339 
and to disorder the senses. The Chinese pour hot water on the tea, and 
9 draw off the infusion in the same manner as is now practised in Europe; 
but they drink it without sugar or milk. The Japanese reduce the tea to a 
fine powder, by grinding the leaves in a hand-mill; the cups are filled with 
hot water, and as much of this powder as might lie on the point of a moder¬ 
ate sized knife is put into each cup, and stirred about till the liquor foams, 
and it is sipped while warm. According to Du Halde, this method is also 
used in some provinces of China. 
The common people, who have a coarser tea, boil it for some time in 
water, and use the liquor for common drink. Early in the morning, the 
kettle filled with water is hung over the fire, and the tea is either put in in¬ 
closed in a bag, or by means of a basket pressed to the bottom of the vessel. 
The coarsest tea only is used in this manner, the qualities of which being 
more fixed, would probably not be so fully extracted by infusion. 
Tea indeed is the common beverage of all the labouring people in China ; 
and they are scarcely ever represented at work of any kind, but the tea-pot 
and tea-cup appear as their accompaniments: reapers, threshers, and all who 
work out of doors, as well as within, have these attendants.* 
\ 
With respect to the qualities of tea, it appears that an infusion of green 
tea has the effect of raising the sensibility of the nerves, and the irritability 
of the muscles: and that it gives out in distillation an odorous water, which 
is powerfully narcotic. 
That the recent plant contains such an odorous narcotic power, we might 
presume from the necessity which the Chinese find of drying it with much 
heat before it can be brought into use; and that even after such preparation 
they must abstain from the use of it for a year or more, that is, till its vola¬ 
tile parts are still farther dissipated: and it is said, that unless they use this 
precaution, the tea in a more recent state manifestly shows strong narcotic 
powers. Even in this country the more odorous teas often show their powers 
in affecting the nerves of the stomach, and indeed of the whole system. 
From these considerations it may fairly be concluded, that tea is to be 
considered as a narcotic and active substance; and that it is especially such 
in its most odorous state, and therefore less in the bohea than in the green 
tea, and the most so in the finer kinds of the latter. 
* Lettsom, p. 48, 
