Wheat. — The cereal used in the largest
quantity is wheat. With regard to its compo-
sition, there would appear to be quite as much
if not more nutritive matter in oats — a larger
quantity of saline matter, and, in fact, of all
those constituents of food which are necessary
to the production of tissues, the maintenance of
the animal heat, and the supply of mineral
materials to the body. With regard, also, to
barley, we find that barley has the same capa-
bilities as oats— it contains all the constituents
of wheat and of oats. We may also say in
regard to maize, that it contains the same con-
stituents— starch, nutritive matter, and sahne
matter — even in larger quantities than oats
and wheat ; and, in addition to them, it con-
tains a very large quantity of fatty matter
and of oily matter, which is not found in
wheat, in barley, or in oats. Why, then, has
wheat been consumed so largely by the most
polished nations on the face of the earth ? WTiy
do barley, oats, rice, maize, and millet constantly
succumb to wheat ? "Where wheat will grow
there it has been grown — in India and C'hina —
and where people can get wheat they will have
it. I have no other explanation to oft'er, except
that wheaten flour alone of all these farinaceous
foods will make fermented broad. I do not
know, however, that the time may not come
when we shall find that the fennented bread of
wheat flour is not so good as the unfermented
bread from the flour of other grains, and that
we may not have occasion to change our habits
in this respect. But at the present time wheat
is consumed. Its product is more abundant in
districts of a higher temperature than our own,
and it is always cultivated in this country with
difficulty. Our really natural grains are "barley
and oats. Barley is cultivated as high as 70°
of latitude, and also in the tropical parts of the
western world; so that barley has a greater
range than oats or wheat. The oat has a much
more northern range than wheat, and of the
three, the wheat is cultivated in our northern
WHE
( 1109 )
WHE
climate at the greatest uncertainty and expense ;
but still we cultivate it. Wheat does not ap-
pear to have a larger quantity of nutritive
matter : it contains less protein than oats, and
very little more than Indian meal ; a consider-
able quantity, however, more than rice, but not
a much larger quantity than barley-meal. It
seems, then, not so much its composition, as the
power it possesses of making a Hght loaf by fer-
mentation, which causes it to bo the favoui'ite
form of food. — Br. Lankester.
Page 2254
Presented as published in 1892. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
AI-modernized reading of the original text
Wheat. — The cereal used in the largest quantity is wheat. With regard to its composition, there would appear to be quite as much if not more nutritive matter in oats — a larger quantity of saline matter, and, in fact, of all those constituents of food which are necessary to the production of tissues, the maintenance of the animal heat, and the supply of mineral materials to the body. With regard, also, to barley, we find that barley has the same capabilities as oats— it contains all the constituents of wheat and of oats. We may also say in regard to maize, that it contains the same constituents— starch, nutritive matter, and sahne matter — even in larger quantities than oats and wheat ; and, in addition to them, it contains a very large quantity of fatty matter and of oily matter, which is not found in wheat, in barley, or in oats. Why, then, has wheat been consumed so largely by the most polished nations on the face of the earth ? Why do barley, oats, rice, maize, and millet constantly succumb to wheat ? "Where wheat will grow there it has been grown — in India and China — and where people can get wheat they will have it. I have no other explanation to offer, except that wheaten flour alone of all these farinaceous foods will make fermented broad. I do not know, however, that the time may not come when we shall find that the fermented bread of wheat flour is not so good as the unfermented bread from the flour of other grains, and that we may not have occasion to change our habits in this respect. But at the present time wheat is consumed. Its product is more abundant in districts of a higher temperature than our own, and it is always cultivated in this country with difficulty. Our really natural grains are "barley and oats. Barley is cultivated as high as 70° of latitude, and also in the tropical parts of the western world; so that barley has a greater range than oats or wheat. The oat has a much more northern range than wheat, and of the three, the wheat is cultivated in our northern
WHE
( 1109 )
WHE
climate at the greatest uncertainty and expense ; but still we cultivate it. Wheat does not appear to have a larger quantity of nutritive matter : it contains less protein than oats, and very little more than Indian meal ; a considerable quantity, however, more than rice, but not a much larger quantity than barley-meal. It seems, then, not so much its composition, as the power it possesses of making a Hght loaf by fermentation, which causes it to bo the favourite form of food. — Br. Lankester.