The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1879-01-23


Bread.
Nep York Erening Post
It has long been believed..by the pub
lie that nearly every species of food re-
ouiring any process of manufacture or
refining in its preparation for use is
more or less adulterated. Almost any
house wife will declare her belief
amounting in her own mind to positive
certainty-that -four, bread, sugar, tea,
coffee, vinegar, butter, canned goods and
many other articles, are adulterated but,
as she assumes that all brands and makes
are equally impure, she does not trouble
herself much about it until some special
investigation shows actual danger in the
use of certain adulterants. Among other
things, bakers bread is generally bur-
dened with very bad name. 1t is we'll
known that both organic and inorganic
substances can be, and often have been,
used in making bread. The organic
a6ulterants are Usually barley, rye, pota-
to and corn -four. These can generally
be detected under microscope. While
they are undoubtedly adulterations, they
are not at all hurtful to the stomach or
The blood, and their use is only an act of
commercial dishonesty. The inorganic
adulterations are alum, sulphate ofcop-
per, bone ashes, bone dust, white clay,
carbonate of magnesia, chalk. gypsum,
sulphate of zinc and an excessive amount
of water. Some of these are used to give
whiteness and lightness to the bread,
while others simply take the place of
-four. Nearly all Of them have dele
terious effect upon the stomach when
taken internally, and some of them may
be regarded positive poisons.
PLEASE, SIR, ONLY A LITTLE ALUM.
In European and other countries where
-four is dear, all of these adulterations
have been used. Copper sulphate is
available in the minutest quantities only.
One part in eighteen hundred is the lar
gest quantity that can be used without
destroying the lightness of the bread.
The object desired is to make the bread
white, using, q very poor -four. To
thoroughly mix the -four and sulphate in
proper proportion requires such great
care as to make the process too expensive
in this country, where -four is cheap. 1t
is q very dangerous method of whitening
bread, however, as the presence of the
copper can be detected only with great
difficulty. There are frequent arrests
and convictions in Europe for using chalk,
white, clay, gypsum and alum in making
bread. In America the use of alum has
been regarded as almost universal for the
purpose of producing q very white bread
from inferior -four. 1t is we'll known
that alum is constituent of several bak-
ing powders having a large sale, and
people have come to regard alum as not
only q necessary ingredient of bakers
bread, but also as one not very objection
able. This view is wholly erroneous.
Alum, the oxide of alumna, is power
fnl astringent salt. AS found in the
bread after baking, its active principle
remains in such condition as to be ca
silly dissclvable in the gastric juice after
having entered the stomach. When
taken internally it produces dyspepsia,
constipation, gripping, and even, in sufii-
ciens quantities, vomiting and inaamma-
tion of the castro enteric musus.5 Du-
mas says: at is to be feared that this
salt exerts q deadly action by its daily
introduction into the stomach, especially
in persons ofa weak constitution. Other
high authorities, such as Carpenter, Dun
das, Thompson, Gibbon and Normandy
agree that the continued use Of bread
will inevitably bring on dyspepsia, and
the late Baron Liebig was of the same
opinion. Itis, If course, impossible to
determine in what manner any alum that
may be {. ind in bread gets there. 1t
may .:have been added intentionally by
the baker, or it may have been one of the
constituents Of the baking powder used
to raise the bread. 1t is notorious that
many of these baking powders contain
alum to the extent, in some cases, of %
per centum. 1t is impossible, therefore,
to fix the criminality wholly on the ba-
kers. 1t is possible that some of them
are ignorant of the adulterated condi-
ton of their baking powder. There is
no excuse for such ignorance, however,
and wherever alum is found in bread
the baker should be made to suffer. To
show how deleterious may be this form
of adulteration it is easy to calculate ita
effect. A. healthy growing boy or girl
eat au average of a pound of bread a day.
or one hundred pounds in about fourteen
Z weeks. Now, take the amount of alum
adulteration at the very low rate of two
per centum, and we find that each moth
er,s darling eating adulterated bread has
deYoured' two pounds of alum "a trife
over three months. Is it any wonder that
indigestion and dyspepsia are in every
household? Let any one who is disposed
to doubt the evil effects Of an alum-bread
diet consult good physician. The only
pretense that is made by these public poi
soners, the alum adulterators. to justify
their trade is that the alum when baked
becomes an insoluble earth which passes
through the stomach without any effect
upon it whatever. This is totally untrue.
The active principle of the salt, before
mentioned, is readily soluble in the gas
trio juice, and it is unquestionably so dis
solved rapidly and fully. Let any one
hold piece of alum on the tongue for a
few minutes and see the astringent effects
on the coats of the mouth and then fancy
the effect rof the same treatment ofthe del
icate coats ofthe stomach day after day, to
say nothing the alum transmitted to the
blood. This simple experiment will show
clearly whether alum. bread is a safe in
yestment or not.
How Shall Sunday BE Used?