Bread and Bread-Making (1889)
I found this thread on old baking books [1] and have been having fun reading through some of them. "Bread and Bread-Making [2]" by Sarah Rorer had some interesting information and views on baking bread.
Pg.17: She is definitely not a fan of Graham flour or bran classifying it as indigestible.
Pg.26: This chapter titled "Salt Rising" or Emptyings appears to address using wild yeast. She does not have a good opinion of this method of bread baking, mostly insinuating that it is a rather unsanitary method and a cause of indigestion.
Pg.30: In this section discussing baking temperature she believes it necessary to thoroughly kill the yeast in baking and that it isn't sufficiently killed until the internal temperature of the bread reaches past 200°F. If it doesn't reach this temperature, the bread is unwholesome. I also find it interesting that she recommends baking bread at what we would consider quite low temperatures. 280°F for bread cooked in a loaf pan (she calls them "square loaves") and a quick oven at 360°F for breads baked in a shallow French bread pans.
Pg.36: In the chapter titled Diseases of Bread she discusses mold and such, but interestingly she also discusses two different diseases that sounds like rope disease. The first one she blames it on either grain that was in poor condition before milling or the yeast. The second one she doesn't seem to have a reason for it.
The recipes were interesting, though, to me, the crumpets sounded more like english muffins and the english muffins seemed to be more like baked crumpets. And why anyone would want to dip their toast in boiling water is beyond me!