“In regard to the patriotic miller, he does not pretend to consult our good in preference to his own; on the contrary, he reasons very deeply, as if it were best for us to live on the essence of a leg of mutton, brought within the compass of a pint, than feed on such porterly food as the mutton prepared in the ordinary way of roasting or boiling. He maintains, that the finer the bread, though the quantity be smaller, the more nutritive.” The wheaten bread, of the London baker, is acknowledged to be whitened by a mixture of alum, which serves to keep the loaf in better shape, renders it the whiter, and causes it to imbibe the more water to increase the quantity of the bread. Thus he consults his interest, without regard to the consumer: the whiter it is, the more adulterated; and, as constant experience proves, such bread, after it is two days old, becomes dry and husky.” “If bread, made in a private family, of the same flour as the baker uses, will not be so white, we must suppose that there is an art of whitening; and that this would be no secret, if it were not pernicious.” “The bread recommended, made of all the flour of the wheat, retains all the good properties of bread; it is eatable at the distance of eight or ten days: is it not on this account the most eligible?” “Take a loaf of the wheaten London bread, made by the baker in his usual way; let the same baker make another with all the flour of the wheat, without any attempt to whiten or otherwise adulterate it. Let him keep both in the same temperature of air, and produce a specimen of each at any reasonable distance of time, and it will be easily seen what the difference is. This arises not only from _mixtures_, but the _peculiar manner of raising the sponge_.” “In regard to the difference of consuming new bread of the first day, and that which has been made for three, four, or five days, it is computed to be at least a fourth part. If our present wheaten bread cannot be eaten with pleasure beyond the second day, it is not wonderful to discover at last that we are lighting our candle at both ends.” “That the vitiated bread agrees with some people, whether by the force of habit, or the mixtures it contains, is not disputed; but in general it is very hurtful.” “Great numbers of our fellow-subjects eat their bread much coarser than the Londoners: are they weaker? they are generally stronger. Some part of the advantage must be carried to this account.” “Let us have time to subdue our prejudices, and we shall find that bread of all the flour of the wheat, for the general use, is better both in quality and price than the present wheaten bread.”