Bread for the Poor. Under this heading, a correspondent of
the Charity Organisation Reporter, and a member of the Ladies' Sanitary Association, earnestly recommends what is termed "a whole-meal bread, as vastly superior to white bread for most children. If the following statement of its nutritive powers may be relied upon —and there seems no reason to doubt it—the use of such bread would be highly beneficial to both rich and poor children, and cannot be too strongly recommended, not only for children, but adults, for general consumption. The writer, signing "M. Yates," says, "I have recently delivered some lectures on this subject. Before doing so, a baker was persuaded to make bread of this fine granularly ground meal, and he has had a large demand for it, especially among the poorer classes. If public attention were directed to the subject, millers and bakers would soon supply the bread, at a reasonable rate." This whole- meal bread is bread made from the entire produce of a grain of wheat. One shilling's-worth of wheat, we are told, contains 3i times more flesh-forming material, 70 times more heat-producing material, and 3 times more bone-forming material, than one shilling's-worth of meat. By inducing bakers to make it of a fine granu- larly ground meal, which will obviate the irritating quality that makes the general use of brown bread as now made so objectionable, its superior dietetic advantages would seem to be beyond dispute. Besides having one-third more gluten, the material which forms muscular flesh, it appears that Liebig states that "it contains 200 per cent, more phosphatic salt, to nourish the bones, brains, and tissues ;" and that meat, were it otherwise within the reach of the poor, cannot properly supply its place daring the period of development and growth, when the tissues and bony structures require very active repairs. Milk would afford the necessary sustenance, but as Mrs. Yates observes, this in large towns is difficult to obtain pure, and is not even readily found in tho country, or at a cheap rate. As there are so many thousands of the poor, particularly children, who live almost intirely upon bread, the rejection of the principles contained in the outer part of the grain is a serious error, both in the dietetic and economic sense. Anything therefore that would encourage the sale and consumption of a bread which will give every poor person a good chance of being properly nourished, and enable a child to grow up strong enough to do his work in the world, mast be a public benefit, and an object well worthy of the strenuous effort of the philanthropic. Doctors, clergymen, and those who visit or otherwise come in direct contact with the poor, could do mach to spread the knowledge of the advantages of such bread, and possibly serve them more effectually than by any other means in their power. Copies of leaflets-giving further information on the subject, it appears, may be obtained from the Ladies' Sanitary Association, or at 17 St. Edmund's Terrace, Regent's Park.
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