EARTH-EATING AND THE EARTH-EATING HABIT IN INDIA. 267 



occasion, been given as a cause or excuse for the clay-eating habit. Some regard it as a 

 comforting and stimulating agent, others believe that it relieves acidity and heartburn 

 attending pregnancy, others look upon it as a relief or cure for monthly sickness. Ow- 

 ing to the unfounded supposition that it contains salts of alkalis and alkaline earths, clay 

 is said to be useful in gastritis and pregnancy where these salts are generally wanting in 

 the blood. In children and pregnant women there is a call on the tissues for excessive 

 bone formation, and during these periods this produces an inordinate desire for calcare- 

 ous mineral diet. As will be seen from our analyses of these earths, there is no evidence 

 of the presence of free alkalis and alkaline earths (except lime in a very few cases), and 

 hence any medicinal effect of the character suggested is extremely improbable. 



In Baluchistan, earth-eating is supposed to render confinement easier, and in Las 

 Bela it is considered to absorb the fluids during pregnancy which, at other periods, are 

 discharged from the body. This, however, does not seem to be the general opinion, and 

 far from assisting confinement, it makes it more laborious owing to the absorption of the 

 fluids which ordinarily render childbirth easy. 



Whatever real benefit may be derived from eating small quantities of clays and 

 earth, it is a fact that the remedy often becomes a confirmed habit as we have previously 

 described, and from small doses excessive amounts are taken which can only have one 

 result — premature death. 



In order to make this part of the subject complete, a few references are made to the 

 use of clay in Eastern Materia Medica, and a few selections are given from some recent 

 numbers of the British Medical Journal on the use of clay in European practice. 



In Bhagvat Singhjee's J work of Indian medicine the following remarks occur. On 

 page 134: " The minerals used in medicine by the Hindus include metals, rasas, salt, 

 precious stones, clay, etc." And again on page 136 : " Certain kinds of sand and clay 

 are in common use as healing agents such as khatika (calcium carbonate), kardama 

 (hydrous silicate of alumina), gopichandana (silicate of alumina) sikata (silica), etc." 



Irvine says, 2 " Multani mitti, a kind of light yellow ochre, is taken in dyspepsia in 

 doses from 5 to 30 grains." 



Sakharam Arjun 3 enumerates the following medicinal clays: — 



Silicate of Alumina — Gopichandana Marathi, Panisoka, Marathi. — These are varieties 

 of clay. The former is used as a cooling application in headache and to inflamed 

 parts, and the latter from its absorbent properties to dry wounds and ulcers, on the 

 erroneous supposition that drying promotes the healing of wounds. 



Silicate of Alumina with Lime and Iron — Sang-i-Basri, Persian. — This is generally 

 imported from Bassorah and the Persian Gulf, as its name implies. It is used in tonic 

 preparations, and in irregular menses, and with benefit from the iron it contains. 



Silicate of Alumina — Porous. Mulatani matti, Hindi, — It is eaten by pregnant 

 females to relieve acidity of the stomach, and is given mixed with sugar in cases of 

 leucorrhoea. 



Dr. Ferojdin Mohroof informs us that Multani mitti is eaten in Delhi for chronic 



1 A Short History of Aryan Medical Science, 1896. 2 Materia Medica of Patna, p. 66. 3 Bombay Drugs, p. 166. 



