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symptoms and methods of treatment, and an article by Dr. Brooke 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 nutritions jelly used by 
the Chinese 2,000 years ago ; Bean milk , which can be used as cow’s 
milk ; Bean cheese , a well known local comestible ; Bean flour for 
soup or making biscuits; Bean oil , edible or for candles 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 
Singapoie. ^ 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 Valley. 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. 
