230 CHEMICAL, MEDICAL AND DIETICAL PROPERTIES. 



females, literary persons and others of sedentary habits or 

 occupation, who take but little exercise, manifest such a 

 partiality for tea, and also explain why the numerous 

 attempts made to substitute other articles in its place 

 have so signally failed. 



TEA AS A STIMULANT. 



"Life without stimulants would be a dreary waste," 

 remarks some modern philosopher, which, if true, the 

 moderate use of good tea, properly prepared and not too 

 strong, will be found less harmful than the habitual resort 

 to alcoholic liquors. The impression so long existing 

 that vinous or alcoholic beverages best excite the brain 

 and cause it to produce more or better work is rapidly 

 being exploded, healthier and more beneficial stimulants 

 usurping their place. But while the claims made in 

 favor of the " wine cup " must be admitted, it cannot for 

 a moment be denied that as excellent literary work has 

 been accomplished under the influence of tea, in our own 

 times, particularly when the poet, the essayist, the his- 

 torian, the statesman and the journalist no longer work 

 under the baneful influence of spirituous stimulants. 

 Mantegaza, an Italian physiocogist of high repute, who 

 has given the acti'on of tea and other stimulants careful 

 study, confirms this claim by placing tea above all other 

 stimulants, his enthusiasm for it being almost unbounded, 

 crediting it with " the power of dispelling weariness and 

 lessening the annoyances of life, classing it as the greatest 

 friend to the man of letters by enabling him to work 

 without fatigue, and to society as an aid to conversation, 

 rendering it more easy and pleasant, reviving the droop- 

 ing intellectual activity and the best stimulus to exertion, 

 and finally pronouncing it to be one of the greatest bless- 

 ings of Providence to man." 



