May i, 1889 J fnfc AGRICULTURIST. 
the Er-ya or about a thousand years before Christ. 
It is then only spoken of as bitter. Medical books 
began to be written about B. 0. 600, and from that 
time to B. C. 200 there was much study of natural 
history undertaken to learn the tastes and heal- 
ing qualities of plants and minerals. The herbalists 
of that time must have known that tea leaf in- 
fusion tends to keep from sleeping, but the first 
plain statement of this which is now accessible 
is in the Kuang-ya of the third century, a useful 
dictionary where many of the results of research 
in the properties of plants are briefly recorded. 
This was the time when Buddhism was spreading 
its monasteries rapidly throughout the country, 
when Hindoo medical knowledge was at the disposal 
cf the Chinese, and medical plants were more than 
ever cultivated. Alchemy was flourishing, having 
sprung up in the third century before Christ and 
having been much favoured by the Han dynasty 
emperors. Alchemy always embraced two depart- 
ments, botanical alchemy aod mineral alohemy, 
and it was the former that favoured the examina- 
tion of the properties of all plants. All through 
the five centuries of the Han dynasty and the 
Three Kingdoms, the physicians of China were 
busy in experimenting on the cure of disease by 
vegetable and mineral medicines under the fictitious 
light of the theories of alchemy. Of this we see the 
result in the book of Ko hung belonging to the 
fourth oentury of our era. He is the most voluminous 
author in alohemy the Chinese had ever had, and 
his very audacity of statement leads the reader to 
lose all confidence in his veracity. But his book is 
lively in style, plain-spoken in dogma, and rich in 
contemporary facts and stories, so that it constitutes 
a living picture of the time. In this book tea is 
only spoken of as a bitter plant, and the physicians 
and alchemists had evidently not directed much 
of their attention to it, nor had they foreseen that 
in a short time it was to become the universal 
beverage of the Chinese nation. Yet in western 
China along the Yangtse in Hupeh and Szechuen 
on both sides of the Gorges the people in the third 
century made cakes of rice and tea leaves, the first 
form of the brick tea of which modern Bussia is so 
fond. The old account says that these cakes were 
ground to a powder and boiling water was poured on 
the powder for drinking. There seems to be no 
doubt then that brick tea infusion waB drunk in 
China in the third century after Christ to freshen 
the mental faculties. There is no instance men- 
tioned earlier than this, though the plant being 
well-known long before it is very likely to have 
taken place. As to the habits of the Han dynasty, 
occupying the four preceding centuries, we only know 
of broth and wine being the co mmon beverages 
of the Chinese. The wine was never distilled, nor 
was it made of grapes. It was in fact brewed 
from glutinous rice. 
In regard to the part of China where tea was 
first introduced as a beverage there is no question 
that it was Kiangnan. The tea of the hill in Kiang- 
nan has an extremely good flavour and many cele- 
brated kinds are produced there, The acoounta say 
that it was in the third and fourth centuries that the 
practice of drinking tea began to extend in that 
region. It was used occasionlly in place of wine in 
the Imperial court of Nanking in the time of the 
Woo kingdom, as we know from the History of the 
Three Kingdoms. Yet in the novel of that name 
tea is not mentioned. The author being aware 
apparently that tea was not commonly used in 
China till the Tang dynasty, has not, it is believed, 
made any of his many heroes on any occasion driuk 
tea. It was, however, occasionally drunk then at 
Nanking as history shews. If however it be asked 
why tea drinking spread in Kiangnan it may bo 
answered that the monks on the hills planted 
trees and among them medical plants in the near 
neighbourhood of their monasteries. Very likely 
it was in this way that tea drinking originatfd. 
The Buddhist monks are teetotallers and abstain 
from animal food. On both these accounts they 
seek refined kinds of food and drink, such as 
are furnished by the vegetable kingdom in abun- 
dance. The excellent gustatory qualities of the 
Buddhist cuisine in monasteries are well-known. 
They cultivate vegetables largely both for 
their own use and to send to market. Their 
avoidance of pork and wine is not without its 
compensations. We know from other grounds how 
Buddhism flourished in Kiangnan in the third 
century, and to the faot that tea was first used as a 
substitute for wine in that provinoe, we may add 
as a likely hypothesis that the priests of that religion 
had much to do in the early spread there of the 
habit of tea drinking, whioh by the sixth century 
had probably extended throughout China. 
In the China of Confucius broth made of animal 
flesh was very oommonly used, as was rice wine. 
But probably the staple beverage in the absence of 
wine was hot water in whioh vegetables or animal 
food had been boiled. They then had neither 
carrots, nor cabbages, but they had plenty of fish, 
of fowls, and of the other domestic animals. Beef 
was not presorted at that time by sovereigns 
controlled by Buddhist superstition. Milk might 
be used as a beverage when cows were more 
numerous in proportion to the population than now. 
Altogether the ancient Chinese were not badly off 
in those days, although the delioate flavours of a 
hundred ohoice kinds of tea leaf infusion brought 
from as many mountains, were still unknown. — 
N.-U. Herald. 
DRUG TRADE REPORT, 
London, 14th March 1889. 
Cinchona. — At Tuesday's auctions a moderate quan- 
tity of bark was offered for sale, theEast Indian varieties 
again being almost equal in bulk to the offerings from 
Ceylon. The catalogues comprised : — 
Packages Package* 
Ceylon bark ... 1,273 of which 1,135 were sold 
East Indian bark ... 1,206 „ 1,161 „ 
Java bark ... 54 „ 54 ,, 
South American bark 119 ,, 12 ,, 
West African bark 7 „ 7 „ 
Total ... 2,659 „ 2,369 
Nearly the whole of .the supply was disposed of, if not 
with much competition, at least without a further re- 
ductions from the previous auctions' rates, the unit be- 
ing generally placed at l§d per lb. 
The followingare the approximate quantities purchased 
by the principal buyers :— 
Lb. 
Agents for the BIannheim& Amsterdam works 157,907 
Agents for the Auerbach works ... 86,926 
Agents for the Brunswick works ... 72,295 
Agents for the American, French, &c, works 63,232 
Agents for the Frankfort o/Mand Stuttgart works 56,044 
Messrs. Howards & Sons ... ... 48,568 
Mr. Thomas Whiffen ... ... 31,476 
Sundry druggists... ... ... 18,122 
Total sold 
Bought in or withdrawn 
534,570 
89,102 
Total quantity catalogued ... 623,672 
It should be well understood that the mere weight 
of bark purchased affords no guide whatever to the 
quinine yield represented by it, firms who buy a small 
quantity of bark by weight frequently taking the richest 
lots, and vice versa. 
Java. Bark.— Yellow chips, fair to good bright 21.1 
to 5d; root 7d ; grey ohips 3£d per lb. 
