256 CHINESE MATERIA MEDIC A. 



disease, and alcoholism. The flowers are included among the 

 drugs liaviiig the reputation of dissolving bone and metals 

 lodged in the throat. 



MALT. — ^ ^ (Nieh-mi). The grains of ordinary millet, 

 spiked millet, glutinous millet, rice, barley, nacked barley, 

 beans, and wheat are all malted by the Chinese. The grain is 

 moistened and left to sprout, and when this process has gone 

 on a sufficient length of time, it is dried in the sun, the sprouts 

 are rubbed off, and the grain is ground into flour for making 

 into cakes or bread. The malted millet is called H ^ (Su- 

 nieh) or |S| ^ (Su-3'a), and is considered to be cooling, carmina- 

 tive, and stomachic. Mixed with fat and applied to the face, 

 it makes the skin soft and glossy. Malted rice is called ^ || 

 (Tao-nieh) or ^ ^ (Ku-ya), and is considered to be peptic, 

 carminative, regulating, and constructive. The nacked barley 

 is the kind of barley usually malted, and this is called ^ ^ ^ 

 (Kung-mai-nieh) or ^ ^ (Mai-ya), and is considered to be 

 peptic, warming, stomachic, and abortifacient. It is prescribed 

 in cholera, as well as in intestinal indigestion due to over- 

 eating. It is also used in post-partum difficulties and to 

 suppress the secretion of milk in women whose children have 

 died at or after birth. Other kinds of malt or sprouted grain 

 are found, but their general uses do not diSer from those given. 



MALVA. — The character ^ (K'uei) is applied to very 

 many malvaceous plants and to several others. Abutillofi^ 

 Althea^ Anemone^ Basella^ Eranlhis^ Heliattthiis^ Hibiscus^ 

 Malva^ Qiantlie^ and Pcucedamim all find it used as a dis- 

 tinguishing term for one or more species ; for this reason it is 

 sometimes difficult to distinguish between plants of these differ- 

 ent genera. |^ ^ (Chin-k'uei) seems to be regarded by most 

 observers as Malva sylvestris. Malva vej'iicillata or Malva 

 pulchclla is assigned to ^ ^ (Tung-k'uei). Ford and Crow 

 called ^ H ■? (Tung-k'uei-tzu), 1395, at Yioxi%Vow% Abiitilloji 

 indiaim^ but in the north this term seems to refer to a malva. 

 Faber makes Malva verticillata to be 3^ H (T'ien-k'uei), but 

 the Pentsao gives this as a synonym of ^ H (T'u-k'uei), which 

 in Japan is Anemone or Eranthis. Li Shih-cheu says : " In 



