THE “DRINK OF HEALTH.”
Now that the benefits derived from the use of Tea can be fairly
estimated, it may be said, in the language of an eminent statesman:
“What was first regarded as a luxury, has now become, if not an
absolute necessity, at least one of our accustomed daily wants, the
loss of which would cause more suffering and excite more regret than
would the deprivation of many things which once were counted as
necessaries of life.” Consumed by all classes, serving not simply as
an article of diet, but as a refreshing and invigorating beverage, Tea
cannot be too highly estimated. The wisdom of successive financiers,
and the enterprise of generations of merchants, have combined to
deliver Tea in this country at a price which brings it within the reach
of every individual, making it, perhaps, the only real luxury which is
common to rich and poor alike.
In noticing Dr. Johnston’s work, entitled “The Chemistry of Common
Life,” the _Edinburgh Review_ thus emphatically attests the great boon
which Tea confers upon the people. It remarks: “By her fireside, in
her humble cottage, the lonely widow sits; the kettle simmers over
the ruddy embers, and the blackened tea-pot on the hot brick prepares
her evening drink. Her crust of bread is scanty, yet as she sips the
warm beverage--little sweetened, it may be, with the produce of the
sugar-cane--genial thoughts awaken in her mind; her cottage grows less
dark and lonely, and comfort seems to enliven the ill-furnished cabin.
When our suffering and wounded soldiers were brought down frozen and
bleeding from the trenches before Sebastopol to the port of Balaklava,
the most welcome relief to their sufferings was a pint of hot Tea,
which was happily provided for them. Whence this great solace to the
weary and worn? Why out of scanty earnings does the ill-fed and lone
one cheerfully pay for the seemingly unnourishing weekly allowance of
Tea? From what ever-open fountain does the daily comfort flow which the
tea-cup gently brings to the care-worn and the weak?”
[Illustration: PICKING TEA.--Great care is bestowed on the finest
chops of tea to sort out all defective leaves; this work requires
considerable practice and application.]
Anon, referring to the chemical action of two important agents present
in Tea--theine and volatile oil--the same excellent authority gives
the following account of their operations on the human organism: “The
theine is a substance possessing tonic or strengthening qualities, but
distinguished particularly by the property of retarding the natural
waste of the animal body. Most people are now aware that the chief
necessity for food arises from the gradual and constant wearing away of
the tissues and solid parts of the body. To repair and restore the worn
and wasted parts, food must be constantly eaten and digested. And the
faster the waste, the larger the quantity of food which must daily be
consumed, to make up for the loss which this waste occasions. Now, the
introduction of a certain quantity of theine into the stomach lessens
the amount of waste which in similar circumstances would otherwise
naturally take place. It makes the ordinary food consumed along with
it, go farther, therefore, or, more correctly, lessens the quantity
of food necessary to be eaten in a given time. A similar effect, in a
somewhat less degree, is produced by the volatile oil, and, therefore,
the infusion of Tea, in which both these ingredients of the leaf
are contained, affects the rapidity of the natural waste in the Tea
drinker, in a very marked manner.
“As age creeps on, the powers of digestion diminish with the failing
of the general vigour, till the stomach is no longer able to digest
and appropriate new food as fast as the body wears away. When such
is the case, to lessen the waste is to aid the digestive powers in
maintaining the strength and bulk of the weakening frame. ‘It is no
longer wonderful, therefore,’ says our author, ‘that Tea should be the
favourite on the one hand, with the poor whose supplies of substantial
food are scanty; and, on the other, with the aged and infirm,
especially of the feebler sex, whose powers of digestion, and whose
bodily substance have together begun to fail.’ Nor is it surprising
that the aged female whose earnings are barely sufficient to buy what
are called the common necessaries of life, should yet spare a portion
of her small gains in procuring this grateful indulgence. She can
sustain her strength with less common food when she takes her Tea along
with it: while she, at the same time, feels lighter in spirits, more
cheerful, and fitter for this dull work of life, because of this little
indulgence.”[C]
[C] _Edinburgh Review_, Vol. CI., No. 206, April, 1855.
Such an indispensable article as Tea has now become, ought to be trebly
guarded against all adulteration. While the Government is unable to
protect the public against the machinations of unscrupulous Chinese
merchants, let the public at least endeavour to protect itself. And
this it can readily accomplish. Let it but bestow its custom on a
trader upon whose integrity and technical knowledge it can implicitly
rely. Let it insist upon having both its black and green Teas of the
natural hue, without the addition of “face,” “glaze,” or artificial
colour, which but detract from its character and value. How such a
discreet selection can be effected has already been pointed out. Houses
of repute--such, for example, as that of Messrs. Horniman and Co.--do
not conceal their names behind a retailer, but boldly give their
own, coupled with a guarantee to every purchaser, however modest his
purchase. Hence, consumers may feel assured that in buying indirectly
from them, the commodity they obtain will not only be free from
adulteration and artificial colour, but will be so carefully selected
from the choicest growths, commensurate with the price demanded, as to
be “always good alike.”
[Illustration]
[Illustration]