Starch, dextrine and sugar 53.00
Sugar of liquorice 1.00
Gluten 14.90
Fatty matter 3.60
Woody matter 9.70
Salts .50
Water 13.90
Incrusting matter and aromatic principles (by difference) 3.40
------
100.

The conclusion to be drawn from this analysis is, that bran is an alimentary substance.  If it contains six per cent. more of woody matter than the rough, flour, it has also more gluten, double that of fatty matter, besides two aromatic principles which have the perfume of honey, and both of which are wanting in the fine flour.  Thus by bolting, wheat is impoverished in its most valuable principles, merely to remove a few hundredths of woody matter.

The economical suggestion which springs from these views is, that the bran and coarse flour should be reground and then mixed with the fine flour.  Millon states that he has ascertained, by repeated experiments, that bread thus made is of superior quality, easily worked, and not subject to the inconvenience of bread manufactured from the rough flour, such as is made in some places, and especially in Belgium.

Opinions similar to those above noticed are entertained by Professor Daubeny.  “The great importance attached to having bread perfectly white is a prejudice,” he says, “which leads to the rejection of a very wholesome part of the food, and one which, although not digestible alone, is sufficiently so in that state of admixture with the flour in which nature has prepared it for our use.”  After quoting the remarks of Professor Johnston on the same side of the question, he adds, “that according to the experiments of Magendie, animals fed upon fine flour died in a few weeks, whilst they thrived upon the whole meal bread.”  Brown bread, therefore, should be adopted, not merely on a principle of economy, but also as providing more of those ingredients which are perhaps deficient in the finer parts of the flour.—­("Gardeners’ Chronicle,” January 27th, 1849, p. 53.)

The remarks of Dr. Robertson may also be here introduced.  “The advantage,” he observes, “of using more or less of the coverings of the grain in the preparation of bread has often been urged on economical principles.  There can be no doubt that a very large proportion of nutritive matter is contained in the bran and the pollard; and these are estimated to contain about one-fifth part of the entire weight of the wheat grain.  It is, unquestionably, so far wasteful to remove these altogether from the flour; and in the case of the majority of people, this waste may be unnecessary, even on the score of digestibility."[32]