188 THE AMERICAN MONTHLY [ October, 
upshot of it all was that I did not believe a word that was told about it, but 
relied entirely upon what I could see; and I do not quite believe that 13-cent 
and 4o-cent wages’ story either, but must await future opportunities to learn 
the truth. 
The tea thus prepared is used by the Japanese. The usual price paid for 
native tea is about 40 sen per pound, and a very good tea can be bought at 
that price. The best native tea brings $7 or $8 per pound. It is prepared 
from choice varieties of the tea plant, cultivated with especial care; but the 
processes of drying are the same as for common tea. It is a rare product. 
As already stated, the native tea requires further drying to fit it for trans- 
portation. This is done by the foreign dealers, who buy the native dried tea 
and prepare it for shipment in large go-downs at Yokohama and Kobe. The 
work is all done by hand, except in one establishment at Yokohama, where 
machinery is in successful operation. It is nothing more than a process of 
drying, in pans or in baskets, skilfully conducted by Japanese laborers, men 
and women working together. If coloring matter is used it is added during 
the firing, and not only improves the appearance of the tea, but it is said to 
aid in preserving its quality. In any case the quantity added is too small to 
be harmful, even if the materials used were not in themselves inert substances, 
such as soapstone, indigo, and occasionally a little graphite. 
It will be observed that the operations in the preparation of Japan tea are 
much simpler than those described in China. The Chinese prepare their tea 
ready for shipment abroad, and the foreigners in the China tea business do 
nothing but buy and sell, having no occasion to remanufacture it. 
It was a great disappointment not to be able to collect more from the pools 
this summer, but the work at Shirakawa was too pressing to be neglected, 
and the few specimens found have not yet been examined. 
YoxKoHAMA, Seft. Oth, 1887. 
The Ninth International Medical Congress. 
By E. A. BALLOCH, 
WASHINGTON, D.C. 
Viewed from a microscopical standpoint, the Ninth International Medical 
Congress was barren of results. There were few papers bearing upon micro- 
scopy directly, but in all the sections the importance of the microscope as a 
diagnostic instrument was accepted without question and its employment 
regarded as a matter of course. 
Perhaps the most interesting paper was the one by Prof. Mariano Semmola, 
of Naples, entitled The Experimental Method in Scientific Medicine and its 
Relations to Bacteriology. 
His argument was that the experimental was the true method in medicine, 
and that it had for its object the determination of the phenomena of nature 
and their causes. The physician should obey nature and not command her. 
In biology, and especially in the progress of pathology and therapeutics, this 
fundamental principle is very often forgotten, and this is the true cause which 
has paralyzed till now the useful results of the immense mass of researches 
made in the field of medical science. 
At the present time medicine continues to be the victim of system, and the 
system of to-day is bacteriology. Men of genius, like Brieger, Klebs, Stern- 
berg, and others, have stated the limits to be fixed to this new era of pathol- 
ogy, but mediocrity overwhelms all and conquers the masses and inspires 
the unthinking. The only reason which has permitted the domination of this 
system is the complete forgetfulness of the laws of the experimental method 
