Amji0ne'i896frm"}  Tannins  of  Some  Ericacece.  313 
cipitate  would  re-dissolve.  Tofu  is  manufactured  only  on  a  small 
scale,  by  people  who  sell  it  in  their  own  shops. 
Kori  dofu  is  another  form  of  tofu,  made  by  exposing  the  tablets 
of  the  latter  to  the  action  of  frost,  whereby  they  shrink  consider- 
ably, lose  water  and  become  more  compact.  The  Chinese  prepara- 
tion, iao-hu,  is  similar  to,  or,  perhaps,  identical  with,  tofu.  Several 
other  preparations  of  soja  bean  are  known  in  India,  China  and  Japan, 
most  of  them  prepared,  no  doubt,  with  the  object  of  making  them 
more  digestible.  The  celebrated  shoyu  or  soy,  a  bean  sauce,  is  a 
product  said  to  be  made  from  soja  bean,  although  it  is  probable  that 
the  small  variety,  Phaseolus  radiatus,  is  used  for  this  purpose. 
Somewhere  about  the  year  1888  the  soja  bean  was  introduced 
into  the  United  States.  It  has  been  tried  in  a  number  of  State 
Experiment  Stations,  and  is  gradually  working  into  favor  in  the 
Southern  States.  In  Kansas  the  plant  has  been  found  to  withstand 
considerable  drought.  The  beans  are  planted  in  drills,  2^/2  to  3 
feet  apart,  and  1  y2  to  2  inches  apart  in  the  rows.  The  plant 
attains  a  height  of  3  to  4^  feet,  and  bears  the  short  pods  thickly 
on  the  bushy  plants.  As  soon  as  the  beans  commence  to  ripen,  the 
plants  are  cut  by  mowing,  and  then  threshed.  The  plant  is  valu- 
able for  forage  or  soiling.  The  beans  have  been  produced  in  South 
Carolina  to  the  amount  of  10  to  15  bushels  per  acre.  On  account 
of  their  richness  in  oil  they  have  been  used  as  a  substitute  for  cotton- 
seed meal  in  feeding  cattle,  with  very  satisfactory  results. 
The  plant  is  believed  to  have;  in  common  with  most  cultivated 
leguminosae,  the  power  of  obtaining  some  of  its  nitrogen  from  the 
air,  and  hence,  of  acting  as  a  soil  renovator. 
THE  TANNINS  OF  SOME  ERICACEAE. 
By  Bertha  h.  DeGraffe,  Ph.G. 
Contribution  from  the  Chemical  Laboratory  of  the  Philadelphia  College  of 
Pharmacy.   No.  154. 
It  is  a  well-known  fact  that  the  natural  order  Cupuliferse  affords 
both  of  the  kinds  of  tannin  which  are  now  conceded  to  exist.  This 
classification  of  the  numerous  tannins  is  derived  from  the  reasons 
that  the  qualitative  reactions  of  the  known  tannins  agree  in  the 
main  with  one  or  the  other  of  two  quite  constant  series  of  behaviors  ; 
that  among  their  decomposition  products  but  two  classes  of  well- 
