TERRA Japonica, or Japan Earth, improperly so called; being neither an earth nor the produce of Japan; but an inspissated vegetable juice, prepared in the East Indies from the fruit, as is supposed, of the areca palm-tree. It is dry and pulverable, outwardly of a reddish colour, inwardly of a shining dark brown, almost black, with some cast of red. When pure, it dissolves totally in water, and almost totally in rectified spirit; as we usually meet with it, a considerable quantity of sandy matter is left by both these menstrua. This medicine is a mild astringent, and frequently employed as such in alvine fluxes, uterine profluvia, in laxity and debility of the viscera in general, and in coughs proceeding from thin aerid defluxions. Its taste is more agreeable than that of most other substances of this class; chewed for some time, it leaves a sweetness in the mouth. The troches and tincture kept in the shops are very elegant preparations of it.