Volume 1

The standard physician : a new and practical encyclopaedia of medicine and hygiene especially prepared for the household / edited by Sir James Crichton-Browne [and others].

Date:: 1908-1909

Credit: The standard physician : a new and practical encyclopaedia of medicine and hygiene especially prepared for the household / edited by Sir James Crichton-Browne [and others]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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$Breaat demand it. Lor to many people the outer coverin^jjs of the ^rain act as an irritant to the intestines ; and, although these special breads may serve as dietetic agents and gentle laxatives, they do not necessarily aid the digestion, but may ])roduce disturbances of this function, ])articulaiiy in susceptible individuals. The irritation set up in the intestines does not permit the ingested food-material to remain in the gut sufficiently long to become fully absorbed, so that it may be quite fairly stated that gluten-bread represents a very wasteful article of food, and that the liner varieties of bread must be looked upon as more suitable nutriment. So long as no process has been discovered by which the gluten may be separated from the outer shell of the grain in making Hour, it is considered wiser by some to employ it as fodder for animals, where a suitable mode of digestion is provided for this purpose, rather than to incorporate it into bread in the belief that it increases its nutrient value. The great differences in the percentages of nutrient substances in the various grains and their products when made into bread is due not only to the loss of proteids in the gluten, but is largely brought about by falselv conceived methods of baking. Bread must be light in order that it may be properly attacked by the digestive juices. By the aid of fermentation the starch-cells are ruptured, and may thus be more readily acted upon. When this is accomplished by the addition of leaven, the process consumes about 20 per cent, of the nutritive value of the bread—a very considerable loss. It is essential, therefore, that the ordinary methods of baking be abandoned and that Liebig’s principle be more fully recognised, which prescribes, instead of leaven, a baking-powder mixture of an alkaline carbonate and an acid. In the baking of cake and pastry this recommendation has long been followed, and, in addition to the use of yeast for this purpose, there are now a number of very efficient baking-powders on the market. As the dough rises, it may result in the formation of scattered areas in which no fermentation has taken place, and which prove an obstacle to digestion. These should not be eaten ; nor is it advisable to eat much hot bread, lor the latter undergoes further fermentation in the stomach, and may cause a great deal of distress. Persistent eating of hot bread and biscuits may even lead to gastric catarrh. BREAST, CANCER OF.—An affection which occurs not only in older women, but also in those who have not yet reached middle life. L sually the patient’s attention is directed to the condition by hnding a hard nodule in the breast, which may or may not be painful. The discovery is very often accidental. A cancer of the breast rapidly invades the axillary glands and may lead to secondary deposits also in other parts of the body, such as the lungs or the bones. Every hard nodule in the breast should at once be sub- mitted to the inspection of the physician, and if operation is lecommended his advice should be followed, for cancer in the breast may be cuied b\ a T VOL. I.$