affects the mental health of every man, woman and child, and if the starved stomach becomes a prey to chronic dyspepsia the chances are very great that the mind will, before long, be materially affected especially where there is a predisposition to insanity of an hereditary type.” With these important testimonies from responsible officials, it is difficult to resist the conclusion that the abuse of tea drinking has acted as a factor in the increased prevalence of insanity. As a general conclusion from my investigations I have no doubt that in the first place we drink too much tea; this is shewn by a simple calculation from the average annual amount imported for consumption. Of course children of tender years should obviously be given no strong stimulants (such as tea or coffee) and adults would be acting wisely to very much limit the amount taken. With regard to the best method of preparation it should be infused, (neither stewed or decocted) and certainly for no longer period than five minutes, and a good plan is to pour the tea off at the end of this time into another vessel so as to save further exhaustion from the leaves. In reference to the variety of tea best to use, although it is not certain that the average of China teas contains less tannin than Indian teas, there is no doubt that individual samples of China tea can be procured comparatively free from this deleterious substance. With a view of discovering the constituent parts of the tea popularly consumed, I procured samples from each of the four leading Companies, which probably amongst them, supply nine-tenths of the tea drunk in London Restaurants. The infusion was made in exactly the same way as described above and the analyses came out as follows:-- TABLE I. RESTAURANT TEAS. (Infusion of 8 grammes with 600 cc. of boiling distilled water for 5 min.) Proportion of Tannin No. Description Retail Per cent. Per cent. Per cent. corresponding and District. Price Extract. Alkaloid. Tannin. to 2·8 per lb. per cent. Alkaloid. 1 “China” Tea 2/2 20·20 2·51 4·85 5·41 2 Ordinary Black 2/2 25·60 2·04 9·03 12·39 Tea 3 “China” Tea 2/0 20·06 2·15 3·02 3·93 4 Ordinary Black 2/0 27·90 2·69 9·74 10·13 Tea 5 “Russian” Tea 2/6 23·50 2·30 5·36 6·52 6 Ordinary Black 2/8 24·60 3·02 6·03 5·59 Tea 7 “China” Tea 2/4 24·50 2·22 5·85 7·37 8 Ordinary Black 2/2 28·31 2·72 8·44 8·69 Tea