VEGETABLE KINGDOM. I 95 



vented. It is reputed to be beneficial to the internal organs, 

 inproving the breath, harmonizing the spleen and stomach, 

 removing flatulence, and expelling evil gases from the bowels. 

 Used warm it disperses subcutaneous hemorrhage. It is 

 prescribed in chronic dysentery, ophthalmia, swellings, and 

 drunkenness. 



Soy. — !§p (Chiang). Common names are ^ f^ (Chiang- 

 yu) and ^ fjj[j (Shih-yu). Li Shih-chen says that the Chinese 

 name indicates the power of this substance to counteract the 

 poison which may exist in food. Several forms of soy exist, 

 such as flour soy, made of wheat or barley flour ; sweet soy, of 

 similar composition, but varying slightly in the method of 

 manufacture ; and bean soy, made of various kinds of beans, 

 but more particularly of the Hispidia bean. One method of 

 manufacture is as follows : " Take of Hispidia beans three 

 quarts, and boil in water. Mix with twenty-four catties of 

 flour and allow to ferment. To every ten catties of the 

 mixture take of salt eight catties, of well water forty catties ; 

 mix and allow to stand until it is ripe.'* Several other 

 methods of manufacture are given in the Pintsao^ differing in 

 various respects from this, but the method here given will 

 sufiice to illustrate the mode of manufacture. Soy is a black, 

 thin liquid, having an agreeable saltish flavor, and frothing up 

 of a yellow color when even slightly shaken. It is the univer- 

 sal sauce of the Chinese and Japanese, and is largely exported 

 to India and Europe as a convenient menstruum for other 

 flavoring substances used as condiments. In China it is both 

 made in large quantities by shops and in smaller quantities by 

 domestic manufacture. It is considered to provoke the appetite 

 and to correct any injurious qualities of food. It is laxative, 

 cooling, and antidotal to various poisons, according to Chinese 

 estimation. It is often applied to burns, scalds, eczema, and 

 leprous sores. Its use is considered beneficial in threatened 

 abortion and the hematuria of pregnancy. Two other kinds 

 of soy are mentioned in the Pentsao^ both made from the seeds 

 of the elm (apparently of two different species). One is called 

 lit in '^ (Yu-jen-chiang) and the other ^ H ^ (Wu-i-chiang), 

 In regard to these two terms for elm, see the article on Ulmus. 

 Both these kinds of soy are considered to be laxative, diuretic, 



