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About The west shore. (Portland, Or.) 1875-1891 | View Entire Issue (April 1, 1880)
April, 1880. THE WEST SHORE. CHANGE OF FLOUR IN BECOMING BREAD. In popular use we employ the word " bread" to qualify loavei which are served in slioes. The rolls are muoh amaller. Both consist alike 01 crumb and oruat The crnmb is made up of a multitude of oella of thin walls containing carbonic aoid gas, the product of fermentation in the dough. These walls of tho cells contain both gluten and staroh, and traoes of .dextrine and sugar. As a consequence of the treatment of water and the application of heat, the starch grains, which, in their normal condition, are little sacks filled with minute granules of starch proper, have been swollen and burst Starch similarly treated by itself, as in the preparation for stiffening linen in the laundry, when dried in a thin layer upon glass plate, for example, is transparent, and presents a glazed surface. When this glazed material is removed with a knife blade, it is seen to lie stiff and horny. The gluten, whioh is mixed with it in the crumb of bread, and which may be oonceived to be continuous, however thin throughout the wall ol the cell, has been, by the process of baking, dehydrated; that is, the heat to which it has been subjected has driven out a certain amount of water, whioh chemically sustains something like the same relation to the gluten from which it has been expelled that the water expellod by heat from alum-crystals sustains to tho original body of alnm. This is the condition of the gluten from the crumb in the interior of the loaf at the instant of its removal from the ovon. On drying, it abstracts the water from tho starch with whioh it is ooated, or intimately mixed, as the routed alum absorbs tho water that is sprinkled upon it The staroh, by this prooess, being dried and stiffened, gives its support to the walls of the cell, and renders the texture of the stale loaf more firm than that of the fresh loaf. fro. Hortford. Damp Rooms, Damp Bebh, Etc. Damp rooms, as those in brick houses in whioh the plastering is placed directly on tho walls are the fruitful souroes of many of the acute or in flammatory diseases of our ohangeable climate. Rooms, also, seldom or nevor properly venti lated or sunned, in damp localities, with houses the culler of which is wet for any considerable part of the time, are absolutely unfit for human residences. No families oan occupy suoh houses, living on the north side, and ordinarily escape the rheumatism and kindred diseases. It is but little less than suioide to be subjected to suoh continued dampness. Of course the bed ding of suoh rooms must be not only damp, but to a certain extent moldy, or have a musty odor almost certain to produce colds and diseases, especially when the "spare bed" is used by those who are so unfortunate aa to visit such houses. Suoh beds are unsafe, occupied only occasionally, even after having been thoroughly aired and supplied with fresh and dry blankets. If suoh localities most be occupied, it is judi cious to nse bedding that will absorb as little aa possible of dampness and foulness the mattress is superior in this regard to feather-beds while almost daily airing becomes needful. Dark closets, closed trunks, bandboxes and the like, containing clothing, need often to be aired, al lowing sunlight the prince of purifiers, free access, often to be removed and placed in the direct rays of the sun, with a careful removal of all mold. Some free absorbent of moisture, freshly slaked lime, salt and ashes, and the like, will absorb this moisture, which msy be promptly removed, at least carrying off muoh of the dampness. These absorb more readily and more freely than the clothes do, and will obvi ate part of the evils of damp houses, and yet nothing oan be an adequate substitute for the light of the son not even a warm fire in the rjom. TBI Board of Directors of the Pennsylvania Railroad have directed the restoration of the pay of all persons in the service of the oomueny to the compensation in force at the time of the reduction in June, 1877, to take affect from and after April 111 HOW ENGLAND TAKES HER CENSUS. In Great Britain a census hss been taken every ten years sinoe 1801, and the system is now one of the most perfect iu existence. V-'..I uuh uuou ut buu utsi century, there was no real method, and all previous estima tions of the population of the United Kingdom were mere guesswork. It scorns the more strange that suoh should have been the fact considering that, in the American colonies, enu mentions of the population had often been made by ordor of the homo government In 1790, a beginning was made in Scotland by Sir John Sinclair, who through his personal efforts in enlisting the co-operation of all the olcrgy men of the established church, collected returns whioh were of great valuo, though necessarily incomplete After seven years he completed his compilations, and published the results iu 21 volumes, probably the greatest statistical work ever undertaken and oarriod through by one private enterprise. Umlor the system adopted in 1851, the census iu (treat Britain is now taken in one day, tho 31st of March. In I8.'il, .HUilO enumerators were appointed ill I'.nglund and Wales by tho " I oil district registrars 111 those countries, each enumerator having a distinctly dunned district assigned to him. Iu Scotland tho 32 sheriffs appointed the tem porary registrars generally parish schoolmasters--and 8,130 enumerators. For 1 be smaller islands, the government appointed 257 enumer ators, awl in Ireland the census was tsken by the constabulary. Home days before tho cen sus day, printed schedules were delivered at every huuae or tenement ; in Wales these were printed in Welsh for the benefit of the lower classes. These sohedules oontainod giiestions about the name, relation to head of family, oondition, age, sex, occupation and birth-place of every person in (I rest Britain, aud also as to tbo number of deaf, dumb and blind. Measures wero taken to secure accurately the names uf night laborers, persons out uf the country, trav elers, seainon, soldiers, etc. These .schedules were all filled up in the night of March .'t0-.1l and were taken up at an early hour on Maruh III , the collector tilling up the parts that had been left blank through their negligonuo or ina bility. All unoccupied houses aud buildings iu course of construction were also uotod. The floating population pels ills who spent the nights in (mats and bargos, in barua, sheds, etc. , wore required to be estimated aa nearly aa pus sible. The enumerators wero allowed 11110 week to make their returns in, all trauscrilied, and the summaries and estimates completod accord ing to detailed instructions. Thu district reg istrars had to complete their revision of the re turns of their subordinates in a fortnight, paying particular attention to nine specially defined points. These revised roturns were again revised by the "superintendent regis trars," and then transmitted to the census otlioe. Tho census was the most successful, in quickness and accuracy, accomplished iu any country up to that time, and the same system has been pursued, with little variation ever siaos. The digestion of the census reports by tho oontral authorities is conducted most tho roughly and scientifically, and the oompilationa are of the greatest value to statisticians and economists. The British system hss served as a model for many other oountriea, where the census is now takeu in one day by means of printed schedules Woe llrraLI. Snow Katimu Cniikai.tiiv. A writer in the PhrmoUxjkal Journal admoniahee parents to guard their ohildren from the practice of anow eating, claiming that it has muoh to dn with head colds of many girls and boys, because of the chilling efTeot of snow upon the palate or thin partition between mouth aud nostrils pro ducing congestion in the fine membrsne whioh lines its upper surface. As this membrane is almost entirely constituted of delicate nerves and blood vessels, imrlammalion is likely to fol low the oongeation, and perhaps degenerating into nasal catarrh, an affection so common with persona in our northern latitude. rOHTI.AR CONFIDENCE IN SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. Tho popular mind iu its altitude towards sol. entitle sw... -n flljfovery has Uliutogomi wonderful ohango in the last, five or ten years. The great facts in soience brought to view by the labors of invest'uators, so long as they had no special practical bearing upon the affairs of every-day life, wore regarded with little inter est, and made no deep impression upon the mind or beliuf of the general reader. State ments were made in the newipaers regarding this and that new faot brought to light . In aome department of soience or art but the uews was seldom thought of or talked about in the homes of the tjicoplo in the uouutry or oity. Important and wonderful discoveries, like the spectrum analysis of new chemiual elements, nr new asteroids, have interested men within the circle of thoee engaged in research, but outside few have taken the trouble evsn to impure as to the imp u'tauee or siguilloauoo nf the uew acquisitions to human knowledge. A class of discoveries, however, which seemed to Involve religious beliefs or theological dogmas quickly attracted popular atteutiou, aud brought about a fierce war of words, Mr. I 'si win, when lie published the results of his studies aud discov eries upon the origin of species became at 01100 a marked man and an object of popular attack, lie might have beeu the discoverer ef 00 new stars, and his name would hardly have been known beyond tho circle of his associates and scientific investigators generally. Mis views, now almost universally admitted and adopted in the world nf suienoe, uoutinue to be derided and uombatted by theologians and laymen, and in some instanoes with considerable sharpness and ability. The popular ooulldenee, so far as it is inllusnued by such, writers, does not lost with Mr. Darwin. The stupendous problems involved in astronomical science, aud upon which it rests, puule and bewilder the popular mind, and but a kind uf half asssut Is given to them. When the astronomer states in a public assembly that the sun is distant 112,000,000 miles, a majority are tern plod to inquire, "How do you know that 7" or when he states, further, that the orb is enveloped in a vast covering uf incandescent hydrogen and other forms of mat tar, the unsHiken reply ia, "It may he so," Wa hesi tale not to say that if astronomers and math emalieians had not been aide to foretell eclipses, on 11 bit u uis of stars, approach of comets, etc , the great facts and principles of astronomy would havs occupied in the ropular mind a place scarcely higher thau the astrology of the snoieuts, This former state of indifTereuoo and doubt has now been broken, and the pendulum swings far the other way. The popular mini la ready to believe devoutly almost anything which men of research offer for consideration. The imp... sible, which once was observed in every direc ted, now has faded from view, and science seems to work miracles as did the epoetins of nM. The full establishment of the telegraph in all parts of the world immensely increased the popular re swot for seiencej but when to this are added tun telephone, microphone, aadlphnne, tihono. 1 graph, electric lighting and the numerous other I recent triumphs nf sukaee and art the poseihili tu-s of scisntitlo soeotnpliahment have no lunger a limit. There is a danger that Ibis sxtrenin development of fsilh may lead uninformed per sons into errors through misapprehension, or extravagant elalms of inventors and expert ne uters. Owners of gas stocks and other kinds of pi orty supposed to Iw influenced by Raw I discoveries should be cautious about sacrificing 1 tbsir securities in consequence of what is pvb I luhed iu the newspaiwr. There srs attll many fallacies in the world claimed to be the oat I growths of soisuoe, sad a wise discrimination I ami reserve should lie maintained m all actions I based upon what ia claimed as new In suienoe I and art - lioMm Journal of OkmiMry.