The Sun.
London, England, 1847-06-01 00:00:00

JUNE 1, 1847.

MAGAZINE DAY.
BLACKWOOD.
Not upon the principle of "contraries" alluded to
by Rory O'More, but because of the extraord nary
importance of the subject at this period of scarcity in
nutritious articles of consumption, we take the last
article in the present number (ccclxxx) of Black-
wood, the first into consideration. The subject is
not just now " the rage" from having tickled the
passions of the population. It is neither a ruffianly
diatribe upon the dead Liberator, nor an idolatrous
panegyric upon Jenny Lind, nor a squib upon the
poses plastique, nor a sneering criticism upon " Tan-
cred,' nor a zoological dissertation upon Bosjesmans.
No; the theme is the homeliest conceivable, and for
that very reason we have selected it. The heading
runs thus-4 On the Nutritive Qualities of the
Bread now in Use ;" and it is written " by Professor
Johnston." The paper is really a little master-piece
in its way—a pearl from that casket of nature which
was first opened, and the treasures of which
were first tolerably well rifled by Justus Liebig.
We would gladly see this article copied from the
pages of Blackwood, and distributed throughout
every household in England, Ireland, Scotland,
and Berwick-upon-Tweed. We would see it lying
on the tables of the palace and the cottage, in the
libraries of the nobility and the kitchens of the
crofters. Professor Johnston has been actuated by
the most benevolent motives in the composition of
these few pages ; and the best of it is his benevolence
is not comprised in rhetorical flourishes, it is a prac-
tical evidence of his philanthropy. But to come to
the point at once, threader may ask, " what is the
purpose of this remaAable contribution?" It is this.
Professor Johnston maintains that white bread (mis-
called the best bread) is immeasurably inferior in the
way of nourishment tobrown,or even black bread, (mis-
called the worst bread). He not merely asserts this :
he proves it, first by analytical calculations and
secondly by the facts accumulated from actual expe-
riments. He insists that the whole wheat, the wheat
not separated from the bran, or, in other words, the
grain mingled with its husks, affords much more
nourishment than when it is carefully sifted down to
pnre flour, for the gratification of a fastidious taste.
'We will give the very simple and explicit demonstra-
tion of this, in the words of Professor Johnston him-
self. He proceeds thus :
" The solid parts of the human body consist, prin3i-
pally of three several portions : the fat, the muscle, and
the bone. These three substances are liable to constant
waste in the living body, and therefore must be con-
stantly renewed from the food that we eat. The vege-
table food we consume contains these three substances
almost ready formed. The plant is the brickmaker.
The animal voluntarily introduces these bricks iato its
stomach, and then involuntarily—through the operation
of the mysterious machinery within—picks out these
bricks, transports them to the different parts of the
body, and builds them into their appropriate places. As
the miller at his mill throws into the hopper the un-
ground grain, and forthwith, by the involuntary move-
ments of the machinery, receives in his several sacks
fine flour, the seconds, the middlings, the pollards, and
the bran ; so in the human body, by a still more re-
itfiohnceea dr stuye
waurlhaaetrri
moe na,i
tt
tt
ehcrea
there,nfnato cannot
oaennxl
dyt r
tahbc
eet ed
bonya n
storeddm autpte, depositedrbi un t
awthhheeirrrede,
its presence is actually at the moment necessary.
" Again, the fluid parts of the body contain the same,
substances in a liquid form, on their way to or from the
several parts of the body in which they are required.
They include alse a portion of salt or saline matter
which is dissolved in them, as wo dissolve common salts
in our soup, or Epsom salts in the pleasant draughts
with which our doctors delight to vex us. This saline
matter is also obtained from the food.
" Now, it is evident that that food must be the most
nourishing which supplies all these ingredients of the
body most abundantly on 'the whole, or in proportions
most suited to the actual wants of the individual animal
to which it is given.
" How stands the question, then, in regard to this
point
and th
bet weee brownlenwthhoem eal
of
deaV the white—the fine
flour
" The grain of wheat consists of two parts, with which
the miller is familiar—the inner grain and the skin that
covers it. The inner grain gives the pure wheat flour;
the skin, when separated, forms the bran. The miller
cannot entirely peel off the skin from his grain, and thus
some of it is unavoidably ground up with his flour. By
sifting, he separates it more or less completely; his se-
conds, middlings, &c. owing their colour to the propor-
tion of brown bran that has passed through the sieve
along with the flour. The whole meal, as it is called, of
which the so-named brown household bread is made con-
sists of the entire grain ground up together—used as it
comes from the mill-stones unsiftc-d, and therefore con-
taining all the bran.
The first white flour, therefore, may be said to contain
no bran, while the whole meal contains all that grew na-
turally upon the grain.
" What is the composition of these two portions of
the seed ? How much do they respectively contain-of
the several constituents of the animal body ? How
much of each is contained also in the whole grain ?
" 1. The fat. Of this ingredient a thousand pounds
of the
Whole grain contain 2Blbs.
Fine Flour 2O
Bran
So that the bran is much richer in fat than the interior
part of the grain, and the whole ground together (whole
meal) richer than the finer part of the flour in the pro-
portion of nearly one-half.
"2. The muscular matter. I have bad no opportunity
as yet of ascertaining the relative proportions of this
ingredient in the bran and fine flour of the same sample
of grain. numerous experiments, however, have been
made in my laboratory, to determine these propor-
tions in the fine flour and whole seed of several varieties
of grain. The general result of these is, that the whole
grain uniformly contains a larger quantity, weight for
weight, than the fine flour extracted from it does. The
particular results in the case of wheat and Indian corn
were as follows :—A thousand pounds of the whole
rgrsapinecatinvdeloy,fLhe fine flour contained of muscular matter
e

Wheat grain. Fine flour.
Wheat .1561b5. 1301bs.
Indian corn 140 110
Of the material out of which the animal muscles is to
be formed, the whole meal or grain of wheat contains
one-fifth more than the finest flour does. For maintain-
ing muscular strength, therefore, it must be more va-
luable in an equal proportion.
" 2. Bone material and Saline matter.—Of these mi-
neral constituents, as they may be called, of the animal
body, a thousand pounds of bran, whole meal and fine
flour, contain respectively—
Bran
Whole meal , l7O „
Fine flour
" So that in regard to this inportant part of our food,
necessary to all living animals, but especially to the
young who are growing, and to the mother who is giv-
ing milk—the whole meal is three times more nourish-
ing than the fine flour.
" Our case is now made out. Weight for weight,
the whole grain or meal is more rich in all those thre,
essential elements of a nutritive food, than the fine flour
of wheat. By those whose only desire is to sustain their
health and strength by the food they eat, ought not
the whole meal to be preferred ? To children
who are rapidly growing, the browner the bread
they eat, the more abundant the supply of the material.
from which their increasing bones and muscles are to be
produced. To the milk-giving mother, the same food,
and for a similar reason, is the most appropriate.
" A glance at their mutual relations in regard to the
three substances, presented in one view, will show this
more clearly. A thousand pounds of each contain of
the three several ingredients the following proportions :
Whole meal. Fine flour.
Muscular matter ls6lbs. 1301bs.
Bone material l7olbs. 601bs.
Fat

Total in each
" Taking the three ingredients, therefore, togetber,
the whole meal is one-half more valuable for fulfilling
all the purposes of nutrition than the fine flour—and
especially it is so in regard to the feeding of t e bodily
the pregnant, and those who undergo much bodily
fatigue.' -
In the arguments derivable from chemical analysis,
we think the foregoing is conclusive enough in all
conscience. But Professor Johnston has more to
say in explanation of his views, and emphatically
observes, that his " theoretical considerations come in
only to confirm the results of previous experiments."
" Thus, from the experiments of Majendie and others
it was known that animals which in a few weeks died if
fed only upon fine flour, lived long upon whole meal
bread. The reason appears from our analytical investi-
gations. The whole meal contains in large quantity the
three forms of matter by which the several parts of the
body are sustained, or successively renewed. We may
feed a man long upon bread and water only, but unless
we wish to kill him also, we must have the apparent
cruelty to restrict him to the coarser kinds of bread.
The charity which should supply
white
loaves with fine
lingering
starvation."
instead, would in effect kill him by a
starvation."
Having expounded so far, Professor Johnston calcu-
lates the extraordinary
g that must arise from
the employment of the whole wheat, or brown bread,
or mixture of flour and bran, just as God himself has
mingled the two ingredients for our consumption.
" First The amount of husk separated by the miller
from the wheat which he grinds, and which is not sold
for human use, varies very much. I think we do not
over-estimate it, when we consider it as forming one-
eighth of the whole. On this supposition, eight pounds
of wheat yield seven of flour consumed by man, and one
of pollard and bran which are given to animals--chiefly
to poultry and pigs. If the whole meal be used, how-
ever, eight pounds of flour will be obtained, or eight
people will be fed by the same weight of grain which
i only fed seven before.

" Again, we have seen that the whole meal is more
nutritious—so that this coarser flour will go farther than
an equal weight of the fine. The numbers at which
we arrived, from the result of analysis, show that, taking,
all the three sustaining elements of food into considera-
tion, the coarse is one half more nutritive than the
fine. Leaving a wide margin for the influence of cir-
cumstances, let us suppofe it only one-eigth more nutri-
tive, and we shall have now nine people nourished
equally by the same weight of grain, which, when eaten
as fine flour, would support only seven. The wheat of
the country, in otuer words, would in this form go one-
fourth farther than at present."

Those are surely considerations that should console
the multitude under the ravages of the potato murrain.
Earnestly do we commend the matter, not merely
to the reflection of the public, hut to the domestic ex-
periment of individuals. By testing the assertions of
Professor Johnston, the people will enhance the fat
and the osseous and muscular portions of their bodies,
and materially decrease the drain upon their purses.
To bound from one extreme to the other, we will
transcribe the best out of four graceful sonnets by
Elizabeth Barrett Browning ; it is entitled " Moun-
taineer and Poet" :

" MOUNTAIKEER AND POET.
" The simple goatherd,who treads places high,
Beholding there his shadow (it is wist)
Dilated to a giant's on the mist
Esteems not his own stature larger by
The apparent image; but more patiently
Strikes his staff down beneatn:his clenching fi
'Mille the snow-mountains lift their amethyst,
And sapphire crowns of splendour, '6..z and ni
MU, the air around him. Learn from hence
Meek mortals, all ye poets that pursue
Your way still onward up to eminence !
Ye are not great, because creation drew
Large revelations round your earliest sense,
Nor bright, because God's glory shines for you." '
Of geographical variety there is abundance in the -
present number. One contributor carries us in ima-
gination with Sir George Simpson in his oveirlandi,
journey round the world, through "North Anierica,.
Siberia, and Russia :" another pictures to us the pre-
sent condition of "Constantinople and the declining,,
state of the Ottoman Empire;" another portrays
characteristics of " A Turkish Watering-place ,"1,
and a fourth in a pleasant chattering review of Otnoo
and Typee, by Herman Melville, gives an agreeable-,
summary of " Pacific Rovings." Three seriaJs are
continued; namely, the third chapter of "How to
Build a House and Live in it ; " an additional'
Letter to Eusebius in pursuance of the "Horie
tullianw" and the sixth miserable " Letter on the;
Truths contained in Popular Su_perstitiong." A clever
paraphrase of "The Hymn of King Olaf the Saint;"
and a capital critical chapter on the literary labours
of " Prosper Merimee," comprise the remainder of
the June number. For its pleasant, and instructive
contents, Blackwood still continues conspicuous and
seasonable.

DOMBEY AND SON. No. IX. By Charles Dickens..
Plain Joe, Sir Joey B.—Josh Bagstock—Joseph
—rough and tough old J., Sir, will certainly go
off one of these days in a, frightful fit
of apoplexy. The manner in which ;he is
described, namely, as " greatly swollen as
to his face," as " puffy," as excessively blue in com-
plexion, and so forth, affords the reader a sympa-
thetic determination of blood to the head. At one
time,.indeed, Major,Bagstock is said to have " swelled
and swelled, and rolled his purple face about, and
winked his lobster-eye, until he fell into a fit of
wheezing which obliged him to take a turn or two
about the room." At another he is depicted as being
so painfully influenced by mental excitement and
talking iii.wheezy whispers that he "sat gurgling in
the throat"-and Watering'at the eyes until dinner was
ready."' . A. very
" phenomenon of an apoplectic
Major is this Major Bagstock, and " Joe B. is sly,
sir, de-iilish sly." In the present chapters Carker
goes down to Leamington, finds Dombey entrapped
by the charms of Edith Granger, and takes an ex-
cursion with the affianced, the Major, and Mrs.
Skewton over Warwick Castle. The haracter of
the venerable but blooming Mrs. Skewton, who is
always apostrophising Nature and Heart is cleverly
sustained. The following sentence contains a bitter
moral most bitterly expressed. Mrs. Skewton's maid
appears late in the evening, according to custom, to
prepare her gradually for night.
" At night, she should have been a skeleton, with dart
and hour-glass, rather than a woman, this attendant ;
for her towl was as the touch of Death. The painted
object shrivelled underneath her hand; the -firm col-
lapsed, the hair dropped off, the arched dark eye-brows
changed to scanty tufts of grey ; the pale lips shrunk,
the skin became cadaverous and loose ; an old, worn,
yellow nodding woman, with red eyes, alone remained in
Cleopatra's place, huddled up, like a slovenly bundle, in
a greasy flanael gown."
Florence completes her visit at Sir Barnet Skettl es',
and returns home. Previously, however, to her de-
parture she is attended by the delicate attentions of
one visitor :

" This was Mr. Toots, who after renewing, some
weeks ago, the acousintance he had had the happiness
of forming with Skettles, Junior, on the night when he
burst the )3limberian bonds and soared into freedom
with his ring on, called regularly every other day, and
left a perfect pack of cards at the hall-door ;so many
indeed, that the ceremony was quite a deal on the part
of Mr. Toots, and a hand at whist on the part of the
servant."
The introduction of Florence to the lady, who is to
be Mrs. Dombey the second, is a beautiful piece of
natural and pathetic description.

EXETER HALL.—Handei's Alexander's Feast and
Mendelssohn's Walpurgis Night were performed here yester-
day evening by the members of Mr. Hullah's upper schools,
consisting of a force of 500 voices, besides the principals;
supported by Mr. Willy's concert band, strengthened largely
for the occasion. The execution of those two fine works was,
upon the whole, extremely creditable, the obedience of the
troops to the governing baton of Mr. Hullah, who conducted,
being prompt and accurate—=demonstrating the efficiency of
the system under which such satisfactory results are elicited.
The choruses in the Walpurgis Night are far from being
light and trivial duties, even with professionals, their chro-
matic texture and structural intricacy demanding the best
experiences in the art of part singing; but these " upper
schools" faced them boldly and brought out all their pic-
turesque points with felicitous crispness and facility. Al to-
gether, the choral portion of the programme was executed
with remarkable skill, a foretaste of which, however, vas
given in the recent historical concerts, and tempted the public
to expect the excellence it now met with. The solos were
assigned to Mr. Manvers, Miss Birch, Mr. H. Phillips, and
Miss Duval—all of whom acquitted themselves with their
customary ability. The hall was crowded.
ROYAL GARDENS, VAUXHALL. The galedens
opened for the season last night, and the weather was; most
auspicious for the occasion. If variety of entertainments
ground a claim for public favour, the proprietors have as-
suredly established that claim. The orchestra is admirably
decorated, or rather re-painted. The ballet of Robert and
Bertrand was well got up, and the-artistes, Miss Wright,
Mr. Milano, Sac., acquitted themselves admirably.e._.
boxes in the amphitheatre were enormouslyArwl
hopelessthe wonerfutlo pceorf.ovremyananycesbe idofe.atheTtedeovuenn.inwasb.esnitte•wrtaouinh-1
merits were enlivened and varied by a capital brass. band,
and a genu-ine band from the Hartz Mountains under the
direction of Herr Kettler. The gardens still retain some cf
the old attractions, in the shape of the Hermit, Neptune in
the Marine Car, &c. In the Waterloo Ground, the "Piece de
Resistance consisted of a magnificent structure, modelled
with every regard to architectural correctnsss after the
Grand Square of St. Mark, Venice, the Palace of
1 the Doge, and Cathedral and Tower of St. Mark.
_ It is a most transcendentally beautiful and successful work

-
of art ; it forms the greatest attraction in the royal property."
When this scene was illuminated by the pyrotechnic d'isplay
the effect was everything which could be wished. Great
credit is due to Mr. Darby, the pyrotechnist, for we. never
beheld a more brilliant display. Il Diavolo made his usual
descent from the top of the tower on a wire, amidst the fire-
works. A number of views were shown, which tare well
executed, and represent the following places :—Tivoli, near
Rome—Heidelburg, on the Rhine—Platt Town, on. ditto—
Durham, winter and summer—Valley of Chamouni, Savoy—
Salt Plains, Tunis—Tin Mine, Cornwall—Peak Cavern,
Derbyshire—Wells Cathedral, moonlight—Ehrenbreihtstein
—Fountain Abbey. Every attention was paid to the visitors
under the auspices of Mr. Lewis and Mr. Ryan, and we hope
the spirited exertions of the proprietors will be net by a
liberal encouragement on the part of the public.
SURREY ZOOLOGICAL GARjuiNesn.,—
of these gardens has engaged M.
6 graceful
night, for the first time this season, fair whrhsidusastuaPo.7 a large
orchestra in the open air, figuring GARDENS.—The
app
rt
s ii)necctlantdoirnso..
Theenergyb
a,
ntdo the
consistedd eligh vasttooffa
and th'e
several names of the highestrem
such sources of quadrille
programme was compiledwa[tz,
as have never yet tailed in
bot
instrumentalcrowds wPfearfd°nlrinir i
enrsg
eminences
admiration. This concert, which is to
kindling the popular
forms an agreeable andenliveningd nightly,
cidentbe continue
tertamments of the place.
and polka, overture anagn3
REDUCTION IN THE PRICE OF BREAD.—Yesterday
general reduction of one halfpenny ' :
there was a
of the 41b. loaf of wheaten bread throughout the metropolis,
among the en
making a total reduction of 3d. within the last five days.
11
bread
ytrio
y2brde.adthies
41b.
loaf.
second quality 9d., and the best
,
EXTENSIVE ROBBERY OF SIR ALEX. M'KENZIE.—
Yesterday information was received at all the police stations
of the following extensive robbery, committed on the 28th
ult., at Christie's Hotel, St. James's-street, when the follow-
ing property of Sir Alexander M-Kenzie, contained in a
Russia leather travelling portfolio, was abstracted, viz.:-
1551. in Bank of England notes, in three 101., Nos. 17,661,
17,662, and 17,664 ; four 10/., numbered 97,424 to 97,427 in-
clusive; four 51., numbered 69,983 to 69,986 inclusive; five
Si., numbered 27,330 to 27,334 inclusive; the dates of all the
above are not at present known. A 101. and four Si. notes,
and 221. in gold, a small Geneva watch, having a small geld
\
brequet chain attached ; ten of Messrs. Coutts and Co.'s
circular notes, payable on the Continent, for 251. each, dated.
tiltthe
Alexander 25 t h of May, 1847,a dadnredssneudmtboe
jureedssfrrso.mie3s,4Fo7rertoes3B,4elt.6,,.
, h...
and Messrs. Coutts and Co.'s letter of credit in favour of
Alexander M`Renzie,
, men and Co., at Frankfort. for 300/., bearing date the `4Bth of
\
May, 1847.