next proposed "The health of Miss Agnes Weston," and said that no words of his could make her dearer than she already was to the British sailor. The toast was duly honoured, as was also that of Mr. Francis. The use of tea among cricketers, scullers, pedestrians, cyclists, and others is also becoming more general; for instance, Mr. Wynter Blyth, Medical Officer of Health for Marylebone, says, "I have studied the diets recorded as in use, and find that those who have done long journeys successfully have used that class of diet which science has shown most suitable for muscular exertion--viz. one of a highly nitrogenized character: plenty of meat, eggs, and milk, with bread, but not much butter, and no alcohol. I have cycled for over fifty miles, taking frequent draughts of beer, and in these circumstances, although there has been no alcoholic effect, it has caused great physical depression. The experience of others is the same. However much it may stimulate for a little while, a period of well-marked depression follows. I attribute this in part to the salts of potash which some beers contain, in part to injurious bitters, and in part to the alcohol. My own experience as to the best drink when on the road is most decidedly in favour of tea. Tea appears to rouse both the nervous and muscular system, with, so far as I can discover, no after-depressing effect." [Illustration: PRESSING THE TEA-LEAVES.] The use of alcohol is almost invariably condemned in the various handbooks on training; but the use of tea is always commended. Mr. C. J. Michôd, late Hon. Sec. of the London Athletic Club, in his "Guide to Athletic Training," considers tea preferable for training purposes, as it possesses less heating properties, and is more digestible. The greatest pedestrian of our time, Mr. Edward Payson Weston, finds in tea and rest the most effective restoratives. Lately he walked 5000 miles in 100 days, and after each day's work, lectured on "Tea _versus_ Beer." Even the publicans on the roads, he says, used to meet him with cups of tea and basins of milk. A Norwich physician, Dr. Beverley, testified to the value of tea in mountain-climbing. "The hardest physical work I have done," he says, "has been mountain-climbing in Switzerland, and on such occasions after a breakfast, of which coffee and milk and bread formed the chief articles of food, it was my custom to fill my flask with an infusion of cold tea, made over-night from a stock kept for the purpose in my knapsack, and this I invariably found to be the most refreshing drink for such purposes. This is confirmed by all experienced in Alpine ascents, who know only too well that the man who has recourse to his flask of brandy or sherry seldom gains the mountain-top."