Sir Lauder Brunton[22] who has also given much study to the question made some remarks in his Lettsomian Lectures on the “Disorders of Digestion.” He said that tea was very apt to cause a feeling of acidity and flatulence. Sometimes the acidity comes on so soon after the tea taken that it is difficult to assign any other cause for it than an alteration in sensibility of the mucous membrane of the stomach or œsophagus. The effect of tannin he said was to interfere very considerably with the digestion of fresh meat, and there were many people in whom tea taken along with fresh meat will upset the digestion. It did not interfere with the digestion of dried meat such as ham or tongue, the fibres of these have already become shrunk or toughened in the process of curing. He thought that tea at breakfast was not so apt to cause indigestion, but that tea in the afternoon two or three hours after lunch would sometimes bring on acidity almost immediately. A part of the mischief wrought by tea in the lower classes was due to allowing it to infuse for a long time so that a large quantity of tannin was extracted. Another reason was that the poor were accustomed to drink tea very hot. Heat was a powerful stimulant of the heart, and a cup of hot tea was therefore much more stimulating and refreshing than a cold one. The practice, however, of sipping the tea almost boiling was apt to bring on a condition of gastric catarrh. Sir B. W. Richardson was probably more opposed to the practice of tea-drinking than any of our leading modern physicians and as one of the most distinguished medical reformers of recent times his opinion is entitled to carry much weight.