Clifton College Scientific Society. 43 



ingredients admired are cheap, we have no objection to supply 

 them, especially as coloured teas always fetch a higher price.' 



In England, teas are said to be sometimes mixed with the leaves 

 of the beech, elm, horse-chestnut, willow, poplar, hawthorn, and 

 sloe ; logwood being sometimes added to make the infusion of a 

 darker colour. 



A small quantity of tea was imported from Shanghai last year, 

 which was said to be mixed with leaf which had already been used 

 in China and refined. It certainly was very common stuff. A 

 great deal was written on the subject in the Times and other 

 papers, and questions on it asked in the Houses of Parliament. 

 In the end, however, the tea was sold at a very low price, and 

 shipped to the Continent, being so common that people would not 

 use it in this country. 



Let us now consider the physiological effects of tea. As is 

 known to all, tea exhilarates, without intoxicating. It excites the 

 brain to increased activity, and produces wakefulness. It soothes 

 and stills the vascular system, and hence its use in inflammatory 

 diseases, and as a cure for headache. Green tea, when taken 

 strong, acts very powerfully upon some constitutions, producing 

 nervous tremblings, — in short, acting as a narcotic, and in lower 

 animals even producing paralysis. Its exciting effect upon the 

 nerves makes it useful in counteracting the effects of opium 

 and of fermented liquors, and the stupor induced by fever. 



The volatile oil contained in dried tea-leaves is the narcotic 

 principle above mentioned. Tea-tasters, and those employed in 

 packing and unpacking chests of tea, are subject to headaches and 

 giddinesses, sometimes even ending in paralysis. This explains 

 why the Chinese do not use tea till it is at least a year old, the 

 effect of this keeping being to allow a portion of the volatile in- 

 gredients of the leaf to escape. 



Theine has the remarkable effect of sensibly diminishing the 

 absolute quantity of excreted substances voided in a day by a 

 healthy man. This fact shows that the waste of the body is 

 lessened by theine — that is, by the use of tea. 



Now since the waste is lessened, the quantity of food necessary 

 to support life will be lessened in an equal proportion, — in short, 

 by the consumption of a certain quantity of tea, the health and 

 strength of the body may be maintained upon a smaller supply of 

 ordinary food. 



No wonder, then, that tea should be such a favourite with the 

 poor, old, and infirm. The former are enabled by its use to sub- 

 sist comfortably on a smaller amount of solid food, and so live 

 cheaper. In the latter, theine, by arresting the waste, keeps the 

 body from falling away so fast, and so enables the failing powers of 



