Volume 2

The household physician : a family guide to the preservation of health and to the domestic treatment of ailments and disease, with chapters on food and drugs and first aid in accidents and injuries / by J. McGregor-Robertson ; with an introduction by John G. McKendrick.

  • M'Gregor-Robertson, J. (Joseph), 1858-1925
Date:
1899
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The household physician : a family guide to the preservation of health and to the domestic treatment of ailments and disease, with chapters on food and drugs and first aid in accidents and injuries / by J. McGregor-Robertson ; with an introduction by John G. McKendrick. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    49/656 (page 559)
    , THE WHEAT GRAIN. Foods.] 559 vated in nearly all temperate climates, but more in the northern than southern hemispheres. It varies much with the soil on which it is reared, and with the dryness or wetness of the season. Tliere is the hard wheat, such as is grown in Odessa, Africa, and Egypt. It is horny and semi-transparent in aj)pearance, is speciidly rich in nitrogenous or proteid material, and less rich in starch than the average shown in tlie above table. It is from such kinds tliat macaroni and vermicelli are prepared. The soft or white wheat is more tender and floury, is more easily ground, contains moie starch and less nitrogenous material, and makes a finer flour. There is an intermediate variety grown in France. Wheat, as supplied to the miller, is deprived of its husk. The seed consists of an outer por- tion, formed of a series of coverings or mem- branes, and of an inner part, the substance of ?ig. 194.—Section of Wheat Grain—highly magnified. To the right the granules of wheat starch are shown more highly magnified. 1 indicates the outermost seed-coat, formed of several rows of thick- walled cells, 2 is an inner fine seed-coat, and 3 are called the gluten cells where the cerealin is found. All these yield the bran. 4 ijoints to the compartments filled with starch grains. the seed itself, divided off into compartments in which are starch grains. The figure (Fig. 194) shows these different parts when a thin slice, taken across a grain of wheat, is examined under a highly magnifying microscope. The various coverings are removed in the process of grinding and dressing for flour and form the bran, while it is from the starchy centre that the fine flour is made. The branny coatings are specially rich in nitrogenous material, though the starchy centre is not by any means devoid of it, the compartments in which the starch grains lie being formed of albuminoid material. It ap- pears that the innermost layer of the seed covering (3 of Fig. 194) is richest in albuminoid material. In this coat there is also present, it appears, a ferment (cerealin) capable, under proper conditions of heat and moisture, of con- verting the starch of the grain into sugar. Whole wheat is hardly at all used for food; but it once made a popular dish in England, called frumity or furmenty, which is still occasionally seen in Yorkshire. It was a common dish in harvest-home celebrations. In its preparation new wheat was steeped in water in a pan, placed in the oven and kept at a temperature of about 120° Fahr. for some eighteen to thirty- six hours. Not only did the grain swell in the process, but by the heat and moisture the fer- ment was enabled to act upon the softened and ruptured starch grains, converting them into sugar. The grain was then boiled with milk; and sweetening and spice were added. It is said to be a delicious dish, but the presence of the husk and bran made it indigestible. By the grinding of wheat vaidous products are obtained. The whole grain may be ground as finely as possible, no part being removed. Modern methods of milling now make it possible for very much finer whole meal to be placed in the market than formerly. Some of the objections to whole meal have thus been removed. The branny portions are not easily reduced to a fine condition, and if they are present in the meal in particles of any size, not only are they indigestible, but their roughness and their sharp edges irritate the bowels, and so stimulate them as to cause the food to be hurried alonff the bowel before the nutritive material 1 ® can be extractedfrom it. Indigestible themselves, they thus also prevent the due digestion of other food. The grinding of wheat has now, however, become a very elaborate process, and in mills, constructed and furnished in the most approved fashion, a very large variety of products is obtained from the wheat. The wheat is passed between rollers, in which it is submitted to a cracking and squeezing action, the purpose of which is to enable the kernel to be separated from the other coverings. It is passed through a series of rollers, five, six, or seven, being sub- mitted between each “ break” to a series of sift- ing and winnowing and dressing oiDeratious, by which branny paidicles ai’e separated out, and the flour which the “break” has produced is sifted out, the intermediate portion being passed on to the next roller, and so on. Thus, after it has passed through two or three rollers, bniuny portions have been largely removed, and the product is white and granular, consisting chiefly of the kernel of the grain broken up into coarser or finer particles, accoi’ding to the exact num- ber of rollers through which it has passed. To this product of the wheat, in its conditions of coai'se or fine particles, the name semolina is given. By further operations of rolling, dress- ing, &c., it may be reduced to the form of floui’. Various terms are applied to the differ-