The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1908-02-22
Oomdn'S U)orId
Conducted by Helene VaIeau.
Another Food Fad.

Tea is proclaimed as an intoxicant
by an inspired writer in York. Pa.
daily newspaper, who mixes some facts
with a good deal of fiction in explain
ing his theory. The story sounds like
an emanation from the producers of
coffee substitutes and is worth read
ing as curiosity. The York paper
says:
Those good persons who are includ-
ed IN the list of tea and toast philoso-
piers and tea drinkers generally will
be interested in the statement of a
medical authority that the juice of the
tea leaf ranks second only to alcohol
as an intoxicant.
DIR. Charles H. Scott. of the Chica On
board of health, has compiled some sta
tistics bearing on this subject, and he
tlnds that all of the patients who APP.
ply for treatment at the chief dispen-
sary of the city fully 10 per cent are
tea drinkers.
They are ignorant of the fact. but
the symptoms of their cases point, un-
mlstakably, to overindulgence in tea,
and that presumption or inquiry is con-
flrmed by their confessions They suf-
fer from headache, vertigo. insomnia,
palpitation of the heart, mental con-
fusion, nightmare, nausea, hallucina-
tons, morbid depressing of spirits and
sometimes from suicidal impulses.
DIR. SCOTS Investigations included
patients of both sexes and of all ages.
They confessed to drinking from one
pint, the minimum amount admitted, to
fifteen pints of tea each day. More
than half of the patients were of Irish
birth or descent, and nearly one-third
were domestic servants.
In Ireland tea poisoning long has
been recognized as a, widely prevalent
evil, contributing largely to the num-
Der of inmates of insane asylums. and
it is well known that in this country
the most inveterate drinkers of tea are
domestics of Celtic origin, who appar-
emily bring the habit With them to
America.
The evil of tea drinking is not due
so much to the amount consumed as to
the manner in which the liquid is pre-
pared. In most of the cases which
came under the observation of DIR.
Scott the victims were in the habit of
throwing into the teapot an unmeas-
ured quantity of the leaves and of add
ing boiling water to the connection, as
long as the desire for the stimulant re-
manned unquenched. Sometimes the
leaves were kept soaking for day or
more, when a new supply of tea leaves
would be thrown in on top, the con-
sumner being apparently ignorant of the
fact that the boiling of the tea in this
manner extracts the most deleterious
of the tea leaf.
Tea, left standing for twenty-four
hours, will generate from seven to sew
enteen per cent of tannin, as we'll as
a lot of other injurious things. This
form of preparation is most prevalent
among kitchen domestics, who are re-
stricted in the use of tea, and among
shop and factory girls, who are also
great tea drinkers, and it is too often
practiced by other people of small
means who do not wish to waste a sin
gle leaf as long as there is any
strength in ii.
AT best tea is not healthful, but if
we must drink it, the proper way to
the fluid is to pour boiling wa
ter over a given quantity in proper
then allow 1t to stand for
three or four minutes, and then drink
what we need and throw the rest away.
The teapot should be carefully and
thoroughly cleaned before it is set aside
ior further use"