Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1874-06-06
WHEAT.

DR.. Dio Lewis writes: Wheat con-
tains of the carbonates, of heat and fat
producers, sixty-nine per cent; of the
nitrates or muscle-makers, fourteen per
cent; of the phosphates, or food for
brain and bones, two per cent. These
proportions constitute for temperate
climate, and with moderate degree OF
exercise, q model food. So if wheat
were eaten in its natural condition, with
out boiling, it would supply all the
needed elements OF tho human body,
and would sustain life for an indefinite
period. But in the process of boiling
a large proportion of the nitrates and
phosphates are removed; SO that bread
made of superior fine flour will sustain
life only few weeks.
Perhaps the most palatable way in
which wheat can be eaten is when boiled
whole and used with little cream. For
myself, I have never eaten any food SO
sweet and satisfactory to the palate as
boiled wheat. When visiting some
friends in Georgetown, KY, many years
ago, was invited to dine with Profess
sor Thomas, of the college located in
that city. Mrs. Thomas served as a
dessert boiled wheat with cream and su-
gar. At that time I had never eaten it.
Tho company (Which was large one)
unanimously voted that they had never
eaten a dessert so delicious. I have
tried it many times since, and am al
ways surprised that an article of food
SO cheap, so easily prepared, and every
way so desirable, should not find gener-
al favor.
A man may perform hard labor on
wheat and water for years; but give
him as much superfne' -four bread as he
can eat, and add, if you please, butter
and sugar, and he will starve to death.
Several of the menagelies have starved
their bread-eating animals by feeding
them on whitehead. If they had fed
them on boiled wheat, and occasionally
on wheat without grinding or cooking,
they would have fourished.
Cracked wheat, or flour made of
wheat without boiling, is likewise very
greatful and healthful.
The ordinary process of making SUI
perfne -four results in the loss of the
most nutritious portion of the wheat.
Under the microscope, grain of wheat
divides into three principal layers-the
hull, or bran proper, which is not nu-
tritious; the gluten, which lies next
within the hull, and which is the most
nutritious part of the grain; and the
starch, from which the ordinary wheat
-four is made. Usually the gluten is
removed from the bran in the ordinary
way.
A mode of preparing wheat and 9TH
er grain for grinding into -four has been
invented in Basic, Switzerland, the OBJ
ject of which is to retain in the white
-four the nutritive properties which have
heretofore been lost by the separation
of the bran. This process, invented by
Herr E. Weiss of Switzerland, has been
received with favor by scientific and
practical men of Europe. 1t consists
simply in moistening the wheat before
grinding, in solution of caustic soda
in water, one hundred and forty pounds
of the liquid being required for two
thousand pounds of grain.
The solution is prepared by dissolv-
ing six and two-thirds pounds of caus-
tic soda in one hundred and thirty-three
pounds of water. The sleeping, which
occupies about fifteen to twenty minutes,
can be done in watts similar to those used
by brewers. The caustic solution loos-
ems the hull, SO that it may be removed
by the slightest friction, leaving the
gluten with the body of the grain. The
-four thus prepared is as white as the
present superfine. and contains all tho