438 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 



article of food until within the past few years, and even now, with the great mass 

 of the people, meat is seldom used. Thus for centuries, these people have lived 

 almost wholly without that which western people consider so important a source 

 of nitrogen. It seems, however, that the demands of Nature were recognized 

 and met by obtaining from the vegetable kingdom what they failed to secure from 

 the animal, and thus it is we find them consuming enormous quantities of beans 

 prepared in a great variety of ways. Some of the important preparations from 

 beans are cheese, or tofu — a white, curdy mass strongly resembling cottage cheese, 

 unflavored with salt and held in high estimation. It is prepared in a variety of 

 of ways, but almost invariably forms a part of every meal as a constituent of soup : 

 Cake — a stiff, jelly-like confection made by straining boiled beans and incorporat- 

 ing 'with a large proportion of sugar. Pickles — beans in the pod and frequently 

 oh the stem, pickled in a strong brine ; they are eaten without further prepara- 

 tion. Sugared Beans — roasted beans enveloped in a heavy coating of sugar and 

 sold as a confection. Shoyu, or Soy — a liquid of dark color and salty flavor, 

 made by fermenting a mixture of salt, beans and roasted wheat or barley. It is 

 largely eaten with fish and rice. There are other modes of preparation which 

 we will pass over with the exception of Meiso, which forms the subject of this 

 article. 



The pasty mass manufactured and sold under this name, constitutes one of 

 the most important of the preparations from beans, and enters largely into the 

 diet of all clases as a basis for soup, or, in various forms, as a sauce for fish and 

 meat. In composition it consists of 



Salt 4.5 to=2.3o bushels. 



White Beans i koku=5.i3 " 



Rice 4 to^2.o5 " 



Salt. — The salt employed is of a very crude sort. It is obtained from sea 

 water by evaporation under the influence of solar heat, and as no attempts are 

 made to secure any special degree of purity, it is consequently contaminated with 

 other salts and its specific value thereby lessened. Sticks, straw — especially from 

 the coarse bags in which it is transported — and dirt are also always to be found, 

 and as no efforts to cleanse or purify, beyond removal of the larger fragments of 

 straw, etc., are made at the factory, the product into which such salt enters has 

 a rather uninviting appearance. It is always used dry. 



Beans. — The ordinary white beans appear to be used in preference to any 

 others. They are prepared by boihng for about six hours, when the fire is drawn 

 and they are allowed to cool in the boiler. The next morning they are removed 

 from the boiler and placed in mash boxes which measure 10x3x1 feet, where they 

 are thoroughly reduced and mixed with the rice and salt by means of a round 

 pole used as a pestle. 



Rice. — White rice, or that which has been well cleaned, is soaked in cold 

 water for two days. It is then well drained and transferred to a boiler containing 

 fresh water, when it is steamed for three hours. While yet hot, it is taken to a 



