Feb. i i 1895.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
519 
INTEMPERANCE IN TEA. 
American medical .science, casting' about for 
some definite cause to which to attribute the 
increasing ravages of nervous diseases in the 
United States, has at last hit upon one which 
promises, at any rata, some hope of being 
remedied. Ike doctors of New York report that 
at least 10 per cent of the patients at the chief 
dispensary of that city are suffering from the ef- 
fect,-- of "tea drunkenness.'' The symptoms of 
this new form of intemperance are said to be 
almost inoredistressingthantho.se of alcliolic in- 
dulgence, and the effects upon the patient more 
disastrous and more enduring ; wherefore we 
need not be surprised to learn that Americans 
have hastened) to. proclaim that there is death in 
ihi' tea-pot, and now hope to find in the discon- 
tinuance of tea-drinking a sovereign remedy against 
those nameless and mysterious ailments to which 
their fellow ■-country men are so universally subject. 
It is to he feared that the complicated disorder of 
Transatlantic nerves is due to an even more com- 
plicated series of conditions of life, and will not 
yield to a simple abstention from one of the 
drugs by which it is aggravated. No doubt tea- 
drinking in excess must seriously affect a nervous 
subject; but it must be remembered that most 
of those people who do drink tea to excess do 
so with the idea of finding a relief from nervous 
excitement of some other kind. They pour oil 
upon the flames ; but it does not follow that, 
because they should cease from pouring oil, the 
flames will cease from consuming them. Ameri- 
can nerves are the outcome of the conditions of 
American life, climatic and otherwise; and it 
would he no more reasonable to attribute them to 
the present consumption of tea in the United States, 
than to attribute American independence to the 
chests of tea that were once destroyed in Boston 
harbour. It was not sufficient then to sink a few 
hundred-weight of tea-leaves in order to wrest 
full liberty from a tyrannical mother-country ; 
and it will not be sufficient today to abjure 
them in another form in order to find freedom 
from a tyranny which threatens to be even more 
intimate and oppressive. Nevertheless, the warn- 
ing which is issued to tea-drinkers is no doubt 
a timely one, deserving the attention of English 
people as well. If it were possible to get the 
exact statistics of excessive tea-drinking, it is 
more than probable that this country would 
prove to be even more harmfully self-indulgent 
in that respect than the United States. The 
womankind of England are far from ignorant of 
the nerves,*' "vapours," "hysteria," or what- 
ever the complaints may be, that trouble their 
cousins across the Atlantic ; and, as far as one 
can judge from appearances, show quite as 
(narked a fondness for tin- cup which cheers hut 
not inebriates. If the too constant tea-pot is 
the cause of so much suffering in America, there 
is every reason to suppose that it may also be 
accountable for a good many maladies at home. 
One would be disposed to doubt, however, 
whether it would he easy to obtain a 1 
honest and unbiassed opinion on the sub- 
ject from public debate. The fact is thai Eng- 
land is already somewhat hotly divided on 
another question of temperance; with which tea is 
not altogether unconcerned. People who think 
temperance means nothing but a total abstinence 
from, alcbolic drinks w ould Ik? very loath to admit 
the deleteriou, possibilities of tea-drinking; and, 
on the other hand, wine drinkers would he rather 
too willing t(. throw discredit upon the beverage 
which, above all others, is supposed to be the stay 
and support of their opponents. 
u'J 
There is no doubt as to the tea-drinking propen- 
sities of the English race. We flirt with coffee, hut 
tea is our only serious love ; with the exception 
of Russia, we drink more of it than all the rest 
of the Continent put together. It is the one uni- 
versal drink of all classes, and, it is to lie feared, 
by all classes it is abused in the same fashion. 
The grande ctavie and the charwoman both find 
solace in the tea-cup, and both turn to it rather too 
frequently. The volume of tea consumption has 
steadily increased with the fall of the price of tea, 
and now that it is within the reach of even the poor- 
est, it is no longer a luxury, but a necessary or 
English life. Afternoon tea is the most un- 
changeable of social functions in London. Our 
neighbours across the Channel, with that sin- 
core flattery which they sometimes pay to our 
failings, have attempted to borrow this custom 
also, but have never succeeded in actually 
drinking the tea. ; French people may invite 
each other to tive-o-eloquer," but they have 
far too great a respect tor their digestions to 
wander, as we do, from house to house, drinking 
at each a tepid cup of unknown strength. 
For, after all, it is in the making of the tea, and 
not in the amount that is consumed, that the real 
danger lies. The Russians are even greater 
tea-drinkers than we are, but they would never 
touch the terrible black draught which is our in- 
sular delight. The Chinaman, who should know 
best how to ileal with his own products', is most 
careful to derive nothing hut a light infusion from 
his tea-leaves, pouring boiling water upon a small 
quantity of the leaves, and instantly pouring it 
off' again, so that the liquid may not stand. The 
Russians obtain much the same effect, with greater 
economy, by constantly replenishing a very small 
tea-pot from the samovar, so that the same water 
is never allowed to stand in the tea-pot long. Is 
it necessary to describe the English method • 
We boil it, stew it, brew it, distil it, do anything, 
in fact, but get an infusion. Into a capacious 
tea-pot we put sufficient tea-leaves and boiling 
water for unlimited cups. The mixture is some- 
times allowed to stand for half an hour or so 
before it is used; sometimes it is actually placed 
on the hearth to .simmer before the lire, or en- 
veloped in an abominable quilt, called a " tea- 
cosy." The result is a decoction, not an infusion ; 
all the deleterious elements that may exist in 
the leaf are brought out into the tea-cup. The 
worst of this ignorance in tea lurking, is that it 
becomes more pronounced in poorer households. 
The working classes, to whom the price of tea 
is a more serious <• >:nid.M\ifio.-i, like to get some- 
thing strong and tasting for their money. They 
like their tea to have so ne " b >.ly"' in it and mea- 
sure the strength of the liquid by the bitterness of 
its taste an I the blackness of the colour. Often, 
they make ho prete"nfte of infusing tea in a tea-pot 
at all, but frankly boil it in the kettle on the 
lire, a process w hich results' in a singularly rank 
and black beverage when the coarse! 1 kinds of 
tea are used. This is the m-thoil which is also 
adopted by tin- Australian; though he. at least, 
can plead the excuse tha" a t vi-pot would he a 
serious addition to the ne.-'ssai y kettle, or " billy," 
as he calls it, which constitutes the chief 'item 
of his camping equipment. People who maintain 
that tea is essentially a harmless beverage, how- 
ever it is made, not unnaturally point to the 
British workman and the Australian squatter as 
confirming their theory. Of course, the tea- 
drinking Briton and Australian present many 
manifest superiorities over their spirit drinking 
fellows, but we should greatly doubt as to their 
practising this particular form of tea ill -king witlj 
