of life.

Now if it becomes us to be better ac-

quainted with the preparations of any onearticle of diet than another, it is cert-Liplywith bread. Few chemical processes con-

cern the health and comfort of every indivi-

dual more directly and immediately thanthe art of making good bread ; and yet thereis, perhaps, no one process with the ra-

tionale of which the community is less fami-liar. In the Annals of Philusophy of Septem-ber last, Dr. COLQUHOUN has published a

very ingenious essay on this subject; he

has considered it very scientifically, it is

true, but the principal fault we have to findwith it is, that having assumed too little,he has explained every phenomenon con-nected with the process de novo, and con-

sequently extended his essay over too manpages. We shall therefore endeavour tc

give an abridgment of the paper without

interrupting the narration, or omitting an3

important fact that may be intimately con.nected with the process.

Baked bread, simply considered, maybe described as being a substance formedby mixing a portion of the seeds of any ofthe cereal grasses with a little water, andthen cooking the whole, by means of fire,into a solid, consistent state. This may beregarded as a step in the art of bread-bak.ing of more difficulty in itself, and of greaterimportance to mankind, than any thing thatsubsequent improvement has supplied; forin all the intricacies and refinements of ourmodern cooking of bread, there can surelybe found nothing to compare with thatwhich first taught man to use a great pro.portion of his food in a manner peculiar to

himself, and raised him above the practiceof devouring it as raw grain, in commonwith the lower animal. What may be re.garded as the second step, the reducing ofthe grain to powder before applying to itthe moisture which should form the solidcake after the application of heat, seems,perhaps, of more natural and easy sugges.tion than the others; and accordingly wefind, at this day, few nations, who b?ke theirbread at all, who do not use for the purposeground grain. But before it contained althe rudiments of what has now been gra.dually perfected into the modern system,somethiug further was necessary, and thislatter improvement seems to savour more ofrefinement and civilisation in its introduc-tion and regular use, although it is of tooold a date to have left any tradition of its

origin. It consists in mixing with the bi’Mfta light gaseous body, which is almost Inva-riably of the same kind as that which givesthe foam to ale and the sparkle to cham-paigne. This gas, when duly infused intothe dough, gives us, after baking cool-ing, instead of a heavy and hard, or tough,dull nutriment, a light, porous, elastic, dia.phanous food, which is at once more agree-able to the palate and easier of eil-estion,and more conducive to health. A commonsea biscuit is no bad specimen of the forillerkind of bread, while a good, modern, plainwheat loaf is a fair example of the latter.In addition to which, it is well to observe,that in well made bread the vesicules pro-duced by the disengagement of the gas, areregularly arranged in a sort of stratification)of layers one above another, all perpen-

dicular to the crust of the bread. This iscalled, by the bakers, piled bread; and the’regard this appearance as the surest test ofthe success of their batch. These di,-

’ tinetinns are sufficiently decisive, and serre) to show the great advantages derived from

the introduction of that part of the processof baking, which consists in mingling withthe bread a considerable volume of what

151

must be regarded as a foreign and innu-tricious body. The increased facility of

digestion possessed by well piled bread,may be seen from the circumstance, that ifa portion of it, after having been well-bakedand thoroughly cooled, be pressed betweenthe fingers, it will crumble readily into

powder; and if a piece of such a loaf beplaced in hot water, it immediately softens,swells out considerably, disintegrates, andadmits of being easily ditfused through theliquid. But, if a bit of unpiled bread besimilarly squeezed between the fingers, itremains a solid cohesive mass; and when

put into hot water, never softens furtherthan to become a permanently tough mass ofdough.The various modes which have been re-

sorted to for the purpose of introducingthe gaseous principle into bread, form al-

. most the whole matter of interesting re-search which is connected with the modernart of baking ; and the examination of theuse and operation of the gaseous principle,thus artificially introduced into bread for tiiepurpose of rendering it light and elastic,forms the only curious chemical investiga-tion connected with the art, and is thereforemade the principal subject of Dr. Colqu-houn’s essay. Previously, however, to de-scribing the best method of duly gasifyingthe bread by panary fermentation, it will bebetter, for the sake of,perspicuity, to stateshortly the mechanical history of the ordi-nary process of baking.

Details of the Mechanical Process commonlyemployed in the Art of bakinb Bread.

The spontaneous decomposition of a pieceof wheat dough, always generates withinthe mass a quantity of carbonic acid gas ;and it is the iermentatlon of this gas, whichis the baker’s object in exciting fermenta-tion. The modes employed may be, there-fore, considered comparatively good, in pro-portion as they more perfectly and rapidlyproduce the internal gas. Perhaps the mostsimple process for e-ffectiiig this, is to placea portion of common dough apart in a warmsituation, when, if allowed to remain a suffi-cient length of time, it will pass spontane-ously into a state of decomposition, whichwill generate carbonic gas within it, and

give the bread baked from it, lightness andvesicularity. Such process, however, is te-dious, and the bread acquires a slightacescence or putrescence, which, if existingin excess, may prove unwholesome. Butthe process of decomposition will be foundto be greatly accelerated in any recent massof fresh dough, by the addition of a smallportion of old dough, already in a state ofstrong fermentation. When this is done,the mass is said to be leavened the dough

thus added, while under fermentation, beingdenominated leaven. This method is discon-tinued by the modern baker, for there is asubstance which he has discovered to pos-sess the property of exciting fermentationin dough with a still greater rapidity,namely, yeast, or the frothy scum which isthrown up to the surface of a brewer’s vat,soon after the saccharine infusion has passedinto a state of active fermentation. Of this

yeast, which is a very impure substance,chemists are not yet assured what con-stituent it is that spreads decompositionthrough the dough, although it seems to beeffected by its glutinous, which has itself

already begun to pass into a state of decom-position. _

When the baker proceeds to the prepar-tion of dough by means of the yeast fer-mentation, he at first takes generally a por-tion only, but sometimes the whole of thewater, which it is his intention to employ inmaking the required quantity of dough. Inthis water, which varies in temperature from600 to 100’-’, according to the atmospherictemperature, there is dissolved a certain por-tion of suit, the quantity of which is alwaysless than that finally required in order tocommunicate the necessary flavour to thebread : yeast is now mixed with the water,and then a portion of flour is added, whichis always less than the quantity to be em-ployed in forming the finished dough. Themixture is then covered up and set by in awarm situation, and within an hour signs ofcommencing decomposition make their ap-pearance.* The sponge begins to heave up,in consequence of the generation of carbonicacid gas. If the sponge be of a very liquidconsistence, large air bubbles soon forcetheir way to the surface and break ; butwhen the sponge possesses the consistenceof thin dough, it confines this gaseous sub-stance within it, until it dilates equally andprogressively to nearly double its originalvolume, when, no longer capable of contain-ing the confined air, it bursts and subsides.This process of rising’ and falling alternately,might be actively carried on for twenty-fourhours, but experience has taught the bakerthat full scope must not be given to the ener-gy of the fermentative principle. He gene-rally interferes after the second or third

dropping of the sponge, and were he to

omit this, the bread formed from his dough

* The substance thus set apart is termedby the bakers, the sponge; its formation andspontaneous decomposition is termed settingthe sponge ; and according to the relationwhich the amount of water in the sponge

’ bears to the whole quantity to be used in thedough, it is called quarter, half, or whole

sponge.

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would invariably prove sour to the taste andto the smell. He therefore at this periodadds to the sponge, the flour and waterand salt which may be necessary to form thedough of the required consistence and size,and next incorporates all these materialswith the sponge, by a long and laboriouscourse of kneading. When this processhas been continued until the fermentingand the newly added flour have been inti-mately blended together, and until the glu-tinous particles of the flour are wrought tosuch a union and consistence that the dough,now tough and elastic, will receive thesmart pressure of the hand without adheringto it, the kneading is for a while suspended.The dough is abandoned to itself for a fewhours, during which time it continues in astate of active fermentation throughout itswhole mass. After the lapse of this time,itis subjected to a second but much less labori-ous kneading, the object of which is to dis-tribute the gas within it as equally as pos-sible throughout its entire substance, so

that no part of it may have a deficiency orexcess. After this kneading, the dough isweighed out into the portions requisite toform the kinds of bread desired, shaped intoloaves, and once more set aside for an houror two in a warm situation. The continu-ance of the fermentation soon generates asufficient quantity of fresh carbonic acid gaswithin them to expand each mass to aboutdouble its former volume. They are nowconsidered fit for the fire, and are committedto the oven ; but when they are taken out,they are found to have acquired twice aslarge asize as when they were putin. Itshouldbe remarked that the generation of the duequantity of elastic fluid within the dough,has been found absolutely necessary to becomplete before placing it in the oven; be-cause as soon as the dough is there intro-duced, the process of fermentation is check-ed, and it is only the previously containedair, which expanded by heat throughout allthe parts of each loaf, swells out its wholevolume, and gives it the piled and vesicularappearance, Thus the well made loaf iscomposed of an infinite number of cellules,each of which is filled with carbonic acid

gas, and seems lined with or composed of aglutinous membrane ; and it is this whichcommunicates the light, elastic, and poroustexture to the bread. The difference be.tween the bread made in London and other

large towns, and that made by unskilfulcountry housewives, is in this respect verystriking; the bread made by the latter beingfrequently full of large holes, from excessivedisengagement of gas, and sometimes al-

together inelastic, or as the domestic phraseis, heavy bread.

This is the brief history of the ordinarymechanical process pursued by the bakers,

and the chemical investigation of the natureand principle of the fermentative process, ashere exhibited, possesses considerable in.terest, and has at various times engaged theattention of chemists.

1. Of the Panary Fermentation.

There are three principal constituents ofall wheaten flour ; starch, which exists inthe largest proportion ; glutin, and a saccha.rine principle. About thirty years ago,when the ideas of chemists respecting theelementary constitution of organised sub.stances were less precise than at present,the difficulty of assigning to fermentation indough a place under any of the three usualclasses of the vinous, acetous, and putrefac.tive fermentation, led to the conception thatit was a species of decomposition entirelysitig-eneris. It was accordingly denominatedpanary, and held to consist in the simul.taneous decomposition and mutual reactionof all the constituents of the flour. Sub.

sequently, however, the action of fermen.tation has been limited, at one time, to theglutinous ingredient, as by Messrs. Aikin,in their excellent Dictionary of Cliemistrv;’and at another time, to the starch; but oflate the prevailing opinion has been, thatthe only principal subject of its actionis isthe saccharine constituents. Dr. Colquhounhas embraced the latter doctrine, and hasascribed the fermentation in the doughsolely to the resolution of the saccharine

principle of the flour into carbonic acid andalcohol, in consequence of its being broughtinto a situation predisposing it to pass intothe vinous fermentation.To illustrate this point, let us consider

what are the only other constituents ofwheaten flour, besides the saccharine prin.ciple. They are starch and glutin ; for thealbuminous and gaining principles, bothfrom their small amount, and from othercircumstances to be hereafter considered,seem to be of little importance in the

question. The phenomena exhibited in thedecomposition of the saccharine principle,compared with the appearances and effectsof the fermentation which takes place mdough, leave no doubt of their identity.The amount of saccharine matter containednaturally in all flour, is by no means insig-nificant; on the contrary, it is amply sufficient to furnish in its decomposition thatquantity of carbonic acid gas, the deve-

lopment of which marks the progress of fer-mentation in dough. Thus M. Vogel, on

analysingtwo specimens of ordinary wheatenflour, obtained the following results. Fromthe triticum hybernum :

* Article B read. Published in 1807.

153

Starch .....7............68.0Moist glutin.............. 24.0

Mucilaginous sugar ........ 5.0

Vegetable albumen ........ 1.5

And from the flour of the triticum spelta,which is considered of a superior qualitythan the preceding, he obtained :

Starch .................. 74.0Moist glutin.............. 22.0Mucilaginous sugar........ 5..5

Vegetable albumen ........ 0.5*

Prout t and Edlin have also made experi-ments, which lead to the same conclusion;the latter in particular found, that by merelywashing wheaten flour with water, and thenpurifying the mucilaginous extract, he ob-tained 1½ per cent. of crystallizable sugar.

Since the presence of saccharine consti-stuents in flour is thus established, and thatin not less proportion than five per cent. ac-cording to the analysis quoted ; and sincethe alcoholic fermentation of sugar is per-fectly familiar to the chemist, the charac-teristics of which correspond with the fer-mentation in dough, there seems little roomto doubt wherein consists the true ferment-ation which occurs in the art of bread-making.A further consideration of the panary

fermentation, must be deferred to anotherNumber.

* Journal de Pharmacie, iii. 212.

He ascertained 100 parts of wheatenflour to be composed of about

Starch ;.... _................. 7’4.5Glutin ..................... 12.5

Gummy and saccharine extract.. 120A yellow resin................ 1.0

100.0-Annales de Chemie et de Phys, 340.

LONDON MEDICAL SOCIETY.

WE are glad to see that " the huge, rusty,tricocked hat," has been removed from thetable of the Society. We were very well

satisfied that it would only be necessary to

appeal to the good taste of the Presidentand Council, to cause such lumber to be

taken away. The " black staff," entwined

by the ’° gilded serpent," remains. Why,we cannot tell, unless it be one of the stand-

ing orders of the Society, or one of the coneditions of Dr. Fothergill’s will ; if only theformer, the same authority which placed itthere, can effect its removal. It cannot be

called ornamental, and why retain such a,gewgaw ?

The last two meetings have not possessedmuch interest ; the discussions have beenloose and irrelevant, and no conclusions

worth recording have, in consequence, beenarrived at. If we may be allowed to givethe Members a word of advice, we should

say, stick to the text, and do not cavil about

unimportant matters, so as to lose sight ofthe main subject of discussion. For exam-

ple : lBIr. RAY brought forward, at the last

meeting, a specimen of ulcerated intestine,which lie had taken from a person who died

from what he thought was typhus fever ;he remarked, that it had fallen to his lot toexamine several cases lately of the same

character, and that he had found the upperportion of the small intestines diseased;the mucous membrane being generally ulcerated. Ile was anxious to know, if any ofthe gentlemen present had observed any

parallel cases; but instead of attending tothis point, they began to quarrel about theseat of disease generally in typhus fever;some affirming, that disease was more fre-

quently found in the lower portion of thesmall intestines than the upper; some,

that it was invariably found in the lowerportion. Thus the dispute was carried on

to determine what were the appearances

usually exhibited in the lower parts of thesmall intestines, when disease was found

there, in which Mr. LANGSTAFF, Mr. LLOYD,and others, were warmly engaged; indeed,Mr. LLOYD appeared determined to talk

down every other person, by relating longstories about the poor people who came tohis house in the Old Jewry, about his pa-tients at Pentonville and Pancras, and Godknows where,—until the point with whichthe discussion began was overelouded and

forgotten. Dr. J3unx, who made some sen-