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WAFER

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Originally appearing in Volume V28, Page 229 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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WAFER , a thin See also:

flat cake or See also:sheet of See also:paste, usually circular in shape. The derivation of the word, which is the same as " waffle," a See also:batter-cake cooked in waffle-irons and served hot, is given under " See also:Goffer," which is adapted from the See also:French See also:form of the See also:Teutonic See also:original. As articles of See also:stationery, wafers consist of thin brittle, adhesive disks, used for securing papers together, and for forming a basis for impressed See also:official See also:seals. They are made of a thin paste of very See also:fine See also:flour, baked between " wafer irons " over a See also:charcoal See also:fire till the thin stratum of paste becomes dry and brittle and the flour See also:starch is partly transformed into glutinous adhesive dextrin. The cake is cut into See also:round disks with suitable See also:steel punches. See also:Bright non-poisonous colouring See also:matter is added to the paste for making coloured wafers. They are also made of See also:gelatin. Wafers of dry paste are used in medical practice to enclose powders or other forms of drugs, thus rendering them easy to See also:swallow. In ecclesiastical usage the See also:term " wafer " is applied to the thin circular disk of unleavened See also:bread, stamped with a See also:cross, the letters I.H.S. or the Agnus Dei, which is the form of the consecrated bread as used in the service of the See also:Eucharist by the See also:Roman See also:Catholic See also:Church.

End of Article: WAFER

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