53o 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST [Ffb t, .895. 
quite possible with a good sharp photographer's negative 
to obtain a " bacteriograph," as Professor Ward calls 
it. Now this fact is emiiiently important and 
tive. It seems to say that after all the best 
disinfectant is to have plenty of sunshine or 
daylight about. The Italians have a proverb to 
the effect that the house into which the sun doo.; 
not enter the doctor does. Here, clearly, Is. another 
of those previsions of popular experiences which 
science has not seldom had the honour to confirm. 
It may be asked whether the heat of the sun's 
ray's has anything to do with this curious check 
on the undesirable expansiveness of the microbe. 
The answer is nothing whatever. Most microbes, to 
start with, will stand a temperature a little less 
than that of boiling water, and the rays supplied to 
the bacterial plate are never sufficient even to melt 
the agar jelly. The destructive effect seems to 
be confined mostly to the actinic or chemical 
rays of the solar spectrum. If the light is ad- 
mitted through a red glass (by which moans most 
of the blue or violet rays are kept back) the growth 
of the microbe colonies is un affected. With bl ua or 
deep violent glass the bactericidal effect, on the 
contrary, is perfect. Professor Ward showed many 
interesting photo-lantern slides in proof of this, of 
which perhaps the most interesting were " bacterio- 
graphs " of the solar spectrum, showing that the 
white area of slaughter lay amongst the blue and 
violet rays. It is only reasonable to suppose that 
the increased number of bacteria found ID streams 
and rivers during the winter months is owing to the 
decreased strength of the sunlight. The mor.il seems 
to be that if bacteria are responsible for spreading 
disease, not only plenty of fresh air but plenty of 
sunshine should be allowed to penetrate into our 
houses. — Daily Chioniclc, Dec. 31. 
TEA DRINKING IN THE UNITED STATES. 
The people of the United States having alio WO a 
disposition to take kindly to Indian and Ceylon 
tea, the not quite disinterested cry is being raised 
against tea drinking. The New York Tribute gives 
ourrency to some remarks made on the subject in 
the Medical News. "No longer" (says the Tribune) 
" may we speak of tea as the cup which cheers but not 
inebriates. It may, indeed, still sheer. It certainly 
does inebriate, with most deplorable effects, ranking as 
an intoxicant a good second to alcohol itself. To some, 
perhaps, the idea of a temperance crusade against 
the teapot will appear grotesque. Yet in all serious- 
ness that very thing is urgently needed. Accord- 
ing to statistics recently furnished to the 
Medical News by Dr. James Wood, of Brooklyn, 
of all the patieyits applying for treatment at the 
chief dispensary of that city, no less than 10 per 
cent are tea-dr4nkards. They are not aware of 
the fact. Not one asks to be cured of what we 
may call teamania. But the symptoms of their 
cases point unmistakably to over indulgence in 
tea, and that presumption, on inquiry, is confirmed 
by their confessions. They suffer from headache, 
vertigo, insomnia, palpitation of the heart, mental 
confusion, nightmare, nausea, hallucinations, morbid 
depression of spirits and sometimes from suicidal im- 
pulses — surely a formidable list of symptoms. These 
patients are of both sexes and all ages, and confess 
drinking from a pint and a half to fifteen pints of 
tea eioh day. Auother interesting fact is that 
nearly one-third of them are of Irish birth, and it 
is s ife to assume that of the nearly two-thirds of 
American birth a large proportion are of Irish 
parentage. For in Ireland itself tea-poisoning has 
long been recognised as a widely prevalent evil, 
contributing largely to the number of inmate3 of 
insane asylums ; and here, as most housekeepers 
know, the most inveterate and inordinate tea- 
drinkers are the domestic servants of Irish origin. 
The evil of tea-drinking is due, however, not only 
to the amount consumed, but also to the manner 
in which it is prepared. An unmeasured quantity 
of the leaves, says Dr. Wood, is thrown into the 
teapot, and an unmeasured quantity of boiling water 
added. In any tim ! from ten to thirty minute* this 
infusion is used. Then new leaves are thrown in 
with the old, which have been left to soak, anl m9tt 
wtter ia aided, anl so on. Sometimes l£trej are 
thm kept soaking fir a diy or more. Th3 result is 
th it the decoction is loided, not only with the'n, 
but with from 7 to 17 per cent, of tannin, anl 
with other even m >re deleterious substance*. This 
form of preparation is almost universal among kitchen 
servants, and amo ig shop aud factory girls, who 
also are gre it tea-d inkers, and is too often practised 
| among other people of small means, who do not wish 
j to waste a single leaf so long as there is any 
'strength' in it. There is serious reason to believe 
that many cases of suicide and insanity are directly 
due to tea-poisoning, while the number of chronic 
invalids from the b ime cause in this city alone is 
to be reckoned by thousands. It is high time for 
the evil to bo recognised and chocked." 
We have heard alt this kind of rubbish about Ire- 
land and tea before, and it grows state. As every 
article of food com?* in for its share of attack in 
one or another of the medicine papers, and as exag- 
geration is usually necessary in support of the as- 
sertions made, tea planters and tea drinkers must 
perforce be content to smile at them. There is 
another aspect of the case. It m ist be soothing to 
the feelings of those who sell as well as thoso who 
drink whisky and other strong drink to find that tea 
is the object of abuse by the medical faculty. The 
term " tea drunkard " suggests to the inebriate from 
spirituous liquors th it touch of niture which makes 
the whole world kin, and greedily swallows not onlv 
his own form of intoxieint, but all that he head also 
to the detriment of tel. If there are people who 
poison themselves by excessive tea-drinking, th? main 
fault lies in their iguoranc on the subject of brewing 
the leaf and their indifference on the score of purity 
and quality. There is much to be said on the subject 
of expert tea blending and proper tea brewing. Until 
quite recently the American market has been well 
served in the matter of tea, and the consumer may 
have suffered in consequence. But after allowing for 
this and more, such statements as thoso circulated 
by the Tribune are ridiculous by reason of their 
; exaggeration, and they are merely a rehash of simi- 
j lar twaddle which has appeared in some of the 
j papers here. — //. anl (J. Mail, Jin. 4. 
' COFFEE PLANTING: MEXICAN COFFEE 
LANDS. 
A Thif Through Mexico— The Isthmus ok Tehuah- 
tepec— Coffee Caffatels. 
( Special Correspondence to the " Interstate Grocer." ) 
Tropical land hunters anl winter excursionists can 
secure round trip tickets to the City of Mexico over 
any one of three roites good for six months. 
On each side of the Republic, running parallel 
with the Gulf and Pacific coasts and distant there- 
from fifty to one hundred miles thc:3 are ranges 
of mountains extending North and South. These 
two ranges close into a single one at the Isthmus 
of Tehuantepec and at that point drop from a height 
of several thousand feet to 800 feet, rising again 
to its full height as soon as the Isthmus is crossed, and 
extending through Central America into South America. 
The major portion of Mexico, comprising the great 
plateau several thousand feet in height between the 
two mountain ranges, is a very unproductive country 
seldom offering any inducements to Americans out- 
side of mining operations or mercantile pursuits. 
The condition or the native population on this plateau 
convinces the traveller that with the poorer classes 
life is but a struggle for existence. Beggars are 
always met with in the plateau district and are 
seldom seen in the tropical districts. On the plateau 
j we see Indians who look very poor, cattle and 
I work oxen so bony and miserable as to excite our 
j commiseration. The cats and dogs are even bony and 
j atarved-looking. In fact, the first part of Mexico seen 
> by the traveller, seems to convince him that it ia a 
