Angust 31, 1871. ] 



JOUENAL OF HOKTICDLTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



161 



the leaf, and are largely consumed by the ChineBe. The Tea 

 ought to undergo no change in the chests, which are carefully 

 closed by soldering. The flowers of the Aglaia odorata, the 

 JaBminum Sambae, the Ohloranthus, and perhaps other plants, 

 such as the Gardenia, are used to scent the Tea. Dried leaves 

 of the Salix alba are used to adulterate Tea sometimes, but in 

 the interior of the country such practices are commendably 

 rare. Black Tea forms the bulk of the produce, and is preferred 

 by the Chinese for ordinary drinking. Red Tea is made from 

 the same kind of Tea shrub, and is of a brownish-black, rather 

 than a red, colour. The infusion is certainly of a deep red 

 colour, and this may be the origin of the name Huug-ch'a, or 

 "red Tea," a name given to it by the Chinese. Green Tea is 

 made in Hupeh to some extent by picking at the very begin- 

 ning of the season the fine hairy summits of the youngest 

 branches of the shrubs. Brick Tea is made from the clippings 

 of the Tea bushes, the dust of black Tea, and from any other 

 description of leaf. Odd stories about blood and other sub- 

 stances being mixed with the Tea leaf and dust are perfectly 

 unfounded. There are " large green bricks " of the coarsest 

 sort, " small green bricks " made of a better kind of Tea leaf, 

 and " small black bricks " made from good Tea dust. The 

 shape of the Tea which is used as a means of barter by the 

 Mongol tribes is more like that of a tile than of a brick. In 

 making brick Tea the leaves and dust are steamed, pressed in 

 moulds of a uniform size, and carefully dried without access of 

 the sun, or any other direct source of heat. 



This Tea goes to the Siberian, Buriat, Tungous, Kirghis, and 

 Mongol tribes, who chop it up with salt and butter, or koumiss, 

 after exhaustion of the leaf in the ordinary way. The people 

 of Thibet wisely add a little carbonate of soda to the water 

 used in brewing their tea from slices of the bricks. 



If two or three leaves be picked from a Tea shrub and chewed 

 in the mouth, very little in the way of marked impression is 

 made upon the sense of taste. A grassy, slightly bitter, but 

 scarcely astringent flavour is brought out in the mouth. The 

 peasants picking the leaf or passing through the Tea shrub- 

 beries are seldom seen to gather the leaf and partake of it, as 

 schoolboys do of Bramble' leaves in English lanes. 



Prepared Tea leaf is, in fact, a very difierent thing from the 

 raw, growing leaf of the shrub. Chinese Tea consumed in the 

 country, and prepared by a single "firing," after drying in the 

 sun, is also a very different article from the Congou Tea pre- 

 pared for the English market. On this account, Chinese state- 

 ments and experience are of no great use in determining the 

 effects of Tea as consumed in western countries. Russian Tea, 

 which undergoes no special preparation for the short overland 

 journey which it has to make, is more like the Chinese native 

 Tea in flavour. Foreign new Tea — that is. Tea prepared and 

 still in China — is a very different article from the Tea when 

 placed in the teapots of English villagers, after being conveyed 

 in an iron ship through the tropics, in large quantities of some 

 '90 lbs. or more. Tea is described in the Chinese pharmacology 

 as cooling, peptic, exhilai'ating, rousing, both laxative and as- 

 tringent, diuretic, emmenagogue, and in large concentrated 

 doses as an emetic. It is used as a wash for sore eyes, ulcers, 

 and wounds of all kinds. It is understood by Chinese physicians 

 that the excessive use of Tea renders people thin, aEtemic, and 

 weak-sighted. Tea is taken by Chinese scholars and labourers 

 to stave off the cravings of hunger until a convenient season 

 arrives. Much of the so-called Tea taken by the common 

 people in China is nothing but very warm water. Hot water is 

 often taken by them in large quantities when threatened with 

 colds, fevers, and other acute or chronic diseases, apart from 

 considerations of economy. They regard it as antidotal, cor- 

 rective, solvent, demulcent, diluent, lenitive, stimulant, de- 

 obstruent, diaphoretic, diuretic, and lithontriptio in its effects. 

 Such a dose is much more sensible than the inevitable " six- 

 penn'orth of the best French brandy " which the English rustic 

 gulps down in the emergency of pain or some other symptom. 

 Experience has taught the Chinese that weak Tea is much 

 better than cold and impure drinking-water. They are ex- 

 ceedingly particular as to the water used in Tea-making. They 

 .prefer the comparatively soft water of their large muddy rivers, 

 so often swollen by rain and the melting of snow. They object 

 to Tea made from lake water, as they consider it unwholesome 

 and having a tendency to render the mind dull and slow. 



It will be remembered that the leaf used in the making of 

 ■Congou Tea (black) is first dried in the sun, and then com- 

 pressed, so as to part with any superfluous moisture. This 

 must lead to a concentration of the principles contained in the 

 leaf. The Tea leaf is stored in bags, and generally subjected 



to a preliminary " firing " in addition to the formal " firing " 

 previously described, in view of any delay which may occur 

 during the collection of such large quantities as are necessarily 

 prepared at one time for the foreign market. Certain chemical 

 changes tending to the oxidation of the chemical constituents 

 of the natural leaf must take place in the repeated exposure to 

 a moderate heat, and during the storing together in loose heaps 

 of the half-dried leaf freely exposed to the atmosphere. Nothing 

 like fermentation ever takes pla'ce, as this would issue in the 

 destruction of the leaf, which is carefully kept from becoming 

 heated or mouldy during the process of making up the whole 

 " chop." A kind of maturation occurs, issuing in the forma- 

 tion of more extractible matter, capable of solution and circu- 

 lation. The final "firing" has something of the same effect 

 upon the Tea leaf as the kiln-drying has upon the germinating 

 Barley passing into malt— it fixes the composition of the Tea 

 leaf, and renders any further change as unlikely as undesirable. 

 The Tea leaf is then at its best, and any idea of ripening upon 

 the voyage is simply absurd. It follows from the low tempera- 

 ture at which the Tea is dried that no empyreumatio products 

 can be met with in properly prepared Tea. And yet there is a 

 degree of austerity produced in the ordinary black Tea, which 

 causes it to produce nausea, sickness, and diarrhoea when taken 

 in the shape of a strong infusion prepared from the new spring 

 Tea just ready for the voyage to Europe. This is especially 

 the ease with badly-secured leaf, which may be assumed to 

 have been purposely exposed to a high temperature in order to 

 fit it for the foreign market. All or most of these effects pass 

 off by the time that the Tea reaches the foreign consumer. 

 The more stable the Tea the better it will turn out. Any 

 change on the voyage is for the worse, according to the expe- 

 rience of the most competent judges. Thirty pounds of the 

 green leaf produce from 8 to 10 lbs. of the sun-dried leaf. One 

 hundred pounds of the sun-dried leaf lose 8 lbs. of weight in 

 " firing," and produce 10 lbs. of stalks, 15 lbs. of Tea dust, 

 and the rest good marketable Congou Tea. New Tea produces 

 in China laxative eft'ects upon foreigners, as prepared for ex- 

 portation. This effect is not permanent. As a rule, black 

 Tea, under the same circumstances, has a decided diuretic 

 effect, even in hot weather, when perspiration is abundant. It 

 excites in many a strong craving for food, and causes a degree 

 of sleeplessness. The narcotic effect of new Tea is asserted 

 by Johnston in his " Chemistry of Common Things," but has 

 never been noticed. 



The large proportion of nitrogen in Tea, amounting to nearly 

 6 per cent., prepares us to find powerful properties in it. That 

 Tea is a stimulant there can be no manner of doubt. This 

 probably depends upon the presence of the theine, a soluble 

 crystalline substance, which resists the moderate temperature 

 at which the leaf is dried. The peculiar taste of green Tea 

 falsely suggests the presence of more than the usual amount 

 of that astringent principle which, in the shape of tannin, is 

 present in about equal quantity in both the black and green 

 Tea. The properties of Tea as an astringent are turned to 

 account by the Chinese, who prescribe it in diarrboaa when 

 acidulated with vinegar. Cold Tea, to which a small quantity 

 of dilute sulphuric acid has been added, is an excellent diet- 

 drink for use in hot weather when there is a tendency to diar- 

 rho3a. That the use of Tea to a large extent has a peculiar 

 effect upon the nervous systems of both animal and organic 

 lite there can be no doubt. This is the reverse of a sedative 

 influence. Some of the craving of the Chinese for opium is 

 connected with their incessant drinking of Tea, especially upon 

 an empty stomach. The effect of Tea is to excite, and this 

 property may be turned to excellent effect in oases of opium- 

 smoking and in uremic poisoning. If good new Congou Tea 

 be given in the latter disease, there is the additional advantage 

 of the diuretic effects of the infusion. In all cases in which 

 coffee is most to be prescribed. Tea is much more convenient, 

 accessible, and powerful. It is obvious that the high tempera- 

 ture at which coffee berries are roasted must be fatal to the 

 presence of much caffeine, a principle identical with theine. 

 This latter substance has been recently proposed by Mr. Lewis 

 Thompson [Medical Times -and Gazette for February 10th, 1871) 

 to be brought into use as a tonic remedy in typhoid diseases, 

 neuralgic affections, and in senile gangrene. Large quantities 

 of weak Tea, however, tend to the occurrence of sciatica and 

 other forms of neuralgia. The experiments of Peligot seem to 

 prove that, as might be assumed from the presence of so larf^e 

 a proportion of nitrogen, Tea is, as the Frenchman said of the 

 coffee, both " meat and drink." Old women who boil their 

 Tea leaves are right, for they thereby extract much more of 



