WAFER  , a thin

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