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Bread.

BREACH OF THE PEACE (ante), in general any riotous behavior, or annoying conduct, such as fighting, shouting, disturbing others assembled or singly, etc. In common practice almost any conduct that can be called disorderly" is in some sense a B. of the P. Unless occasioning some serious revolt, a B. of the P. is only a mis demeanor.

BREACH OF TRUST. See TRUST.

*BREAD. The earliest and most primitive way of making B. was to soak the grain in water, subject it to pressure, and then dry it by natural or artificial heat. An improvement upon this, was to pound or bray the grain in a mortar or between two flat stones, before moistening and heating, and from this braying operation some etymologists propose to derive the word bread (as if brayed). A rather more elaborate bruising or grinding of the grain leads to such simple forms of bread as the oat-cakes of Scotland, which are prepared by moistening oat-meal (coarsely bruised oats) with water containing some common salt, kneading with the hands upon a baking-board, rolling the mass into a thin sheet, and ultimately heating before a good fire, or on an iron plate, called a girdle, which is suspended above the fire. In a similar manner, the barley-meal and peas-meal bannocks of Scotland are prepared; and in the East Indies (especially the Punjab and Afghanistan), as well as in Scotland, flour is kneaded with water, and rolled into thin sheets, as scones. The passover cakes of the Israelites were also prepared in this way. A similar preparation of wheat-flour, but where the sheet of dough is made much thicker, forms the dampers of Australia. The Indian corn-meal, kneaded with water and fired, affords the corn-bread of America. The kinds of B. referred to above are designated unleavened, as no leaven has been added to the dough to excite fermentation. Even in the time of Moses, however, leaven was employed in making bread. It is held probable that the Egyptians were the first to use leaven; that the secret afterwards became known to the Greeks, and that the Greeks communicated the process to the Romans, who spread the invention far and wide in the northern countries during their campaigns.

The grain of wheat is generally employed in the manufacture of B. among the better classes and more advanced nations, though rye, barley, Indian corn, and rice are also extensively used. The average composition of the grain of wheat when dried, so as to evaporate about 14 per cent of moisture, is—

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The proportion of these ingredients varies, however; and though the native country of wheat is unknown, yet it is found that within the wheat zone (see WHEAT), the quality improves as we travel south. Thus, Scotch wheat is inferior to English, the latter to French, that to the Italian; and the finest wheat in the world is grown in Barbary and Egypt. The principal constituents of wheat may be separated from each other without much difficulty. Thus, if wheat-flour be placed in a cloth-bag with the mouth well closed. and the whole introduced into a basin of water, and pressed by the fingers for some time, the starch is squeezed through the cloth as a fine white powder, and the gluten is left in the cloth as a viscid or sticky substance. Again, if wheat-flour be burned on a porcelain plate on a fire, or oven, or gas-lamp, till it can burn no longer, it leaves behind a small amount of ash or saline matter.

Previous to being employed in the fabrication of B., the grain of wheat undergoes the process of grinding, with the double object of reducing it to a fine state of division, and separating the more hard and indigestible parts. See MILL. During the grinding operations, the wheat as it passes from grain to flour nearly doubles its bulk. The products come from the dressing-machine divided into different qualities, a quarter of wheat yielding

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In the making of B. in Great Britain, the finest flour is employed in making firsts or the fine 4-lb. loaf; a coarser flour is made into seconds or household B.; and a still coarser into thirds or coarse bread. There is no bran in firsts, but a greater or less proportion of the finer bran in seconds and thirds. In the making of good B. three things are absolutely requisite: flour or meal, yeast or leaven, and water containing salt. The yeast (q.v.), or leaven (q.v.), is added to give a start to the fermentation (q.v.) process, thereby supplying carbonic acid, which communicates a spongy or light texture to the bread. Leaven is the more primitive ferment, and is simply a portion of moistened

Breadfruit.

flour or dough in which the putrefactive agencies have begun to work. It may be procured by allowing moistened flour to lie in a warm apartment (summer heat) for six or eight days, and when sufficiently formed, has an acid taste and reaction, and a somewhat fusty odor. When brought in contact with a new portion of flour and water, and incorporated therewith by kneading, it very quickly acts as a ferment, and develops partial fermentation in the whole. Hence it is that where leaven is used, it is customary to retain a portion of the leavened dough for the next baking. On the continent, leaven is still very extensively employed, especially in districts far from breweries. In Britain, yeast is generally used as the ferment.

The materials being at hand, and the proper benches, utensils, and oven being within reach, the baker takes a quantity of water and adds to it the yeast and salt; after which the flour is added, and the whole thoroughly and laboriously kneaded together till it assumes a ropy consistence. It is then called the sponge, and is placed in a kneadingtrough in a warm place, which is styled setting the sponge. In a short time, the yeast begins to act on the gluten, starch, and sugar of the flour, compelling the latter to pass into alcohol and carbonic acid gas in every part of the dough, which thereby becomes inflated with innumerable air cavities. When the fermentation has sufficiently advanced, the baker takes the sponge, adds more flour, water, and salt, and a second time subjects the whole to a thorough process of kneading, to prevent portions being so far fermented as to become sad, and again allows the mass to lie in a warm place for a few hours. The dough swells considerably from distension by gas, and is weighed out into lumps of the proper size, which are shaped into loaves, constituting the batch, or placed in tin pans, and are allowed to lie for a short time till they get further distended. The oven has previously been heated by flues, by heated air, or by wood being burned within it, to a temperature of at least 320° F., which is the lowest temperature at which B. can be baked, and ranging up to 572° F.; and when it has been thoroughly cleaned out, the loaves are introduced and placed on the floor, and the oven shut up. The heat acts in dissipating much of the water from the dough, in distending the air cavities more fully, and in partially boiling the starch and gluten of the dough, and developing some gum from the starch. Indeed, though the temperature of the oven is much higher, yet the loaves beyond the mere crust are bathed in an atmosphere of steam, and are never heated above 212°, as has been proved by direct experiments with the thermometer. One effect of the heat is to arrest any further fermentation (q.v.; see also YEAST). After several hours' baking in the oven, the length of time being determined by the temperature, the loaves are withdrawn, and allowed to cool. The brown appearance of the crust of loaves, and the pleasant taste of the crusts, are due to the action of the heat on the starch and the formation of dextrine (q.v.), a sort of gum. The number of quartern (4 lb.) loaves which a sack of flour weighing 280 lbs. yields, is 90. It will be apparent, therefore, that as 280 lbs. of flour yield 360 lbs. of B., that a good deal more water must be present in the latter than in the former; and indeed, ordinary good wheaten B. contains about 45 per cent of water. This water is retained even after the loaf is apparently dry, and even mealy, as the gum and gluten have a great affinity for water.

Improvements in the process of making B. are occasionally effected.

Thus a form

of yeast, called German barm or yeast (q.v.), has been introduced, which is more cleanly than ordinary yeast or leaven, but appears to be too rapid in its power of causing fermentation to be manipulated easily in the making of ordinary loaves, though it does well for pan-loaves and fancy B. in general. Ovens heated by flues are being constructed, instead of the primitive method of heating them by wood, which smokes the whole oven. Instead of raising the dough by the action of yeast, which decomposes a part of the flour and causes the loss of about 2 per cent, bicarbonate of soda and hydrochloric acid are sometimes employed. The proportion by this process are 4 lbs. of flour intimately mixed with 320 grains of bicarbonate of soda; to this is added a mixture of 300 grains of common salt in 35 ozs. of water and 64 fluid drams of hydrochloric acid, sp.gr. 1.16, and the whole is kneaded and placed in the oven. When the mixture is made, the acid acts on the bicarbonate of soda, forming common salt, which is left in the dough, and carbonic acid is liberated at every point, and communicates a spongy texture to the dough. The disadvantage attendant on this mode of raising the dough is that it is apt to leave too much common salt in the bread. This is obviated by using water charged with carbonic acid, as described under AERATED BREAD. Sesquicarbonate of ammonia is employed to some extent in the preparation of rusks, gingerbread, and other light fancy B.; when heated, it entirely passes into gas, and thus yields a very spongy mass. Short-bread is prepared from flour which has been incorporated with butter. See UNFERMENTED BREAD.

The appearance which good wheaten B. ought to present, is that of a vesicular or spongy mass, from which layers can be readily detached; and this, known to bakers as piled B., is the best index of good wholesome and easily digested bread. When the layers cannot be detached, and the loaf cannot be crumbled down by the fingers into a coarse powder, or the fragments be thoroughly soaked and be readily diffused through water, but become a permanent tough mass of dough, the B. is imperfectly made.

Rye B. is very extensively used in northern European countries, where the soil being sandy is admirably adapted for the growth of that grain. It yields a flour darker than

wheat-flour. It is almost equal in nutritive value to wheaten bread. Barley and oats, which when used as B. are generally made into cakes or bannocks, possess also a composition not unlike wheat. Indian corn, which thrives luxuriantly on the American soil, and is largely used there for B., as also to a considerable extent in the old world, is little different from wheat in the proportion of its ingredients. Rice is occasionally employed in making B., but it is not nearly so nutritious as wheat.

But although, with the exception of rice, the various kinds of grain do not sensibly differ in the amount of nutritious matter contained in the meal, yet there is a great difference as to the quality of yielding a light, spongy bread. In this respect, the flour of wheat excels all others. This quality seems to depend upon the mechanical structure of the gluten of wheat, which gives a glutinous, sticky consistency to the dough, rendering it impervious to the carbonic acid gas formed in it during the fermentation, so that the gas thus imprisoned swells it up. The meal of other grains forms a more granular and less tenacious dough, which allows the gas to escape with more or less ease as it is formed. It is thus impossible to make a light, spongy loaf of oatmeal, however finely it might be ground. In the case of whole-meal B. or brown B., the rough, hard particles of the bran interfere with the ordinary tenacious quality of wheaten-flour, and make the dough slightly porous, so that much of the gas escapes, and thus this kind of B. is never so much raised as B. of fine flour.

BROWN, COMPOSITION, or WHOLE FLOUR B. is made from the ground but undressed wheat, and therefore contains the bran as well as the flour. The whole meal (bran and fine flour) contains chemically more nutritive matter than the fine flour alone, yet the gritty particles that are present in the former cause an unnatural irritation in the alimentary canal, and lead to a quicker evacuation of the but partially digested and absorbed food.

The adulterations of B. are various. Very commonly boiled potatoes are added to the flour and water in the making of the dough, and some consider that this yields a lighter and more palatable bread. It must be remembered, however, that the addition of any substance of a nature foreign to the composition of any material, however nourishing, is an adulteration, and that though potatoes may be supposed to improve the B., yet good B. can be made without them, and the addition of the potatoes lessens the nutritive value of the wheat-flour. Alum is occasionally added to the dough, to increase the whiteness and improve the general texture of the B.; and this it appears to do by arresting the passage of the starch into gum and sugar, which tends to take place during the process of baking. In Belgium, sulphate of copper is often used for a similar purpose. In Great Britain, B., except French rolls and fancy B., must be sold by weight only; the laws specify the requisite ingredients, and heavy penalties are imposed for adulteration. In most of the United States the statutes relating to food generally provide for punishment for the sale of adulterated articles, but are much more general than the English statutes. There are no specific enumerations of the requisite ingredients of B. There is usually appointed a public inspector and analyst, and goods suspected of adulteration must be submitted to his tests. See NUTRITION, FOOD, BISCUIT.

BREADALBANE, a mountainous district of Scotland, comprising the western part of the county of Perth. The chief proprietor is the Marquis of Breadalbane, a descendant of Sir Duncan Campbell of Lochow, created Lord Campbell in 1445. See CAMPBELL.

BREAD-FRUIT TREE, Artocarpus incisa, a tree of the natural order artocarpaceæ (q.v.), a native of the islands of the Pacific ocean and of the Indian archipelago-one of the most important gifts of nature to the inhabitants of these regions, its fruit supplying the principal part of their food, and its inner bark a considerable part of their clothing, whilst its timber and its milky juice are also employed for economical purposes. The genus to which it belongs (artocarpus, Gr., bread-fruit) is distinguished by having the male flowers in catkins, with a 2-leaved perianth and one stamen; the female flowers naked; the fruit roundish, fleshy, and tuberculated. The bread tree is a rather slender tree, of 40 to 50 ft. high, often rising almost half its height without a branch. It has large, pinnatifid leaves, frequently 12 to 18 in. long, dark green, and glossy. The fruit is generally oval, or nearly spherical, and about the size of a child's head. It is a sorosis, a compound or aggregate fruit formed from numerous flowers on a common axis, and is covered with a roughish rind, which is marked with small square or lozenge-shaped divisions, having each a small elevation in the center; is at first green; when imperfectly ripened, brown; and when fully ripe, assumes a rich yellow hue. It is attached to the small branches of the tree by a short thick stalk, and hangs either singly or in clusters of two or three together. It contains a somewhat fibrous pulp, which, when ripe, becomes juicy and yellow, but has then a rotten taste. At an earlier stage, when the fruit is gathered for use, the pulp is white and mealy, and of a consistance resembling that of new bread. In a still less mature state, the fruit contains a tenacious white milk. The common practice in the South Sea islands is to cut each fruit into three or four pieces, and take out the core; then to place heated stones in the bottom of a hole dug in the earth; to cover them with green leaves, and upon this to place a layer of the fruit, then stones, leaves, and fruit alternately, till the hole is nearly filled, when leaves and earth to the depth of several inches are spread over all. In rather more than half an hour, the bread-fruit is

III.-1a.

ready; "the outsides are, in general, nicely browned, and the inner part presents a white or yellowish cellular pulpy substance, in appearance slightly resembling the crumb of a wheaten loaf." It has little taste, but is frequently sweetish, and more resembles the plantain than bread made of wheat-flour. It is slightly astringent, and highly nutritious. Sometimes the inhabitants of a district join to make a prodigious oven-a pit 20 or 30 ft. in circumference, the stones in which are heated by wood burned in it, and many hundred bread-fruits are thrown in, and cooked at once. Baked in this manner, bread-fruit will keep good for several weeks. Another mode of preserving it is by subjecting it in heaps to a slight degree of fermentation, and beating it into a kind of paste, which, although rather sour, is much used when fresh bread-fruit cannot be obtained. There are numerous varieties of the bread tree in the South Sea islands, and they ripen at different seasons. The tree produces two, and sometimes three, crops a year. In the West Indies and South America, into which it has also been introduced, the bread-fruit has not come much into use as an ordinary article of food; but various preparations of it are reckoned delicacies.-The fibrous inner bark of young bread-fruit trees, beaten and prepared, is used for making a kind of cloth, which is much worn by the common people in the South Sea islands, though inferior in softness and whiteness to that made from the paper mulberry (see MULBERRY, PAPER).-There exudes from the bark of the bread tree, when punctured, a thick mucilaginous fluid, which hardens by exposure to the air, and is used, when boiled with cocoa-nut oil, for making the seams of canoes, pails, etc., water-tight, and as bird-lime.-The timber is soft and light, of a rich yellow color, and assumes, when exposed to air, the appearance of mahogany. It is used for canoes, house-building, furniture, and many other purposes. It is durable when not exposed to the weather.-The JACK (q.v.) or Jaca (A. integrifolia), and the DEphal (4. lakoocha), both large East Indian trees, belong to the same genus with the bread-fruit tree.

BREAD-NUT, the fruit of brosimum alicastrum, a tree of the natural order artocarpacea, and therefore allied to the bread-fruit, a native of Jamaica. The genus brosimum is distinguished by male and female flowers on separate trees, in globose catkins, with peltate (shield-like) scales for perianth, and the fruit a one-seeded drupe. The bread-nut tree has ovate-lanceolate evergreen leaves; it abounds in a tenacious gummy milk. Its leaves and young shoots are much eaten by cattle, but deleterious qualities are developed in them as they become old. The nuts, boiled or roasted, form an agreeable article of food, and are eaten instead of bread. Their taste resembles that of hazel-nuts.-To this genus the palo de vaca, or Cow TREE (q.v.), of Demerara is supposed also to belong.

BREAD-ROOM. In the navy, the biscuits are called bread, and the place where they are stored is the bread-room; it is carefully constructed, warmed before being filled, and kept as much as possible free from damp.

BREAD-ROOT. See PsORALEA.

BREADTH, in art, is a term which, though often used in a very indefinite manner, is not without a definite meaning. It signifies that peculiar disposal of the background of a picture which, without sacrificing or even concealing details, gives to the whole unity and harmony of effect. With the older landscape-painters, it was a common fault to produce the effect of distance either by a certain trick of light and shadow, or by one uniform hazy color in which the individual objects were entirely lost to view, and breadth became vacancy. In this respect, their pictures contrast unfavorably with those of such modern painters as Turner, of whom Mr. Ruskin has very truly said that "the conception of every individual inch of distance is absolutely clear and complete in the master's mind-a separate picture fully worked out: but yet, clearly and fully as the idea is formed, just so much of it is given, and no more, as nature would have allowed us to feel or see; just so much as would enable a spectator of experience and knowledge to understand almost every minute fragment of separate detail, but appears to the unpracticed and careless eye just what a distance of nature's own would appear-an unintelligible mass. Not one line out of the millions there is without meaning, yet there is not one which is not affected and disguised by the dazzle and indecision of distance. No form is made out, and yet no form is unknown." On the subject of breadth Mr. Ruskin has, moreover, the following very judicious remarks: "It were to be wished that our writers on art would not dwell so frequently on the necessity of breadth, without explaining what it means, and that we had more constant reference made to the principle, which I can only remember having seen once clearly explained and insisted onthat breadth is not vacancy. Generalization is unity, not destruction of parts; and composition is not annihilation, but arrangement of materials. The breadth which unites the truths of nature with her harmonies is meritorious and beautiful, but the breadth which annihilates those truths by the million is not painting nature, but painting over her; and so the masses which result from right concords and relations of details are sublime and impressive, but the masses which result from the eclipse of details are contemptible and painful."

BREAD-TREE. See CAFFER BREAD.

BREAKERS, in maritime language, are the waves that break violently over rocks fying a short distance under the surface of the sea. They cover that particular part of

the sea with a foam, and produce a hoarse and often terrible roaring. "Breakers ahead" is one of the most alarming announcements made by the lookout men of a ship, seeing that the B. denote the existence of sunken rocks which may, perchance, pierce the hull of the vessel.

BREAKING BULK, in the Scotch law, signifies making use of an article supplied in bulk, or in quantity; by which act one is said to break bulk, and is, in consequence, prevented from afterwards objecting to it, and returning it to the seller. See SALE OF GOODS.

BREAKING INCLOSURES is an expression to be found in Scotch law-books, and means the destruction or invasion of planting and inclosures by persons or their cattle. The punishment for this offense is provided for by several old Scotch statutes, the principal of which are two passed in 1661 and 1685 respectively, The penalties are pecuniary, with right to detain the cattle found trespassing, until such penalties, along with the damage and costs, are paid. See PLANTATION.

BREAKWATER is a barrier intended for the protection of shipping in harbors or anchorages. It sometimes happens that, in front of a semicircular bay, a small island is so situated as to form a natural breakwater. This is to some extent the case with the isle of Wight, which occupies such a position as to protect Portsmouth and Southampton from the south. In many other places, however, bays and harbors are without such screens. A pier may be so placed and constructed as to serve also the purpose of a B., but the term B. is generally confined to a structure used solely for protection, and not for berthage or traffic, and breakwaters are frequently insulated, so as to be cut off from any communication with the shore unless by water.

Plymouth B. is the best known of these engineering works. The sound or harbor, being open to the s., was so much exposed to storms that, early in the present century, it was determined to construct a B. across its mouth, with openings between it and the shore, on either side, for the ingress and egress of shipping. The works were commenced in 1812. The operations consisted in transporting along a tram-road large blocks of limestone got from a neighboring quarry, shipping them in vessels fitted with trapdoors, and by means of these depositing them in the shape of a huge mound in the required situation. As soon as the stones began to appear above water, a perceptible benefit resulted in the relative calmness of the sound during the prevalence of storms; but the structure was frequently very roughly handled by the waves, which altered and flattened its shape. A severe storm in Nov., 1824, threw a great portion of the stones over into the sound. It was not until 1841 that the works were finally completed, by the deposition of more than 3,000,000 tons of stone, and the expenditure of nearly £1,500,000. The B. is nearly a mile long, the central portion is 1000 yards; and two wings, of 350 yards each, extend from the ends of this at a slight angle. The open channels at each end, between the B. and the shore, are each about half a mile wide, and their depth is respectively 40 and 22 ft., at low water. The B. is 133 yards wide at the base, and 15 at the top-the two sides being made very sloping for the security of the stones. The slopes and top are faced with masonry. The water-space protected by this B. comprises 1120 acres, and it is generally admitted that the money has been well spent on the work.

Holyhead B. is formed of stone quarried in Holyhead mountain, drawn along a tramway on a timber structure, and cast into the sea. It more resembles a pier than the B. at Plymouth, for it is attached at one end to the shore, and is intended to convert Holyhead bay or roadstead into a harbor of refuge. The works consist of a mound of loose stones up to low water, and ashlar upright walls with a parapet above that line, with a railway on the top for trains.

Portland B. is of very great value, in converting into a harbor of refuge the expanse of water between the Dorsetshire coast and the isle, or rather peninsula of Portland. An act of parliament was obtained in 1847, authorizing the works. The B., starting from the n.e. point to the isle, stretches nearly due n. for more than 2 m., with one or two intervening openings for the ingress and egress of shipping. The works were conducted more easily than those of any other great B.; for the isle contains an abundance of stone easily quarried, and the steep shores afforded facility for transporting the stones by their own gravity to their destination. The work-which is an upright ashlar superstructure, with a parapet founded on a mound of rubble stones-was done chiefly by convict labor; the depth is about 50 ft. at low-water. From the nature of the operation, any part of the B. became useful as soon as constructed, increasing the safety of Portland bay as a harbor of refuge.

Dover B. progresses slowly, and has involved an enormous outlay. There is no stone near to form a mound, as in the other breakwaters spoken of, and, in consequence, the work requires to be brought up in solid ashlar from the bottom by the diving-bell, with the interior formed of blocks of concrete. It has never been clearly stated whether the government regards this B. as a protection to a great naval station and fortified harbor, or as a chief feature as a harbor of refuge for commercial fleets. In 1844, a commission of inquiry recommended that £2,500,000 should be laid out in forming a harbor of refuge at this place. In 30 years the work has not been finished, the great depth and frequent storms constituting terrible obstacles. The water is very deep-viz., 42 ft. at low-water; the

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