124 Account of the Javancfe Swallow, 



rocks and the violence of the furf, and therefore a fufpended 

 apparatus made of bamboos mud be employed. 



About 3500 pounds weight of thefe nefts are collected 

 every year in the ifland of Java. 



There are bird caverns alfo in Bantam and the ifland of 

 Sumatra ; but the inhabitants of the former are fo indolent, 

 and the government fo bad, that rice even is not fown, nor 

 is any other article neceflary for the fupport of life culti- 

 vated. The Chinefe hiave never ventured to penetrate into 

 the interior part of that kingdom, and have no intercourfe 

 with the mountaineers ; fo that little can be expected from 

 that quarter. 



The young birds are eaten both by the Javancfe and the 

 Europeans in India, but it is difficult to procure them. 

 They are confidered to be very heating. The nefts, on the 

 other hand, when thev have been boiled to a flimy kind of 

 fonp, expofed in the night-time to the dew, and been mixed 

 with fugar, are exceedingly cooling. The Javancfe employ 

 them therefore, with much advantage, in violent fevers. 

 The author of this paper faw alfo that, when prepared as 

 above, they were prefcribed with good (uccefs for fore throats 

 and hoarfenefs. This remedy, in all probability, has been 

 borrowed from the Chinefe, who, as a rich merchant of that 

 nation who carried on a great trade with thefe nefts affiired 

 the author, eat abundance of them during the winter, be- 

 caufe fore throats are then very common in the northern 

 part of that extenfive kingdom, on account of people fitting 

 fo much over the fire. 



But this nouriihing and ftrengthening quality, fo much A 

 extolled, the author was not able to difcover, though he ufed 

 a confiderable number of thefe nefts, prepared different 

 ways, in order to be convinced of the truth. He caufed 

 them to be examined by able chemifts ; but nothing more 

 could be obferved, than that the foliation prefented a weak 



