258 HEAT REGULATED BY THE 



observed bv Mulder, that in analysis the Chinese 

 tea could not be distinguished from the Java tea 

 except by the ashes, and perhaps by the gum, and 

 that soil has much to do with this. 



If the succulency of the leaves be unduly in- 

 creased, as by rains, such a condition on the appli- 

 cation of no more than the ordinary degree of heat 

 would operate like a diminution of temperature. 

 Evaporation would go on slowly, and after the 

 usual time of roasting, the leaves would be found 

 too full of juices to be fit for rolling. It would be 

 necessary in fact to squeeze out the juices with the 

 hand, as practised at Java and at Rio de Janeiro, 

 and which also occurred to myself, when too low a 

 temperature was employed, in an experiment with 

 steam, already detailed. No such practice obtains 

 in the tea districts with which I am acquainted, nor 

 can I consider it a good method. It obviously 

 implies a deficiency of heat. On the other hand, if 

 the heat be raised to meet this turgid state of the 

 leaves, the temperature of the steam and heat of 

 the leaves might reach a point more than the 

 hands could bear. Indeed notwithstanding the low 

 temperature employed at Java in roasting tea, Mr. 

 Jacobson states that the green tea leaves become 

 "nearly as hot as boiling water*," that is, they 

 nearly scald. 



Accordingly we find that in black tea, in which it 

 is here supposed that a certain amount of spon- 



* Hanclboek, § 444. 



