VEGETABLE KINGDOM. 445 



foreign pattern have been established in China, and the flour 

 from these, together with that imported from abroad, is 

 rapidly taking the place of the old style flour. Aside from the 

 nutritious properties of this article, a raw paste is used in fevers 

 and sunstroke, and is also used as a poultice in ecchymoses, 

 and internally in epistaxis and hemoptysis. A variety of other 

 difficulties are also treated with flour or its paste, but are of no 

 special interest, since the virtues ascribed are mostly imaginary. 



Bread.— >^{ ^ (Cheng-ping), || |i| (Man-tou), fi^ ^ 

 (Mien-pao), |^ |^ (Mo-mo). Much more appears to be known 

 of Trans-himalayan customs and manners by the Chinese than 

 most persons suppose, as many habits known to, or practiced by 

 them, in former times, in common with Indo-aryan or Turanian 

 races, have dropped out of use and memory. Many words 

 have been coined by those too willing for the task, who might 

 have searched and found out that the Chinese language at least 

 knew of such things. The use ot wheaten bread is very 

 ancient and much more general than is supposed by most 

 persons. Bread pills are an old remedy with Chinese doctors. 

 Stale bread is looked upon as very digestible. Bread is raised 

 by means of leaven, native soda, or pearl ash, the small loaves 

 or cakes being steamed in a very simple and ingenious way 

 described in Lockhart's "Medical Missionary in China." 

 Bread and pastry are consumed as the staple article of diet in 

 Honan, Shensi, Shansi, and Shantung. A kind of fancy 

 bread, shaped like a top, is made in Tien-men-hsien, Hupeh. 

 The Mohammedans are the best confectioners. The Chinese do 

 not use alum in their bread, and if made from the best quality 

 of their native flour, it is very wholesome. Mo-mo is a Honan 

 name for bread. Stale bread is recommended in the Penisao 

 in diarrhoea, chronic dysentery, leucorrhoea, menorrhagia, pro- 

 fuse sweats, and in serious injuries. Burnt bread is mixed 

 with oil and applied to burns and scalds. A remarkable case 

 of one of the Sung monarchs, in his infancy, having been 

 cured of incontinence of urine by the use of stale bread, garlic, 

 and beans, is quoted in the Pcntsao with approbation. 



Wheaten starch.— i§ |jj> (Mien- fen). Under this name, 

 often improperly applied to the flour of wheat, the Peti- 

 tsao gives the starch prepared from bran or flour by washino- 



