Tea has been analyzed by many other chemists, but owing to a difference in the variety, character, quality, age, color and methods of preparation of the specimens submitted, the results have been as varied. The average composition in parts range as follows:— Chemical Constituents. Quantities. Theine, 3 Tannin, 25 Volatile Oil, 1 Albuminoids, 15 Mineral Matter, 6 Gum and Glucose, 21 Vegetable Fibre, 20 Fatty Substances, 4 Water of Absorption, 5 ——— Total, 100 =Theine=—Is the alkaloid of tea and is the substance to which it owes its refreshing and stimulating properties. It is a crystallizable matter, soluble in water, very bitter to the taste and characteristic alike of both tea and coffee, being to these beverages what quinine is to bark, and with the base of cocoa which has recently received the name of “theobromine,” it is also closely related. It is further remarkable as occurring in many other plants dissimilar in structure and character, grown in remote countries, but yet selected by the inhabitants on account of their yielding a slightly exciting and refreshing beverage, and to the presence of which the peculiar physiological action of tea on the animal economy is attributed. It was first discovered under the name of _Caffeine_ by Runge, who originally found it in Coffee, and later by Oudry, who extracted an identical substance from tea, to which he gave the name of _Theine_. Strickler subsequently produced it from cocoa, naming it _Theobromine_. These bodies are evidently related to uric acid as like it, when exposed to the action of nitric acid and ammonia they yield a purple coloring matter, technically termed murioxide.