The action of tea upon the system ia stimulating and invigorating. It is an agreeable antacid, and is exceedingly refreshing if drunk when fatigued or after exercise. The proper time to drink tea, and when its effects are most beneficial, is about three hours after dinner. At this time, the digestion of the meal is just complete, and there remains in the stomach an excess of gastiic juice which creates an uneasy sensation unless it is neutralized by a mild antacid such as tea or coffee. For this purpose, the simple infusion, containing no milk or cream, or very little, and no sugar, is best adapted.
The presence of the alkaloid theine in tea has the remsrkable effect of sensibly retarding the waste of the animal body, and thus of diminishing the necessity for food to repair it in an equal pro portion. Iu other words, by the consumption of a eertain quantity of tea, the health and strength of the body will be maintained in an equal degree upon a smaller supply of ordinary food. Tea therefore stands to a certain extent in the place of food, while at the same time it refreshes the body and stimulates the mind. Tannin probably aids also in the exhilarating effects produced by tea ; it imparts to the infusion an astringent taste and a somewhat constipating effect upon the bo wels.
The practice of " facing " tea, as it is termed, cannot be too strongly condemned. Formerly, large quantities of Prussian blue were used in China to impart a fictitious colour to green teas ; about 1 oz. being used to 14 lb. of tea. More reeently it is said that indigo has been substi tuted, in consequence probably of the injurious effects which European writers have described the Prussian blue aa possibly producing on the cunatitution of green-tea drinkers. Leas doubt exists aa to the pernicious qualities of an adulterated tea largely manufactured by the Chinese, under the name of Lie tea. This consists of the sweepings and dust of the tea-warehousea, ceznented together with rice-water and rolled into grains. These adulterated teas have been imported into this country to the extent of half a million pounds weight in a single year. In this, as in other similar cases, the poorest classes, who can least afford it, are the greatest sufferers from the fraudulent introduction of the spurious mixture into the teas they buy. Black teas are some times faced with finely powdered plumbago or blaeklead.
Tho common way of making the infusion is well known to everyone. The tea is plaeed in a tea
pot, is previously heated with hot water, and covered with boiling water. This ia allowed to infuse for some minutes, and the teapot is then filled up with boiling water as required. If the water be boiling when poured upon the tea, as it always should be, about ten or fifteen minutes suffice to extract the whole, or nearly the whole, of the soluble constituents.
Toddy. (FR., Toddi ; GER., Toddy.) Toddy is the sweet juice obtained from various trees of the palm species. When the trees are required to yield toddy in place of fruit, the flower-stalks are, when just efflorescent, cut off, and a deep incision is made in the stump, from which, after repeated beatings, the toddy flows into vessels hung beneath to receive it. One tree, when full-grown, will sometimes yield as much aa six pints of toddy per diem.
Toddy, when quite fresh, is a cool, delicious, and wholesome beverage ; after standing a few hours, it ferments and becomes highly intoxicating. It serves extensively as yeast, and throughout Ceylon, no other ia employed by the bakers. A kind of vinegar is also prepared from it which is used for pickling gherkins, limes, the undeveloped leaves of the cocoa-nut and the palmyra trees, and various other vegetable substances. By far the larger quantity of toddy made is used in the manufacture of "jaggery," a species of sugar, resembling maple sugar, of whieh it is said that upwards of 1000 tons are annually made in Ceylon. According to Forbes, three quarts of toddy will produce 1 lb. of jaggery. In Jaffna, the unfermented juice is boiled to the consistence of a thick syrup ; this is poured into baskets made of plaited palm-leaves, when, on cooling, it crystallizes into jaggcry. In these baskets, the jaggery is kept for home consumption, or exported to other lands to be refined. Jaggery forms an article of commerce from tbe upper to the lower pro vinces of Burmah, and is also of importance in some of the islands of the Indian Archipelago. Besides being exported in large quantities from Ceylon, it forms a considerable portion of the food of the Tamil population of Jaffna. Among,st a variety of purposes to which it is put is that of being mixed with the white of eggs, and with lime from burnt coral, or shells. The result is a tenacious cement, capable of receiving so beautiful a polish that it can only with difficulty be distioguashed from the finest white marble.