Physiology, animal and mental : applied to the preservation and restoration of health of body, and power of mind / by O.S. Fowler.

  • Fowler, O. S. (Orson Squire), 1809-1887.
Date:
1849
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Physiology, animal and mental : applied to the preservation and restoration of health of body, and power of mind / by O.S. Fowler. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    and stomatic disorder, and, in consequence, greatly enhances dyspeptic troubles. I even pen this paragraph after having just recovered from the worst dyspeptic attack I have experi- enced for years, brought on by eating fine flour bread and a very little meat, between which, for me, there is little if any choice. But give me my coarse brown bread and good fruit, with opportunities for exercise, and such troubles, as in this instance, soon disappear. Brown bread also tastes better than superfine, as all who will make trial can perceive—another conclusive proof of its superiority33. Our New England ancestry ate coarse bread made of rye and Indian, and lived longer, besides enjoying far better health, than their fine-flour-fed descendants have the least prospect of living; and the Scotch oat-cake and por- rage eaters rarely know how dyspepsia feels till they exchange them for killed flour bread. Dyspeptics also find coarse bread indispensable; and what is thus indispensable to weak stomachs would of course go far towards keeping strong ones from breaking. Even sailors cannot live on fine flour bread ; much more our sedentary classes. Besides, the nutriment of fine flour bread is too highly con- densed. Sugar is highly nutritious, yet, eaten alone, it soon disorders digestion, because there is too much of it in too small a compass. A due amount of bulk is as essential to perfect digestion as the nutrition itself. The bran thus helps to fill up, and besides restraining over-eating, gently irri- tates the intestinal coating, and provokes action. Still, you fine flour lovers are quite welcome to your insipid and half killed white bread; yet no earthly motive but absolute starvation would induce me to partake with you more than a few meals at a time. 54. LEAVENED AND UNLEAVENED BREAD. To raise the bread is the next process in its preparation. This consists in causing fermentation, by which a gas is gen- erated which insinuates itself among the doughy mass, and thus raises it, or renders it porous. This portion of the bread-making process is also greatly