The Times of Monday gives a most curious account of
a substitute for meat made by the Japanese out of vegetable products. This, called "tofu," consists principally of the protein matter of the soya bean, and is said to be as easily digestible as beef. " It is freshly made every day, and is sold in thin tablets of snow-white colour, and of the con- sistency and taste of freshly precipitated caseine of milk. The name vegetable cheese,' proposed to be applied to it, is not justifiable, as there is no trace of bacterial action asso- ciated with its preparation." Another form, known as " kori- dofu," is prepared by exposing the fresh tofu tablets to the action of frost, with the result that they shrink and become more compact. " Tofn " certainly sounds a pretty and attractive food. It is curious to notice how experience has shown the Japanese what is proved by chemical and medical science, i.e., that a people whose staple food is rice must have in addition food rich in nitrogenous matters, or prottids,--+ the elements wanting in rice. The dwellers by the shore in Japan supply the deficiency by eating fish, but inland, vege- tables like the soya bean are used. Tofu is in fact a vegetable beef, though we doubt it being anything like as stimulating,' or as digestible, as the real flesh of the ox. We hope, how-' ever, that tofu will be introduced here. It would probably' be a cheap and useful form of food.
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