224 CHEMICAL, MEDICAL AND DIETICAL PROPERTIES. 



to which young children especially should be strictly 

 confined. Briefly it may be summed up that tea is best 

 suited to persons in health, the plethoric and sanguine, 

 and upon which principle it is the proper diet at the 

 beginning of fevers and all inflammatory complaints. 

 Besides the more obvious effects with which all who use 

 it are familiar, tea saves food by lessening the waste of 

 the body, thus nourishing the muscular system while it 

 excites the nervous to increased activity, for which reason 

 old and infirm persons derive more benefit and personal 

 comfort from its use than from any corresponding bever- 

 age. To the question " does tea produce nervousness ?" 

 the answer is " in moderation, emphatically No !" One 

 to two cups of tea prepared moderately strong, even when 

 taken two to three times per day will not make any one 

 nervous, but when drunk to excess it undoubtedly will. 

 Tea-testers and experts who are tasting it all the time, 

 day in and day out, for the purpose of valuing it, are fre- 

 quently made nervous by it, soon recover by a little 

 abstinence. Tea, like liquor and drugs, when taken in 

 moderate quantities, produce one effect, but when used 

 in large and immoderate quantities produce just the con- 

 trary result. China and Japan teas, containing more 

 theine and less tannin, are consequently less hurtful and 

 more refreshing than India and Ceylon teas, which con- 

 tain nearly double the quantity of tannin, the astringent 

 property to which India and Ceylon teas owe the harsh, 

 bitter taste so often complained of in them, and which is 

 undoubtedly the unsuspected cause of the indigestion 

 and nervousness produced by their use. 



DIETICAL PROPERTIES. 



That the universal employment of tea has displaced 

 many other kinds of food is certain, and regarding its 

 dietical properties much has been written for and against 



