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--.' 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 lyinp
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, the reader may ask, " what is the
purpose of this remarkable contribution?" It is this.
Professor Johnston maintains that white bread (mis-
called the best bread) is immeasurably inferior in the
way ofnourishment to brown,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
pure 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-
-elf. lie proceeds thus :
" The solid parts of the human body consist, princi-
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
tine flour, the seconds, the middlings, the pollards, and
the bran ; so in the human body, by a still more re.
tined separation, the fat is extracted and deposited here,
the muscular matter there, and the bony matter in a third
locality, where it cannot only be stored up, but where
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
-everal 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 we dissolve common salts
in our soup, or Epsom salts in the pleasant draughts
with which our doctors delight to vex us. This saline
scatter 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
point between the brown
flour and the whole meal of wheat?
question,br
brand anden the in
white—too regard to this
i

The grain of wheat consists of two parts, with which
andiner
thus
the miller is familiar—the inner grain and the skin that
covers it. The inner grain gives the pure wheat flour;
separated,
off
the
skin formsin
from t
hisbran.grain,
ethanensoktinenwtirhneely peel
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 ii
comes from the mill-stones unsifted, 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 had 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 fur
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
grain and of the fine flour contained of muscular matter
respectively,—

Wheat grain. Fine flour.
Wheat ls6lbs. 130Ibs.
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
dour, contain reipcctively—

Bran
7001bs
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 thi,
more clearly. A thousand pounds of each contain of
the three several ingredients the following proportions:—
Whole meal. Fine flour.
Muscular matter 15614 1301bs.
Bone material l7olbs. 601bs.
Fat

Total i❑ each
" Taking the three ingredients, therefore, together,
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 the young,
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 him with fine white
loaves instead, would in effect kill him by a lingering
starvation."
Having expounded so far, Professor Johnston calcu-
lates the extraordinary saving 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
only fed seven before.

" Again, we have seen that the whole ilea' is more
nutritious—so that this coarser flour will go farther thni,
an equal weight of the fine. The nunOers at whic
we arrived, fr:,m the result of analysis, showi that, takii;.:
all the three sustaining elements of food into consider.-
tion, the coarse is one half more nutritive than the
line. Leaving a wide margin for the influence of cir-
cumstances, let us suppofe it only one-eigthmore nutri
tive, and we shall have now nine people nourish, d
equally by the same weight of grain, which, when eatti,
as fine flour, would support only seven. The wheat of
the country, in otner 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 thieir 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 "Mown.
taineer and Poet" :
" SIOUNTAIKEER AND POET.
" The simple goatherd who treads places hi -
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 beneath his clenchi
While the snow-mountains lift their ame,
And sapphire crowns of splendour, far
Into the air around him. Learn from h
Meek mortals, all ye poets that pursue t
Your way still onward up to eminence I ,
Ye are not great, because creation drew
Large revelations round your earliest seal
Nor bright, because God's glory shines !
Of geographical variety there is abundanze in the
present number. One contributor carries Ils in ima-
jgeiunrantieoyn
roundw i tli the
er
world, George t h
rSoiumgphs o,n,
Ni no rht
hi si overland
,
Siberia, and Russia :" another pictures to u the pre-
sent condition of " Constantinople and the enlining
state of the Ottoman Empire;" another pc) rays the
characteristics of " A Turkish WTaterin -place ;"
and a fourth in a pleasant chattering review f Onzoo
and Typee, by Herman Melville, gives an greeable
summary of " Pacific Rovings." Three s rials are
continued; namely, the third chapter of ' How to
Build a House and Live in it ; " an dditional
Letter to Eusebius in pursuance of the "
orre
Ca-
tulliane and the sixth miserable " Lett” on the
Truths contained in Popular Superstitions." ( clever
paraphrase of " The Hymn of King Olaf the Sakt ;"
1
and a capital critical chapter on the literary labours
of "Prosper Merimee," comprise the remainder of
the June number. For its pleasant, and instructive
scontoenaths,le B. lackwood still continues conspicuous and

1g fist—
hyst
I nigh,

e,
y on."

DOMBEY AND SON. No. IX. By Charles Dickens
Plain Joe, Sir—Joey B.—Josh Bagstock—Josepli
—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 i,
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
tsaolkpianignfiunllwy
the throat and watering at the eyes dinner was
h ei
en
zflyu enc
whispers
b y t
hma et mental
,excitementn
garind,
until
ready." A very phenomenon of an apoplectic
Major is this Major Bagstock, and " Joe B. is sly,
sir, de-vilish 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 character 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 touch was as the touch of Death. The painted
object shrivelled underneath her hand ; the form 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
agreasy flannel 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 acquaintance he had had the happiness
of forming with Skettles, Junior, on the night when he
burst the Blimberian 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 mane
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 MALL.—Handers Alexander's Feast and
Mendelssohn's Wa.'purgis Night were performed here yester-
day evening by the members of Mr. llullah'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 line works was,
upon the whole, extremely creditable, the obedience of the
troops to the governing baton of Mr. llullah, 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. Alto-
gether, the choral portion of the programme was executed
with remarkable skill, a foretaste of which, however, was
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 gardens
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, &c., acquitted themselves admirably. The
boxes in the amphitheatre were enormawdy crowded. Or
the wonderful performances of the Bedoun Arabsf it would-
I
nients were enliven
be hopeless to convje
andany idea.
varied
by a capital Theecvenittnagi scrass band,entertain
and A gene-ins band from the Hartz
Mountains under the I
direction of Herr Kettler. The gardens still retain some of
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
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 display
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. 11 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 are well
executed, and represent the following places :—Tivoli, near
Rome—Heidelburg, on the Rhine—Platz 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 met by a
liberal encouragement on the part of the public.
SoItREY ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS.--The
.wlO
of these gardens has engaged M. Julhen,
midst of a large
night, for the first time this season,
ri the
gin.ith his usual graceful
orchestra in the open air, apppearorperdieltasort
100 performers, including
The band consisted of about
energy, to the delight of vasfitgucron
eminence, and the
crowds of admiring spectators.
several names of the highest instrumental
programme was compiled from such sources of quadrille
and polka, overture and waltz, as have never yet tailed in
kindling the p?pula admiration. This concert,which 1 •
is to
r
forms an agreeable and enlivening in-
cidentthe entertainments of the place.
among
be continued
REDUCTION IN THE
PRICE OF B
REA
........
D Yesterday
nightly, .
fPethnen—last five days':
a general reduction of one hal
y in the price
of the 4lb. loaf of wheaten bread throughout the metropolis,
making a total reduction of 3d. within
there was
Country bread is now Bd., second quality gel
bread 10 ld. the 41b. loaf. ~ and the best
EXTENSIVE ROBBERY OF SIR ALEX. MICENZIE.—
Yesterday information was rec • erved at all the police stations
of the following extensive robber
ult., at Christie's Hotel, St, jailles committed on the 28th
street, when the follow-
ing property of Sir Alexanderll7•Kenzie, contained in a
Russia leather travelling f • port olio, was abstracted, viz.:—
1551. in Bank
of England notes, in three 101., Nos. 17,661,
17,662, and 17,664 ; font. 101., numbered
bered 97,424 to 97,427 in-
clusive; four 5/., numbered 69,983 to 69,986 inclusive; five
51., numbered 27,330 to 27,334 inclusive ; the dates of all the
above are not at present known. A 104 and four 5/. notes,
and 221. in gold, a small Geneva watch, having a small gold
brequet chain attached; ten of Messrs. Coutts and Co.'s
circular notes, payable on the Continent, for 251. each, dated
the 25th of May, 1847, and numbered from 3,407 to 3,416;
and Messrs. Coutts and Co.'s letter of credit in favour of Sir
Alexander M'Kenzie, addressed to Messrs. les Freres Beth-
men and Co., at Frankfort. for 300/., bearing date the 28th of
May, 1847.