294 
THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST. 
[Oct.  i,  1892. 
quarter,  and  consequently  we  are  of  opinion  that 
taken  throughout  the  past  season  has  shown  importers 
asmallloss.  Prices  opened  high  but  while  there  has 
been  a very  limited  supply  of  good  class  pekoes  and 
pekoe  souchongs,  common  kinds  were  in  over-supply, 
and  thus  a range  of  prices  existed  for  many  months 
in  these  grades  that  must  have  proved  very  satisfactory 
to  shippers.  Good  pekoes  had  also  an  unsatisfactory 
result  upon  the  whole,  owing  mainly  to  the  LondoD  de- 
mand forcing  rates  above  our  idea  of  relative  value  which 
contrast  became  more  marked  when  compared  with 
the  prices  ruling  locally  for  lower  grades  lhat  had 
been  forced  below  tbeir  relative  value.  Choice  teas 
can  hardly  yet  be  said  to  have  a market,  the  quan- 
tities being  so  small,  and  that  this  is  so  is  because 
the  public  demand  is  limited  for  “straight”  Indian 
teas,  almost  every  pound  sold  passing  through  the 
blenders. 
CEYLON, 
With  shipments  of  3,500,0001b.,  completes  the  list  of 
the  important  sources  of  the  Australasian  tea  supply. 
Although  today  its  position  is  apparently  rather  low, 
there  can  be  so  question  that  a considerable  improve- 
ment is  close  at  hand.  “Straight”  consumption  is  not 
only  admitted,  but  is  of  coniderable  moment,  and  the 
publio  now  ask  for  Ceylon  tea,  consequently  choice 
kinds  are  more  freely  taken  than  is  the  case  with 
Indian.  Shipments  that  commenced  with  150,000  lb. 
per  month  now  reach  300,000  lb.  to  500,000  lb.  per 
month,  and  the  demand  has  continued  so  strong 
for  the  value  offering,  that  dealers  have  had  to  liven 
up  frequently  to  get  even  a chance  of  bidding. 
Prices  at  which  these  teas  could  be  profitably  sold 
have  for  several  months  past  been  very  low,  and  it 
was  this  in  part  that  made  the  trade  less  dependent 
upon  Foochow  for  low  cost  stocks. 
So  far  buyers  do  not  take  kindly  to  small  leaf. 
Broken  pekoes  and  dusty  teas  have  almost  throughout 
shown  an  unsatisfactory  result  to  sellers.  Good  rates 
are  readily  paid  for  all  true  Ceylon  character 
kinds.  Even  dust  has  friends  if  the  liquor  is  dis- 
tinctive. All  fannings  and  broken  leaf  pekoe 
souchong  kinds  have  had  strong  support,  and 
fine  liquoring  orange  pekoes  show  a much-improved 
demand.  Faulty  liquoring  kinds  of  all  descriptions 
have  always  been  difficult  to  plaoe,  but,  taken  as  a 
whole,  the  trade  has  throughout  proved  satisfactory 
to  dealers,  and  although  for  the  first  half  of  the  season 
shippers  complained  about  the  prices  their  teas  rea- 
lised, the  rapidly-increasing  shipments  towards  the 
end  of  the  season  indicated  a very  satisfactory  trade. 
TRADE  GENEBALLY. 
In  the  face  of  the  depression  that  has  existed,  it  has 
been  somewhat  surprising  that  the  tea  trade  has  con- 
tinued s>  sound.  Shippers,  importtrs,  and  dealers 
all  appear  to  have  enjoyed  a fairly  successful  season 
and  owing  to  the  very  low  prices  ruling,  the  public 
Were  also  satisfied.  The  shipping  interest  shows  signs 
of  increasing,  and  the  importing  strength  diminishing. 
Dealers  now  almost  all  devote  their  energies  to  blend- 
ing, and  so  are  enabled  to  hold  much  smaller  stocks, 
and  with  this  frequent  buying  in  smaller  quantities  the 
long  terms  once  so  necessary  to  induce  sales  of  quan- 
tities are  now  disappearing,  and  the  great  bulk  of  the 
trade  is  done  upon  a cash  basis. 
Of  the  total  shipments,  26,200,000  lb.,  from  the  three 
principal  ports  as  shown  above,  Melbourne  provided  a 
market  for  15,000,000  lb.,  or  over  one-half  of  the  entire 
trade  of  the  Australasian  colonies. — Indian  Agricul- 
turist, Aug.  13. 
THE  INFLUENCE  OF  TEA,  COFFEE,  AND 
COCOA  ON  DIGESTION. 
Dr.  James  W.  Fraser,  in  a recent  number  of  the 
Journal  of  Anatomy  and  rhysiology,  has  recorded  the 
results  of  an  interesting  series  of  experiments  on  the 
action  of  onr  common  beverages  on  stomachio  and 
intestinal  digestion.  The  experiments  have  been 
most  carefully  arranged  from  a physical  standpoint, 
and  give  us  some  valuable  hints  on  the  digestion  of  the 
chief  alimentary  principles,  but  they  have  no  bearing, 
\\  jjbqqld  be  mentioned,  on  individual  variations  of 
human  digestion,  or  on  the  influence  of  the  various 
glands  in  preparing  the  gastric  or  intestinal  juices. 
They  are,  however,  of  much  value  in  showing  how 
standard  preparations  of  the  peptic  and  pancreatic 
ferments  are  modified  in  action  when  onr  ordinary 
daily  beverages  are  allowed  their  free  action  on  tha 
digestion  of  various  articles  of  food.  The  digestive 
processes  were  carefully  investigated,  and  absorption 
was  imitated  by  a proper  dialyzing  arrangement. 
An  artificial  peptic  juice,  and  afterwards  an 
artificial  pancreatic  juice,  were  employed,  and 
the  amount  of  nitrogenous  matter  dialyzed 
was  most  carefully  estimated.  The  food  staffs  ex- 
perimented on  were  raw  and  eooked  serum  and  egg 
albumens,  raw  and  cooked  myosin,  eyntonin,  alkali 
albumen,  casein,  gluten,  starch,  and  oleine.  The 
results  obtained  from  an  exhaustive  series  of  experi- 
ments and  analyses  show  that  all  the  three  typical 
infused  beverages — tea,  coffee,  and  cocoa — retard  the 
digestion  and  absorption  of  all  the  nitrogenized  prox- 
imate principles  of  dietetic  substances  when  peptio 
and  pancreatic  digestion  was  taken  together,  and 
that  they  uniformly  retard  peptic  digestion,  although 
tea  may  assist  the  diffusion  of  peptones  from  the 
stomach.  Pancreatic  digestion  is  also  uniformly  re- 
tarded, and  diffusion  thereafter  is  but  rarely  assisted, 
so  that  neither  of  them  compares  advantageously  with 
water  as  a staadurd  beverage  for  experimental  investi- 
gations. A summary  of  dietetic  advice  is  added  to  Dr. 
Fraser’s  observations,  which  will,  in  the  main,  agree 
with  that  which  is  dow  given  by  onr  best  authorities 
in  cases  of  dyspepsia  ; and  we  are  glad  that  experi- 
mental inquiries  afford  so  strong  a basis  of  support  to 
empirical  clinical  observations: 
“ 1.  That  it  is  better  not  to  eat  most  albuminoid 
food  stuffs  at  the  same  time  as  infused  beverages  are 
taken,  for  it  has  been  shown  that  their  digestion  wi'l 
in  most  cases  be  retarded,  though  there  are  possibly 
exceptions.  Absorption  may  be  rendered  more  rapid, 
but  there  is  a loss  of  nutritive  substance.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  digestion  of  starchy  food  appears  to 
be  assisted  by  tea  and  coffee ; and  gluten,  the 
abluminoid  of  flour,  has  been  seen  to  be  the  princi- 
ple least  retarded  in  digestion  by  tea,  and  it  only 
comes  third  with  cocoa,  while  coffee  has  apparently 
a much  greater  retarding  action  on  it.  From  this  it  ap- 
pears that  bread  is  the  natural  accompaniment  of  tea  and 
cocoa  when  used  as  the  beverage  at  a meal.  Per- 
haps the  action  of  coffee  is  the  reason  why  in  this 
country,  it  is  usually  drunk  alone  or  at  breakast, 
a meal  which  consists  much  of  meat,  and  of  meats 
(eggs  and  salt  meats)  which  are  not  much  retarded 
in  digestion  of  coffee. 
2.  That  eggs  are  the  best  form  of  animal  food  to 
be  taken  along  with  infused  beverages,  and  that 
apparently  they  are  best  lightly  boiled  if  tea,  hard 
boiled  if  coffee  or  cocoa  is  the  beverage. 
3.  That  the  casein  of  the  milk  and  cream  taken 
with  the  beverages  is  probably  absorbed  in  a large 
degree  from  the  stomach. 
4.  That  the  butter  used  with  bread  undergoes 
digestion  more  slowly  in  the  presence  of  tea,  but 
more  quickly  in  the  presence  of  coffee  or  cocoa ; 
that  is,  if  the  fats  of  butter  are  influenced  in  a 
similar  way  to  oleine. 
5.  That  the  use  of  coffee  or  cocoa  as  excipients 
for  codliver  oil,  etc.,  appears  not  only  to  depend  on 
their  pronounced  tastes,  but  also  on  their  action  in 
assisting  the  digestion  of  fats.” 
COFFEE  AND  TEA  GROWING  IN  PERAK. 
Mr.  Butler,  the  Collector  and  Magistrate,  at  Kuala 
Kangsar,  iu  his  annual  report  for  1891  published  in  the 
Perak  Government  Gazette  of  the  26th  August  thus  de- 
scribes the  progress  of  coffee  planting  there  last 
year : — 
Sir  Graeme  Elphinstone  informs  me  that  he  is  much 
pleased  with  the  character  and  promise  of  the  young 
coffee  on  the  Waterloo  Estate,  and  that  his  favourable 
opinion  is  shared  by  others  who  have  had  many  years 
experience  in  Oeylon  coffee.  In  referring  to  the 
labour  question,  he  writes ; i1 1 hsve  now  £0 
