diff --git a/math.go b/math.go
index 000a2e4..f247964 100644
--- a/math.go
+++ b/math.go
@@ -260,17 +260,6 @@ func (e *Engine) renderMathResolvingMacros(r *texmath.Renderer, src string, disp
 			continue
 		}
 		next, ok := e.expandMacroInMathSource(src, name)
-		if ok {
-			// The body just spliced in is TeX, not maths: a class's \the@inst is
-			// \number\c@inst, an affiliation mark is an \@for loop over \expandafter
-			// and \edef. Those primitives are the ENGINE's to run, and the maths layer
-			// can only refuse them. Run the substituted material through the gullet —
-			// bounded to what was spliced, and unable to read past it since an isolated
-			// expansion stops at its own sentinel.
-			if flat := e.toksToString(e.expandList(tokenizeTeX(next))); flat != "" {
-				next = flat
-			}
-		}
 		if !ok {
 			// Colour commands (\color, \textcolor, …) are primitives go-tex/math
 			// cannot render. Strip them from the source — keeping any content
@@ -338,7 +327,7 @@ func (e *Engine) expandMacroInMathSource(src, name string) (string, bool) {
 		return "", false
 	}
 	if len(m.params) == 0 {
-		return replaceMathCS(src, name, e.toksToString(m.body)), true
+		return replaceMathCS(src, name, e.flattenMathBody(e.toksToString(m.body))), true
 	}
 	needle := "\\" + name + " "
 	n := len(m.params)
@@ -362,7 +351,7 @@ func (e *Engine) expandMacroInMathSource(src, name string) (string, bool) {
 			src = rest
 			continue
 		}
-		out.WriteString(e.substituteMathBody(m.body, args))
+		out.WriteString(e.flattenMathBody(e.substituteMathBody(m.body, args)))
 		src = rest[consumed:]
 		changed = true
 	}
@@ -971,6 +960,37 @@ func (e *Engine) substituteMathBody(body []tok, args []string) string {
 	return b.String()
 }
 
+// flattenMathBody runs a substituted macro body through the gullet, as \edef would.
+// A class's body is TeX, not maths — \the@inst is \number\c@inst, an author's mark
+// is an \@for loop over \expandafter and \edef — and the maths layer can only refuse
+// those primitives, which costs the whole formula.
+//
+// Only the body just substituted goes through, never the surrounding source: the
+// source holds commands the maths layer renders itself, and the engine's text-mode
+// stand-ins for them would win. \cdot is \char183 here (latex.go) and \begin is
+//
+//	\def\begin#1{\gotex@checkenv{#1}\csname #1\endcsname}
+//
+// so flattening the whole source turned every \cdot into \char and every
+// \begin{bmatrix} into \bmatrix — 935 dropped formulas over 45 papers for the first,
+// 676 over 42 for the second, and one paper typeset its matrices as text, 411251
+// glyphs on seven pages.
+//
+// \begin and \end are still marked \noexpand inside the body itself, where the same
+// reasoning applies to a macro that wraps an environment.
+func (e *Engine) flattenMathBody(body string) string {
+	ts := tokenizeTeX(body)
+	for i, t := range ts {
+		if t.cs_ && (t.cs == "begin" || t.cs == "end") {
+			ts[i].noexp = true
+		}
+	}
+	if flat := e.toksToString(e.expandList(ts)); flat != "" {
+		return flat
+	}
+	return body
+}
+
 // unknownMathCommand extracts the command name X from a go-tex/math "unknown command
 // \X" error, or "" when the message is a different failure. The name runs over letters
 // and @ (a LaTeX-internal control word), matching a TeX control-word token.
diff --git a/mathprotectbegin_test.go b/mathprotectbegin_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..85bd25a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/mathprotectbegin_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,33 @@
+// Copyright (c) the go-tex/engine authors.
+// SPDX-License-Identifier: BSD-3-Clause
+
+package engine
+
+import "testing"
+
+// A substituted macro body is flattened through the gullet (#179) — but \begin and
+// \end are macros here:
+//
+//	\def\begin#1{\gotex@checkenv{#1}\csname #1\endcsname}
+//
+// so expanding them turns \begin{bmatrix} into \bmatrix, a control sequence the
+// maths layer has never heard of, where the environment it wrote is one it renders.
+// A paper's own \newcommand{\mymat}[2]{\begin{bmatrix}#1\\#2\end{bmatrix}} lost every
+// formula that used it; over the corpus, bmatrix, pmatrix, cases, aligned, split and
+// array accounted for 676 fresh drops in 42 papers.
+func TestMathKeepsAnEnvironmentInsideAMacro(t *testing.T) {
+	for _, c := range []struct{ nom, def, math string }{
+		{"bmatrix", `\newcommand{\mymat}[2]{\begin{bmatrix}#1\\#2\end{bmatrix}}`, `A=\mymat{a}{b}`},
+		{"cases", `\newcommand{\mycase}[1]{\begin{cases}#1 & x>0\end{cases}}`, `f=\mycase{1}`},
+		{"array", `\newcommand{\myarr}[1]{\begin{array}{c}#1\end{array}}`, `M=\myarr{z}`},
+	} {
+		e, err := compile([]byte(`\documentclass{article}\usepackage{amsmath}`+c.def+
+			`\begin{document}$`+c.math+`$\end{document}`), Options{Lenient: true})
+		if err != nil {
+			t.Fatalf("%s: %v", c.nom, err)
+		}
+		if len(e.mathDropped) != 0 {
+			t.Errorf("%s: la couche maths a refusé la formule (%v)", c.nom, e.mathDropped)
+		}
+	}
+}