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symptoms and methods of treatment, and an article b}- Dr. Brcxjke on 

 the Soy bean, giving its analysis and uses. The Soy bean has recent- 

 ly leaped into popularity in Europe on account of its now recognised 

 nutritive properties. Dr. Brooke gives the following list of useful 

 things that can be made from it : Bean curd, a nutritious jelly used by 

 the Chinese 2,000 years ago ; Bean milk, which can be used as cow's 

 milk; Bean eheese, 3. v^qW known local comestible; Bean flour, for 

 soup or making biscuits; Bean oil, edible or for candies or soup; 

 Bean cake, for cattle food ; Bean vinegar, and Soy, and Bean Coffee by 

 roasting and grinding it. It is regrettable that the cultivation of this 

 useful plant seems to have failed in the Peninsula. 



Mr. Cowap gives also an account of the potable spirits sold in 

 Singapore. There are other medical notes and papers making quite 

 an important contribution to our local knowledge of medicine and 

 hygiene. -Ed. 



"THE RUBBER COUNTRY OF AMAZON" REVIEW. 



Mr. H. C. Pearson, the well known Editor of the "India Rubber 

 World," has brought out in book form the account of his journey up 

 the Amazons to study the rubber industry as carried out in the Ama- 

 zon Valle}^ The book is not only a pleasant and amusing account 

 of his adventures, written in a truly American style, but contains a 

 good deal of information on the area in which Hevea is found, the 

 methods of collecting, preparation,a nd shipment. 



Though much of the rubber exported from this region is from 

 wild trees, the idea of planting has taken hold of the minds of many 

 and this idea will probably spread. The Government of Para passed 

 laws for the encouragement of rubber planting, which included a 

 premium for the trees actually planted, free distribution of seeds, a 

 reduction of 50 per cent, on the export duty for ten years and 30 per 

 cent, for the next ten years. Arrangements were also made for 

 Government loans, and as a set off an order that a company must 

 maintain a school for twenty orphans and teach them tropical agri- 

 culture ! These laws, with the exception of the last, might really put 

 the industry on a sound footing, but, as Mr. Pearson points out, Brazi- 

 lian Governors only last for four years and Governor B. might so 

 interpret them that they might entirely upset the system carried 

 out by the previous Governor A. Everyone who knows anything of 

 South American ideas of government will admit that this kind of 

 check on progress is more probable than not. Still there are signs that 

 the Government intends to foster the industry, although it does not 

 seem clearly to understand how to do it, and a rationally governed 

 country has a considerable advantage in progressive agriculture over 

 one that is ill-administered. 



