CHEMICAL, MEDICAL AND DIETICAL PROPERTIES. 215 



The fibre, tannin, legumen coloring matter and a certain 

 quantity of ash making up mainly the portion of the leaf 

 insoluble in boiling water. 



The virtues of tea as a medicine have been extolled 

 from the time of its earliest use as a beverage in China. 

 Chin-nung, a celebrated scholar and philosopher, who 

 existed long before Confucius, and to whom its first dis- 

 covery is attributed, is claimed to have said of it: "Tea 

 is better than wine, for it leadeth not to intoxication; it 

 is better than water, for it doth not carry disease, neither 

 doth it act as a poison when the wells contain foul and 

 rotten matter ;" and Lo-yu, another learned Chinese who 

 lived during the dynasty of Tang, declared that " Tea 

 tempers the spirits, harmonizes the mind, dispels lassitude, 

 relieves fatigue, awakens thought, prevents drowsiness, 

 refreshes the body and clears the perceptive faculties," 

 while the Emperor Kieu-lung advised all his subjects to 

 " Drink this precious liquor at their ease, as it will chase 

 away the five causes of sorrow. You can taste and feel, 

 but not describe the calm state of repose produced 

 by it." Again, Ten Rhyne, a botanist and chemist to the 

 Emperor of Japan, in a work published about 1730, 

 states that " Tea purifies the blood, drives away frightful 

 dreams, dispels malignant vapors from the brain, mitigates 

 dizziness, dries up rheum in the eyes, corrects humors, 

 regulates the liver, modifies the spleen, restrains sleep, 

 restricts drowsiness, expels lassitude, is good in dropsy, 

 makes the body lively, cheers the heart and drives away 

 fear." But of its sanitary effects after its first introduc- 

 tion into Europe there was for a long period much 

 consternation existing, being preposterously praised by 



