Rensselaer Republican, Volume 25, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 August 1893 — Page 3

SOME SANITARY ASPECTS OF BREAD MAKING.

BY CYRUS EDSON, M. D.

Health Commissioner, New York City. It is necessary, if ofle would un-. j derfetand the sanitary aspects of bread making, to ftjfty comprehend the present theory peld by scientists' of germs and played by them in disease. The theory of disease germs is merely the name given to the knowledge had of those germs by medical men. a knowledge which is the result of innumerable experiments. Being this, the old term of a “theory’’ has become a misnomer. A -germ of a disease is a plant, so " small that I do not know how to express intelligibly to the general reader its lack of size. When this germ is introduced into the blood or tissues of the body, its action appears to be analogous to that which takes place when yeast is added to dough. It attacks certain elements of the blood or tissues, and destroys them, at the same time producing new substances. But the germs of the greater part of the germ diseases, that is, of the infectious and contagious diseases, will develop or increase in number without being in the body of a human being, provided always you

“DISEASE GERMS FOUND THEIR WAY INTO THE YEAST BREAD.”

give thorn the proper conditions. These conditions are to be found in dough which is being raised with yeast. They are warmth, moisture and the organic matter of the flour on which the germs, after certain changes, feed. It is necessary to remember at this point that yeast is germ growth, and when introduced into a mixture of glucose or starch, in the presence of warmth and moisture sets up a fermentation. If the mixture be a starchy dough the yeast first changes a portion of the starch into glucose and then decomposes the glucose by changing it into two new substances, viz., carbonic acid gas and alcohol. Now the gluten, which is also a constituent of dough and moist starch, affords, with the latter, an excellent nidus for the development of germs of disease as well as for the yeast germs. The germs of cholera, as of typhoid fever, would, if introduced into dough, find very favorable Conditions for their growth. 1 do not wish to “pose” as an alarmist, nor am I willing to say there is very much chance of the germs of typhus and of cholera reaching the stomachs of the people who eat bread which has been raised with yeast. But I have not the slightest cause to doubt that other diseases have been and will be carried about in the bread. I have met journeymen bakers, suffering from cutaneous diseases, working the dough in the bread trough with naked hands and arms. I have no reason to suppose bakers are less liable to cutaneous diseases than are other men, and I know, as every housewife knows, yeast-raised bread must be worked a long time. This is an exceedingly objectionable , thing from the standpoint of a physician, for the reason that the germs of disease which are in the air and dust and on stairways and straps in streetcars, are most often collected on the hands. Any person who has ever kneaded dough understands the way in which the dough cleans the |iands. This means that any germs which may have found a lodgingplace on the hands of the baker before he makes up his batch of bread are sure to find their way into the. dough, and once there, to find all the conditions necessary for subdivision and growth. This is equivalent to saying that we must rely on heat to kill these germs, because it is almost certain that they will be there. Nqw, underdone or doughy bread is a form which every man and woman has seen. It is a belief as old as the hills that underdone bread is unhealthful. This reputation has been earned for it by the experience of countless generations, and no careful mother will wish her children to eat bread that has not been thoroughly cooked. The reason given for this recognized unhealthfulness has been that the uncooked yeast dough is very difficult to digest. No one but a physician would be apt to think or disease germs which have not been killed during the process of baking as a cause of the the sickness following the use of uncooked yeast bread. Yet this result from this cause is more than probable. I have not the slightest doubt that could we - trace back some of the cases of iHness which we meet in our practice we would find that germs collected by the baiter have found their way into the yeast bread, that the heat has not been sufficient to destroy them.

that the uncooked yeast bread has been eaten and with it the colonies of germs, that they have found their way into the blood and that the call for our services which followed, has rounded off this sequence of events. I have already pointed. out that the germs of disease are to be found in the air and dust. The longer any substance to be eaten is exposed to the air, the greater the chance that germs will be deposited on it. Bread raised with yeast is worked down or kneaded twice before being baked and this process may take anywhere from four hours to ten. It has, then, the chance of collecting disease germs during this process of raising and it has two periods of working down or kneading during each of Which it may gather the dirt conhands. As no bread save that raised with yeast, goes through this Ibng process of raising and kneading so no bread save that raised with yeast has so good a chance of gathering germs. What is meant by “raising” bread is worth a few words. The introduction of the yeast into the moist dough and the addition of heat When the pan is placed near the fire produefes an enormous growth of the yeast fungi-the yeast “germ” in other words. These fungi effect a destructive fermentation of a portion of the starchy matter of the

flour—one of the most valuable nutrient elements in the flour. The fermentation produces carbonic acid gas, and this, having its origin in every little particle of the starch, which is itself everywhere in the flour, pushes aside the particles of the dough to give itself room. This is what is called “raising the bread.” It needs but a glance to see that it is, in its effects on the dough, purely mechanical. The dough, which was before a close-grained mass, is now full of little holes, and when cooked in this condition is what we ordinarily call light. This porous quality of bread enables the stomach to rapidly and easily digest it, for the gastric juices quickly soak into and attack it from all sides. The fermentation of the dough, however, uses up a portion of the nutrient elements of the loaf. If it be possible, therefore, to produce a light porous loaf without this destruction and without the “kneading” process, which fills the dough with germs and filth, and without the long period during which the raising process goes on, the gain itiSpod and the gain in the avoidance of the germs is exceedingly plain. But while we can easily see the dangers which attend the use of yeast, it is certain that the vesiculating effect produced by it on the

BREAD WITHOUT YEAST—“THE MOST PERFECT OF ALL CONCEIVABLE WAYS OF RAISING IT.”

dough is to the last degree perfect. It is apparent that if we are to substitute any other systefti of bread making we must have one which will give us, first, mechanical results equally as good, that is, that will produce minute bubbles of carbonic acid gas throughout the mass of dough. Now it is in no' way difficult to produce carbonic acid gas chemically, but when we are working at bread we must use such chemicals as are perfectly healthful. Fortunately these are not hard to find. The evils which attend the veastmade bread are obviated by the use ! of a properly made, pure and wholesome baking powder in libuof yeast. Baking powders are composed of an acid and an alkali which, if properly combined, should when they unite at once destroy themselves and produce carbonic acid gas. A good baking powder does its work while the loaf is in the oven, and having done it, disappears. -4 But care is imperative in selecting the brand of bakihg powder to be certain that it is composed of noninjurious chemicals. Powders contaming alum or those which are com-

pounded from impure ingredients, or those which are not combined in proper proportion or carefully mixed and which will leave either an acid or an alkali in the bread, roust not be used. It is well to sound a note of warning in this direction or the change Tl'flui the übjeetiouableyeastto an impure baking powder will be a case of jumping from the frying pan into the fire; The best baking powder made is, as shown by analysis, the “Royal." It contains absolutely nothing but cream of tartar and soda, refined to a chemical purity, which when combined under the influence of heat and moisture produce carbonic acid gas, and having dene thjs, disappear. Its leavening strength has been -ffMinrl tn nt.hoi* JAJL W WIMGI . powders, and as far as I know, it is the only powder which will raise large bread perfectly. Its use avoids the long period during which the yeast made dough must stand in order that the starch may ferment, and there is also no kneading necessary. The two materials used in the Royal, cream of tartar and soda, are perfectly harmless even when eaten. But they are combined in exact compens iting weights, so that when chemical action begins between them they practically disappear, the substance of both having been taken up to form the carbonic acid gas. More than this, the proper method of using the powder insures the most thorough mixing with the flour. The proper quantity being taken, it is mixed with the flour and stirred around in it. The mixture is then sifted several times and this insures that in every part of the flour there shall be a few particles of the powder. The salt and milk or water being added, the dough is made up as quickly as possible and moulded into the loaves.- : .

These are placed in the oven and baked. But the very moment the warmth and moisture attack the mixture of cream of tartar and Soda, these two ingredients chemically combine and carbonic acid or leavening gqs is evolved. The consequence may be seen at a glance, the •oread is raised during the time it is baking in the oven, and this is the most perfect of all conceivable methods of raising it. * Here, then, there is no chance for germs of disease to get into the dough and thence into the stomach; more than that the bread is necessarily as sweet as possible, there having been no time during which it could sour. This involves the fact that the bread so made will keep longer, as it is less likely to be contaminated by the germs that affect the souring process. It will be strange if the crowds of visitors to the World’s Fair do not greatly increase the number of contagious diseases, which we will have to treat. Under these circumstances is it not folly of follies to open a single channel through svhich these germs may reach us? Is it not the part of wisdom to watch with the greatest care all that We eat and drink, and to see that none but the safest and best methods are employed in the preparation of our food? To me it seems as though there could be but one answer to questions like these. I have shown the danger of using the yeast raised bread, and with this I have shown how that danger may be avoided. The ounce of prevention which in this case is neither difficult nor expensive is certainly worth many pounds of cure, and the best thing about it is that it may be relied on almost absolutely. Those who eat bread or biscuits or rolls

made at home with Royal baking powder ifiay be sure they have absolutely stopped one channel through which disease may reach them. Note.—Housekeepers desiring information In regard to the preparation of the bread which, for sanitary reasons. Dr. Edson so strongly urges for general use. should write to the Royal Baking Powder Company, New York.

Modern Greatness.

Street & Smith'* Good Nows. First Boy—l’m writin' a composition, and I can’t think of what the teacher read the other day. It began “Some men is born great.” Second Boy—l remember, “Some is born great, some achieve greatness, and—and —” First Boy —Oh, yes, I remember now; “And some gets cured of longstandm’ diseases.” “You look sweet’enough to eat,” said Josh Sasafras to bis best girl, on Sunday afternoon. “You must wait till supper time and you’ll see me cat," she replied. The gigantic statues of Rameses, in Egypt, were placed in position by rolling them along greased planks. *

THE GREAT APOSTLE.

The Sublime Sacrifice That Took Place on Calvary. Paul the Apoetle'i Challenge Forms the Subject of Dr. Talmage's Sermon, Rev. Dr. Talmage preached at Brooklyn last Sunday. Subject, “A Bold Challenge.” -Text; "Romans vii, 34: "Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea, rather that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. " “This is the last sermon I shall ever preach,” said Christmas Evans on the 13th of June, 1838. Three days afterward he expired. I do not know what his text was, but I know that no man could choose, a better theme —though he knew it was the last time he should ever preach—than the subject found in this text.

Paul flung this challenge of the text to the feet of all ecclesiastical and clvll authority llefeared neither swords nor" lions, earth or hell. Diocletian slew uncounted thousands under his administration, and the world has been full of persecution; but all the persecutors of the world could not affright Paul. Can you tell me how tenderhearted Paul could find anything to rejoice at in the horrible death scene of Calvary? It was because Paul saw in that death his ovtn ’ deliverance, and the deliverance of a race from still worse disaster. lie saw the gap into which the race must plunge, and he saw the bleeding hands of Christ close it. The glittering steel on the top of the executioners spear in his sight kindled into a torch to light men heavenward. The persecutors saw over the cross five words written in Hebrew, Greek and Latin; but Paul saw over the cross of Christ only one word —“expiation!" He heard in the dying groan of Christ his own groan of eternal torture taken by another. Paul said to himself, “Had it not been that Christ volunteered in my behalf, those would have been my mauled hands and feet, my gashed side, my crimson temples.” “It is Christ that died.” Whj’ then bring up to us the mns of our past life? What have we to do With those obsolete things? You know how hard it is for a wrecker to bring up anything that is lost near the shore of the sea, but suppose something be lost half way between Liverpool and New York. It cannot be found, it cannot be fetched up. “Now,” says God, “your sins I have cast into the depths of the sea.’’ Mid-Atlantic! All the machinery ever fashioned in foundries of darkness and launched from the doors of eternal death, working for 10,000 years, cannot bring up one of our sins forgiven and forgotten and sunken into the depths <-.! the sea. When sin is pardoned it is gone it is gone out of the books, it is gone out of the memory, it is gone out of existence. “Their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.” From other tragedies men have come away exhausted and nervous and sleepless; but there is one tragedy that soothes and calms and saves. Calvary was the stage on which it was enacted, the curtain of night falling at midnoon was the drop scene, the thunder of falling rocks the orchestra, angels in the galleries and devils in the pit the spectators, the tragedy a crucifixion. “It is Christ that died.” Oh. triumphant thought! But I must give you the second cause of Paul’s exhilaration. If Christ had stayed in that grave we never would have gotten out of it. The grave would have been dark and dismal as the conciergerie during the reign of terror, where the’ carts came up only to take the victims out to the scaffold. I do not wonder that the ancients tried by the embalmment of the body to resist the dissolution of death. It is early Sunday morning and we start up to find the grave of Christ. We find the morning sun gilding the dew, and the shrubs are sweet as the foot crushes them. What a beautiful place to be ouried in! Wonder they did not treat Christ as well when he was alive as they do now that he is dead Give the military salute to the soldiers who stand' guarding the dead. But, hark to the crash! an earthquake! The soldiers fall back as though they -were dead, and the stone at the door of Christ’s tomb spins down 1 the hill, flung by the arm of an angel. Come forth, O, Jesus! from the darkness into the sunlight. Come forth and breathe the perfume o.f Joseph’s garden.

Oh, my friends, if Christ had not broken out of the'grave you and I would never come out of it! It would have been another case of Charlotte Corday attempting to'slay a tyrant, herself slain. It would have been another case of John Brown attempting to free the slaves, himself hung. It would have been death and Christ in a grapple and death the victor. The black flag would have floated on all the graves and mausoleums of the dead, and hell would have conquered the forces of heaven and captured the ramparts of God, and satan would have conje to coronation in the palaces of heaven, and it would have been devils on the throne and sons of God in' the dungeon. I give vou the third cause of PauFs exhilaration. We honor the right hand more than we do the left. If in accident or battle we must lose one hand, let it be the left. The left hand being nearer the heart, we may not do so much of the violent work of life with'that hand without physical danger, but he who has the

right arm in full piay has the mightiest of all earthly weapons. ,Jn all ages and in all languages the right hand is the symbol of strength and power and honor. Hiram sat at the right • hand of Solomon. Then we have the term. “He is a right-handed man." Lafayette was Washington s rigfit-hand man; Marshal Ney was Napoleon’s right-hand man. and now you have the meaning of Paul, when he speaks of Christ, who is at the right hand of God. The oldest inhabitant of heaven never saw a grander day than the one when Christ took His place on the right hand of God. Hosanna! With lips of clay I may not appropriately utter it, but let the martyrs under the altar throw the cry to the elders before the throne, and they can toss it to the choir on the sea of glass Until all heaven shall lift it—some on point of scepter, and some on string of harp, and some on the tip of green branches. Hosanna! Hosanna! A fourth cause of Paul’s exhilaration: After a clergyman had preached a sermon in regard to the glories of heaven and the splendors of the scene an aged woman said, ’“lf all that is to go on in heaven, I don’t know what will become of my poor head.” Oh, my friends, there will be so many things going on in heaven I have sometimes wondered if the I/ord would not forget you and me!

Perhaps Paul said sometimes: “I wonder God does not forget me down here in Antioch, and in the prison, and in tiro shipwreck. There are so many sailors, so many wayfarers, so many prisoners, so many heartbroken men,” says Paul, “perhaps God may forget me. And then lam so vile a sinner. Howl whipped those Christians! With what vengeance I mounted that cavalry horse arid dashed up to Damascus! Oh! it will take a mighty attorney to plead my cause and get me free.” But just at that moment there came in upon Paul’s soul something mightier than the surges that dashed his ship into Melita, swifter than the horse he rode to Damascus. It was the swift and overwhelming thought of Christ’s intercession.

Sometimes in earthly courts attorneys have speciaHies, and one man Succeeds better in patent cases, another in insurance cases, another in criminal cases, another in land cases, another in will cases, and his success generally depends upon his sticking to that specialty. I have to tell you that Christ can do many things but it seems to me that His specialty is to take the bad case of the sinner and plead it before God until He gets our eternal acquittal. Oh, we must have him for our advocate. But what plea can He make? Sometimes an attorney in court will plead the innocence of the prisoner. That would be inappropriate for us; we arc all guilty! guilty! Unclean, unclean! Christ, our advocate, will not plead our innocence. Sometimes the attorney in court tries to prove an alibi. He says: “This prisoner was not at the scene. He was in some other place at the time.” Such a plea will not do in our case. The Lord found us in all our sins and in the very place of our iniquity. It is impossibleto prove an alibi. Sometimes an attorney will plead the Insanity of the prisoner and say he is irresponsible on that account. That plea will never do in our case. We sinned against light, against knowledge, against thedictates of bur own consciences; we knew what we were doing. What then shall the plea be? The plea for our eternal deliverance will be Christ s own martyrdom. He will say: “Look at all these wounds. By all these sufferings I demand the rescue of this I man from sin and death and hell. Constable, knock off the shackles—let the prisoner go free. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea, Father that is risen agqin, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.” .... Deliverance lias come. Light breaks through all wards of the prison. Revolution! Revolution! “where sin abounded grace does much more abound, that whereas sin reigned unto death even so grace 'may reign unto eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Glorious truth! A Savior dead; a Savior risen; a Savior exalted; a Savior interceding. 1

A Woman Traveler.

St. Louis Globe Democrat. A Spanish writer, the Baroness Wilson, is now in this city on her return from her second tour through South America, Mexico, Central America, and the United States. The baroness is a great traveler as well as a renowned writer, and spent fifteen years in those countries studying the people and their history. As the result of her literary labor she has published a series of valuable travels and historical works. The governments of all the countries .the baroness visited vied with each other in showering attentions on her, and she was received as their guest. Every means in their power was placed within her reach to enable her to pursue her historical researches. The government of Venezuela raised an appropriation of SIS,(XX) from Congress for her contingent expenses. l The writer is an honorary membei’yf the principal literary societies in Spain us well as in South America. She was also appointed a member of the International Congress of'Americanists held in Madrid in 1892. The baroness is a native of Granada. She was educated in Pah is, and on leaving the convent married an Englishman, Baron Wilson, who died a few years after their marriage

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