2l8 CHEMICAL, MEDICAL AND DIETICAL PROPERTIES. 



and seminaries. Still, his advice is sound when he 

 states that " tea ought by no means to be the common 

 drink of boarding schools, and when allowed, in 

 moderation, the pupils should at the same time be 

 informed that the constant or too frequent use of 

 tea would be injurious to their health and constitu- 

 tions. As whatever tends to impair the nerve power 

 and ultimately the digestive organs, in strumuous 

 children particularly, should be by all means avoided." 

 But if a diminution of the number of inflammatory dis- 

 eases be one of the consequences of the increased con- 

 sumption of tea, which is now generally conceded, it is very 

 much in favor of its use, as however distracting nervous 

 diseases may be, they are by no means so fatal as those 

 of an inflammatory nature, more particularly as the 

 former can be almost immediately remedied by relin- 

 quishing the use of tea or by simply omitting it from the 

 breakfast for a time, at which meal it is certainly less 

 proper to be used. 



The medicinal uses of tea, however, are not many, 

 neither does its chemical analysis shed much light on its 

 action on the human economy, a correct estimate of its 

 particular action thereon having so far not been ascer- 

 tained. So that before attempting any such estimate it 

 will be necessary to consider that many of its attributed 

 ill-effects may be due as much to the spurious leaves of 

 other plants so frequently mixed with genuine tea-leaves 

 for adulteration purposes, as well as to the deleterious 

 compounds so often used in coloring, for the results of 

 which pure tea is held responsible. The most dispas- 

 sionate inquirers, however, regard it as a narcotic, the 

 stimulating period of which is most conspicuous and 

 of the longest duration, the active ingredient, theine, 

 being an alkaloid identical with the caffeine of coffee, 



