28 
Proceedu}(js of the Boyal Iriah Acadeiny. 
shower of tea passes against liis palate, giving him a keener taste, 
but some of this shower passes with the inhaled air down into the 
lungs. 
In order to detect what entered, I vaponrized the tea with a per- 
fume vapourizer, and thus found that the drops assumed a round shape. 
On microscopic examination of these, and of tea not so treated, I dis- 
covered a considerable quantity of particles of cellular tissue, and some 
portions of fibrous tissue. These might assist to tease the lung, but 
could not produce the vehement effects I have known to be produced. 
But, besides these, I discovered a number of bright globules of oil — the 
narcotic oil of the tea leaf, interspersed through the fluid. This it is, 
undoubtedly, which causes the nausea and nervousness that afflict tea 
tasters. These effects are quite analogous to those produced by the ni- 
cotine of the tobacco; and I have heard of cases where smokers, de- 
prived of their accustomed weed, found some solace in smoking tea 
leaves. So treated, they yield a faintly yellowish oil, which leaves on 
the paper of a cigarette a yellowish stain, and an odour some have 
mistaken for tobacco. 
The effects on the health are, as I have stated, very serious. 
Nausea, biliousness, dyspepsia, nervous irritability, occur, and one or 
other may become habitual. Syncope or fainting occasionally hap- 
pens. Thus, a friend mentioned to me that he was present in a London 
tea store, when one of the proprietors of it entered. He had been ac- 
customed to act as tea taster, but his physician had prohibited him, on 
account of his health. The tea cups were on the table, and he approached ; 
but his partner warned him not to taste, but to obey the prescription. 
He looked healthy, and felt himself recovered, and thought he might 
venture. He had no sooner tasted one or two cups, says my infor- 
mant, than he fell as if he was shot. He had fainted. Assam tea, I 
was told, is the most severe ; and on examining it, I found a large 
quantity of this oil. 
The remedy would be to prevent the tea from going into the lungs. 
The tea taster should endeavour to manage as the smoker does, with as 
dangerous a servant. If a sip or a mouthful be found insufficient, 
though with care better might be expected — if, however, he must still 
persist in the whiff, let him at all events take in a full breath before 
he taste. He will then have a volume of air stationary in the lungs, 
thus preventing a draught to the farthest pipes ; and this air, being 
expelled when the taste is taken, will blow out the greater part of the 
globules, which otherwise would have rested in the lining of the 
bronchi. 
From the above observations and my previous investigations, I 
believe myself justified in drawing the following conclusions : — 
Firstly — That stomach signs — irritability, nausea, dyspepsia — may 
be in reality, and not unusually, symptomatic of interference with the 
lungs. Both lungs and stomach are supplied by the branches from the 
pneumogastric and from the sympathetic systems. To treat the 
stomach, in such cases, may obscure the symptom, but will not cure 
