No. 216.J 293 



pared with its desolating career in Europe and America have been 

 small indeed. If we step from China to the vast empire of Russia, 

 we shall find a hardy, vigorous, and healthful population, accustomed 

 through all the various grades of society to the free use of the best 

 Tea consumed out of China, We do not mean to affirm that this 

 general soundness of health is the effect of Tea drinking only, but 

 we do mean to affirm that Tea drinking has not impaired it, so that 

 the evidence, though negative, is still in favor of the beverage. 



In England, the consumption of Tea, even under the crushing pres- 

 sure of a duty of fifty cents a pound, has greatly increased within 

 the last few years upon the sole ground of benefiting and preserv- 

 ing the h€alth. The current of popular opinion is setting strongly 

 against the use of coffee; it is considered as exciting to the system, 

 provoking watchfulness, feverish re-action and plethora, whilst Tea 

 acts as a gentle diuretic, promotes digestion, soothes the stomach, 

 and tranquil izes, rather than €xcites the nervous system. 



In France, as well as in our country, we usually find copious drink- 

 ers of coffee dyed a beautiful saffron color, affording the most pal- 

 pable evidence of incipient disease and organic derangement. It is 

 hard to change old habits and perhaps unfair to charge all our com- 

 plaints to one, and yet it does seem a little singular when a person 

 «ees his own sallow face, that he does not take the hint, change his 

 diet, and watch its effects. 



In this country, particularly, there is a marvelous tendency in all 

 classes to raise a mighty cry against the presence of bile, and to re- 

 fer all complaints to its maledictive influence, just as if it were some 

 poisonous substance which had crept into the system, instead of a 

 necessary healthful element of our organic combination, aiding, and 

 directing its functions in all the various operations of the animal 

 economy. 



At a meeting of the Academy of Sciences in Paris, M. Peligot 

 read a paper on the chemical combinations of Tea. He stated that 

 Tea contained essential principles of nutrition far exceeding its stim- 

 ulating properties, and showed that Tea, in every respect, is one of 

 the most desirable articles of general use. In one of his experi- 

 ments on the nutritious qualities of Tea as compared with those of 

 soup, the result was decidedly in favor of the former. It was found 

 to contain a large proportion of azote approaching to animnl matter, 

 and to exercise a powerful influence upon the animal system, and 

 particularly in its promoting the secretion of bile. 



