124 FIRST ROASTING. 



may have lodged in the bottom ; and if he quicken 

 the motion at the same time, the smoke and burnt 

 smell will speedily disappear. 



With respect to the degree of roasting which is 

 requisite, it may suffice to say, that the roasting 

 must be continued until the leaves give out a 

 fragrant smell, and become quite soft and flaccid, 

 when they are in a fit state to be rolled. 



And here it may be important to observe, philo- 

 sophically as well as practically, that though the 

 leaves are fragrant when brought to the roasting 

 vessel, yet that fragrance is dispersed so soon as 

 the fluids are rapidly set in action, and they again 

 acquire their vegetable smell. The fragrance, how- 

 ever, returns after the loss of a certain amount of 

 moisture ; and its return, together with the flacci- 

 dity of the leaves, marks, as before observed, the 

 period when the leaves are in a fit state for rolling. 

 The same observation holds during the process of 

 rolling. Here, again, the fluids are discharged, but 

 by pressure, not heat, and the vegetable smell 

 returns. Thus, during the whole process of roast- 

 ing and rolling, these alterations of smell occur, till 

 the leaves are deprived of all moisture in their final 

 desiccation in the drying tubes, when the fragrance 

 becomes fixed. 



In my own experiments, when I found the heat 

 more than I could bear, I removed the leaves from 

 the Kuo, and allowed them to cool a little ; as also 

 the Kuo from the fire. This I have repeated two 



