The poisons in our food, or, Guide to health / by a physician.

Date:
1855
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The poisons in our food, or, Guide to health / by a physician. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    alum, as manifested in the purification of an infe- rior kind of flour, is by no means well understood; and, indeed, it is really surprising that the effect should be produced by so small a quantity of that substance, three or four ounces of alum being suf- ficient for a barrel of flour. Another substance employed by fraudulent bakers, is subcarbonate of ammonia. With this salt, they realize the important consideration of producing light and porous bread from spoiled, or what is called sour flour. The ammonia which be- comes converted into a gaseous state, during the operation of baking, causes the dough to swell up into air-bubbles, which carry before them the stift doucrh, and thus it renders it porous; the salt_it- self is, at the same time, totally volatilized during the operation of baking. . . Potatoes are likewise largely used by unprinci- pled bakers, as a cheap ingredient to enhance their profit. The potatoes being boiled, are mashed, passed through a sieve, and incorporated with the dough by kneading. Such are the artifices practised in the prepara- tion of bread,* and it must be allowed that they are bad enough, as the alum will produce a bad effect, more especially with children that eat at times a quantity of bread ; but there is one that is still more reprehensible, I mean the mixing of sulphate of copper (common blue-stone) with the dough before baking. It is used to hide any * There are instances of convictions on record of bakers iner , „v,niv md nine-clav, in the manu- having used gypsum, chalk, ana pipe ^v, facture of bread. ^