Bread-fruit.

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. Some years ago it was suggested, that as the bran contained more nitrogenized matter than the flour, the whole meal must be more nutritious than the finer flour alone. But that opinion is now considerably modified; for while it is true that the whole meal (bran and fine flour) contains chemically more nutritive matter than the fine flour alone, yet the gritty parti cles 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. This explains why brown B. possesses laxative properties, and why laborers fed on it consider that it makes them hungry soon again; they feel that it does not last in the stomach, and consequently think it has little nourishment in it.

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 remembered, however, that the addition of any substance of a nature foreign to the composition of any material is an adulteration (see next article); 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, but it is not employed in this country. All such admixtures are destructive of the nutritive value of a certain part of the B., and are injurious to the animal system. For the nutritive qualities of B. see NUTRITION and FOOD, and for biscuit-bread, see BISCUIT.

The law on the subject of bread, so far as relates to England and Scotland, is regulated by a local act for London, the 3 Geo. IV. c. 106, the provisions of which are imitated by a general act for the country, the 6 and 7 Will. IV. c. 37. These provisions are as follow: B. may be made of flour or meal of wheat, barley, rye, oats, buckwheat, Indian corn, pease, beans, rice, or potatoes, or any of them, or with any common salt, pure water, eggs, milk, barm, leaven, potato or other yeast, and mixed in such proportions as bakers may think fit, and with no other ingredient or matter whatsoever; and with the exception of French or fancy B. and rolls, the B. so made must be sold by weight, and in no other manner. It has been settled by many recent cases that bakers must weigh the bread before selling it, whether asked by the customer or not to do so. For this purpose, they must provide in their shops, on or near the counter, a beam and scales, with proper weights, or other sufficient balance, in order that the same may be weighed in the presence of purchasers-a regulation that also applies to delivery of B. by cart or other conveyance; it being directed that the scales and weights shall be constantly carried in the cart or other conveyance, under a penalty, in either case, not exceeding £5. From this regulation, however, fancy B., or French B., or rolls, are also excepted. The act further provides that B. made of mixed meal or flour-that is, B. made wholly or partially of pease, or beans, or potatoes, or of any sort of corn or grain other than wheat-shall be marked with the large Roman letter " M," under a penalty, in case this rule be neglected, of a sum not exceeding 10s. for every pound-weight of such mixed B. sold, and so on in proportion for any less quantity. From this regula tion, however, is excepted B. made of the meal or flour of wheat, in the making of which potato-yeast shall be used.

The following are the enactments against the adulteration of B.: 1. No baker shall, in the making of B. for sale, use any mixture or ingredient whatsoever other than those above mentioned, under a penalty for every offense not exceeding £10, nor less than £5, with the alternative of imprisonment, with or without hard labor, for any time not exceeding six calendar months; and the offender's name, place of abode, and offense may be published in the local newspapers. 2. Any person adulterating corn-meal or

Bread-fruit.

flour, by the introduction of any ingredient not being the real produce of the corn or grain; or any person selling meal or flour of one sort of corn or grain as the meal or flour of another sort, whether separate or mixed, shall forfeit and pay, according to the discretion of the magistrate or justice, a sum not exceeding £20, nor less than £5. 3. Magistrates or justices of the peace, and also peace-officers authorized by warrant, may, at seasonable times in the daytime, enter a baker's premises, and search for adulterated flour or B.; and if any be found, the same may be seized, and carried with all convenient speed to the nearest resident magistrate or justice of the peace, to be disposed of as he may think proper, the penalties varying from £2 to £10, with alternative imprisonment for six months; the offenders' names may also be published. Parties obstructing such search of bakers' premises, or upon the occasion of the search, carrying away the adulterated flour or B., are liable to a penalty not exceeding £10. Should it, however, appear that any offense against the act shall have been occasioned by the willful act or the neglect of the baker's journeyman or other servant, the magistrate may issue his warrant for bringing such servant before him, and, on conviction, may adjudge him to pay a reasonable sum to his master, by way of recompense. The adulteration of food act gives a more efficient mode of prosecuting these offenses, and exposing them, when detected.

The act further provides that bakers shall not bake bread, rolls, or cakes, on the Lord's day; or, on any part of that day, after half-past one o'clock in the afternoon, sell such bread, rolls, or cakes; or bake meat, pies, or other victuals; or in any other manner exercise the trade of a baker, save and except so far as may be necessary by way of preparation for the following day's baking. For a first offense against this regulation, a penalty of 108. shall be paid; for a second offense, 20s.; and for a third and every subsequent offense, respectively, the penalty of 408., together with the costs of prosecution, a portion of the penalty to be paid to the prosecutor, and the residue to be applied towards the poor-rate of the place. This regulation as to Sundays does not extend to Scotland.

The law of Ireland on the subject of this article is contained in several acts of the Irish parliament, the leading provisions of which are similar to the above.

BREAD, ARMY. In camps and in barracks of any size, the bread for the army is baked on the spot by bakers of the supply sub-department of control organization. Though perhaps a little rough in its manufacture, the article supplied is made from the best ingredients, and is genuine and wholesome. On a march, the control bakeries supply bread at the several halting-places. In smaller barracks, bread has to be obtained by contract, but the most vigorous supervision is exercised to secure proper quality. Formerly, army bread was notoriously bad. A contractor would sometimes send in a tender so low, in order to obtain the contract, that he could not possibly make good bread at a profit; and then he relied on small fees paid him by the soldiers as a means of obtaining better. This discreditable state of things was ascertained by a committee of inquiry some years ago; it was found that the average of army bread was not equal in quality to that of work-house bread. Steps were forthwith taken to remedy the evil; experiments were made to determine whether troops could bake their own bread in the field, and the result was the adoption of the present system of army baking. With the improvement of the bread, a visible amelioration in the health of the soldiers has taken place.

BREAD-FRUIT TREE, Artocarpus incisa, a tree of the natural order artocarpacea (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

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-iruit 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 lying a short distance under the surface of the sea. They cover that particular part of

"Breakers

the sea with a foam, and produce a hoarse and often terrible roaring. 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 soild 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

U. K. III.-2

Breast-summer.

accumulations of shingle very troublesome; and several years must elapse before it can be made evident whether the Dover B. is worth the national money expended upon it. Alderney B. is a great work, consisting of ashlar walls and parapet, built on a stone mound up to low-water from a depth of 72 feet. Small breakwaters have been constructed at Cette near Marseilles, at the mouth of the Delaware in the United States, and at Buffalo in lake Erie; but they do not call for description.

Cherbourg B. is the greatest and the most costly ever constructed. Nearly 100 years ago, M. de Cessart proposed to the French government the formation of a B. at Cherbourg, to be commenced by the construction of a number of hollow cones formed of timber-framing, sunk in a line as close as they could be placed to each other, and then filled with stones. These cones, of which there were to be 64, each about 70 ft. high, 150 ft. in diameter at the base, and 60 ft. at the top, were intended to form a nucleus to the stone breakwater, to prevent the stones, during its formation, being knocked about and too much spread out by the action of the waves. In 1784 to 1788, 16 cones were constructed, and 13 of them sunk; but so great was the destruction which they underwent during stormy weather, that the government at length abandoned the plan, and carried on the stone breakwater without the aid of the cones. It was completed under Napoleon III. at a cost exceeding £2,500,000. The B. itself was finished in 1853, but since that year large fortifications have been built upon the upper works. The length is nearly 24 m.; the B. is 300 ft. wide at the bottom, and 31 at the top. The chief mass consists of rubble or unshaped stones, thrown down from ships; but there is a larger ratio of wrought and finished masonry than in the Plymouth B., consisting of granite blocks imbedded in cement. The depth of water is about 60 ft. at low-water spring-tides; and the B. rises to 12 ft. above high-water level. The water-space included within and protected by the B., is about 2000 acres, but two thirds of this has scarcely depth enough for the largest-sized ships. The relation which this B. bears to the vast military and naval arrangements of the place will be noticed under CHERBOURG.

Many substitutes have been proposed for solid breakwaters, such as floating breakwaters constructed of timber framework, open iron screens, etc., but none of them have been shown to be suitable for actual practice. Close timber-work, filled in with stones, is found to be quite efficacious; but on most of our coasts the timber is liable to be eaten by the marine worm, which is an almost insuperable objection to its being used under water.

BREAKWATER (ante). In the United States the only important work of the kind is at Lewes, Del., at the entrance of Delaware bay. A breakwater was resolved upon in 1828, and the next year the site was fixed at cape Henlopen. In 1870, the engineer reported the completion of the harbor "according to the original project devised more than 40 years ago." In the year after the completion, more than 20,000 vessels visited the harbor, and since its first use in 1833, about 300,000 vessels of all sorts have sought shelter or trade behind the Delaware breakwater. A recent report says: "Let a threatening sky foretell the approaching storm, and a few hours will suffice to fill a previously vacant harbor. Let a north-easterly storm continue a day or two with severity, and the harbor becomes crowded entirely beyond its capacity." Its present capacity is determined by the space that is sheltered by the B. proper. This is a straight line nearly half a mile long, and may be taken as the diameter of a half circle behind it, the area of which will represent approximately the sheltered harbor. North-east of the B. is the icebreaker structure, a quarter of a mile in length, with an opening of about the same extent, through which the sea rolls without hindrance. Within the past five or six years this important work has been much extended and improved. It is altogether of stone, in rubble-wall and more finished work. There are finished or in construction several B.'s in the northern lakes, for the most part made of timber cribs filled with stone.

BREAM, a name which is apt to occasion some confusion to beginners in ichthyology, being applied equally to certain fresh-water fishes of the family cyprinidæ (q.v.), and to certain sea-fishies of the families sparida (q. v.) and chaetodontida (q.v.) or squamipennes, among which the resemblance is a mere general one of outward form, the first of these families belonging to the order of malacopterous, or soft-finned, the other two to that of acanthopterous, or spiny-finned fishes.

The breams of the family cyprinide were included in the genus cyprinus (see CARP) by the older naturalists, but are readily distinguished from that genus as now defined, and from other allied genera, by their deep and compressed form, by the great convexity of both the dorsal and the abdominal outline, by the want of spiny rays in the dorsal and anal fins, by the great length of the base of the anal fin, and by the want of cirri or barbules at the mouth. They form the genus Abramis of Cuvier.-The COMMON B., or CARP B. (A. brama), is an inhabitant of many rivers and lakes of Europe, even as far n. as Norway and Sweden, and of some of those of Britain and Ireland. It thrives best in still waters, and in some of the Irish lakes attains a large size; it has been known to reach 12 or even 14 lbs. The tail is very broad and much forked, the head small and acuminated, the eyes very large, the scales small, the general color yellowish-brown, the cheeks and gill-covers silvery-white.-The WHITE B., or BREAMFLAT (A. blicca), differs from the common B. in its silvery color, the smaller number of rays in the pectoral and anal fins, and other particulars. It has never been taken of so large a size. It is