My colleague, Prof. Rucker,
F.R.S., has kindly undertaken to re-examine the results arrived at by
Brewster in the light of more recent physical investigations, and I doubt
not that some of the curious problems suggested by this very remarkable
substance may ere long find a solution.
JOHN W. JUDD.
* * * * *
THE EDIBLE EARTH OF JAVA.
In 1883 Mr. Hekmeyer, pharmaceutist in chief of the Dutch Indies,
exhibited at Amsterdam some specimens of Javanese edible earth, both in a
natural state and in the form of various natural objects. A portion of
this collection he has placed at our disposal, and has given us some
information regarding its nature, use, etc.
These clays, which are eaten not only in Java, but also in Sumatra, New
Caledonia, Siberia, Guiana, Terra del Fuego, etc., are essentially
composed of silex, alumina, and water in variable proportions, and are
colored with various metallic oxides. They are in amorphous masses, are
unctuous to the touch, stick to the tongue, and form a fine, smooth paste
with water. The natives of Java and Sumatra prepare them in a peculiar
way. They free them of foreign substances, spread them out in thin
sheets, which they cut into small pieces and parch in an iron saucepan
over a coal fire.
Each of these little cakes, when shrunken up into a little roll, looks
somewhat like a grayish or reddish fragment of cinnamon bark.
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