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EARLY HISTORY* 



'HE history of Tea is intimately bound up with 

 that of China, that is, so far as the Western world 

 is concerned, its production and consumption 

 >eing for centuries confined to that country. But, 

 having within the past two centuries become known and 

 almost indispensable as an article of diet in every civilized 

 country of the globe, it cannot but prove interesting to 

 inquire into the progress, properties and effects of a com- 

 modity which could have induced so large a portion of 

 mankind to abandon so many other articles of diet in its 

 favor, as well as the results of its present enormous con- 

 sumption. 



Although now to be found in a wild state in the 

 mountain-ranges of Assam, and in a state of cultivation 

 through a wide range from India to Japan, the original 

 country of Tea is not definitely known, but from the 

 fact of its being in use in China from the earliest times 

 it is commonly attributed to that country. Yet though 

 claimed to have been known in China long anterior to 

 the Christian era, and even said to have been mentioned 

 in the Sao-Pao, published 2700 B. c., and also in the Rye, 

 600 B. c., the exact date or manner of its first discovery and 

 use in that country is still in doubt. One writer claims 

 that the famous herb was cultivated and classified in 

 China 2000 B. c., almost as completely as it is to-day, and 

 that it was used as a means of promoting amity between 

 Eastern monarchs and potentates at this early period, 



