STONE FLOUR. 
161 
ART. XXVII. — NOTE ON THE STONY SUBSTANCE USED IN 
CHINA IN TIMES OF FAMINE, UNDER THE NAME OF 
FLOUR OF STONE. By M. Biot. 
The details communicated to the Academy, by M. de Hum- 
boldt, on the existence of a stony substance which is some- 
times used in Laponia in the times of scarcity, has called to 
mind a similar fact, an account of which has recently arrived 
from China, and is reported in the Missionary Correspond- 
ence. My son having also found the same fact attested for 
many ages in the Japanese Encyclopedia, with the dates an- 
nexed, I have engaged him to translate the passages which are 
there reported ; and I think that the Academy will be inte- 
rested in the collection of the documents on a practice which 
is in reality more extensive than has been believed. 
" The Japanese Encyclopedia, book 61, relative to stones 
and minerals, contains an article entitled Chimien, or stone 
flour. The following is the translation, in which will be 
found the same superstitious ideas as those given by Humboldt 
for Laponia." 
The Pen-tsao-kang-mon* says, " Stone flour is not an or- 
dinary production ; it is a miraculous substance. Some say 
that it grows in times of famine. Under the Emperor Hien- 
Tsong, of the dynasty of Tang, in the period Tien-pao, third 
* This is a collection of Chinese natural history, compiled towards the year 
1575 of the Christian era, from the most ancient works. M. S. Julienhas 
exhibited to my son the copy of the Pen-tsao-kang-mon, which he has ; 
the quotation made in the Japanese Encyclopedia has been verified with 
the original text, and found to be exact. This text gives, besides, the 
names of the districts where the stone flour is found. Many form part of 
the northern province of Chan-si, where the cold of winter is often very 
intense; others appertain to the maratime provinces of Chan-long, 
Kian-Nan, near the mouth of the Yellow river, where inundations are fre- 
quent. The provinces of Hon-Kouang and of Kiang-Si, for which the mis- 
sionaries attest the same fact, are different from these, and are situated in 
the valley of the Blue river. 
vol. vi. — no. n. 21 
