Tea, coffee, and tobacco come under the heading to which scientific men have given the name of Paratriptics. The demand for them is based upon their power to prevent waste in the body, so that by their help and stimulus men can do more work and endure more privation with a smaller amount of actual food. Tea, coffee, and tobacco are not food, although temporarily and continuously they supplement it. The physiologist Mole-schott calls them the "savings banks" of the tissues.

As in the case of most articles of food, very little thought has been devoted to the preparation of tea and coffee for the table. In a great country like England it is impossible to obtain really well-made coffee except in a few private houses, while English tea is generally a rank and astringent decoction instead of a delicate infusion. The traditions of the preparation of these beverages have become corrupted.

When both tea and coffee were comparatively newly introduced into Europe, the methods of preparing them were simple and logical. In his rare volume, "La Maison Reglee et l'Art de Diriger la Maison d'un Grand Seigneur et Autres, etc. Avec la veritable methode de faire toutes sortes d'essences d'eaux et de liqueurs fortes et rafraichissements a la mode d'ltalie" (Paris, 1692), the author, Audiger, who was the first limonidier-glacier that Paris boasted, records two recipes for making tea and coffee which he learned in Italy in 1659.

"Take a pint of water and make it boil; then put in it two pinches of tea, and immediately remove it from the fire, for the tea must not boil; you let it rest and infuse time enough to say two or three paters ("l'espace de deux ou troispate"), and then serve it with powdered sugar on a porcelain dish, so that each one may sugar to his taste."

"Tea," adds Audiger, "comes from the kingdom of Siam, and is prepared as above; its properties are to settle the fumes of the brain and to refresh and purify the blood.

It is generally taken in the morning, to wake up the spirits and give appetite, and after meals to help digestion."

Audiger prepares his coffee by first of all pounding the freshly roasted berries in a mortar or grinding them in a mill. Then he boils a pint of water in a coffee-pot, takes the pot off the fire when the water boils, puts in it two spoonfuls of coffee, stirs, and boils it up to foaming, withdrawing it from the fire each time the moment the foam rises. This operation of foaming he repeats gently ten or twelve times, and then precipitates the grounds, and clarifies the coffee by pouring into it a glass of cold water.

"Coffee," remarks this excellent authority, "is a grain that comes from Persia and the other countries of the Levant, where it is the natural and most common drink. When prepared as we have described, its qualities are that it refreshes the blood, dissipates the vapors and fumes of wine, aids digestion, enlivens the spirits, and prevents sleepiness in those who have much business."

These recipes are founded upon true principles. Chemical analysis shows that tea contains poisonous elements, whereas coffee is innocuous, and the whole of the berry good to eat. In preparing tea we must beware of setting free the poisonous elements which the leaves contain, and that is the reason why a decoction of tea is deleterious. In coffee, on the other hand, where the whole is eatable, a decoction is admissible, and even desirable; for instance, in coffee a la Turque, in which the liquid is not clarified, but served with the grounds and all.

The proper and only truly hygienic manner of making tea is to infuse the leaves in boiling water, either by pouring the water over the leaves or by throwing the leaves into the boiling water. The time necessary for the infusion depends on the quality and quantity of the tea used and on the taste of the drinker. Some persons advocate pouring a small quantity of boiling water over the leaves at first, and a moment afterwards putting in the remaining amount desired. This method may be advantageous when a large quantity of tea is to be made; but for two or three cups I do not believe that it enhances the quality of the beverage.

The points to be insisted upon are that the tea should be freshly made, and not left to "brew" for an indefinite period.

The teapot must be hot when the boiling water is poured in, otherwise the temperature of the boiling water would experience a sudden change, and the infusion would taste flat.

Tea should be prepared daintily, in small quantities, and drank immediately. If it be needful to prepare tea in large quantities, the infusion should be decanted in a warmed earthen teapot as soon as it has acquired the appropriate strength.

The object of decanting the infusion is to prevent the liquid from becoming impregnated with tannic acid and other acrid and noxious principles which the tea-leaves contain.

Tea, as it is usually made in England and in America, where the process of infusion is allowed to continue indefinitely until the teapot is emptied, is a rank decoction of tea-leaves which can only be drank after it has been softened by the addition of milk or cream and sugar.

The infusion of tea made as Audiger directs is a suave drink, soft to the palate, and tasting only of the delicate aroma of the tea-leaves. The time required for the infusion can only be determined by experience and individual taste. The equivalent in modern parlance of Audiger's "two or three paternosters" would be five to ten minutes. Remember that the longer the tea is infused the more acrid it becomes, because the leaves give forth more and more tannic acid.

For tea-making and for all delicate cooking operations the water should be caught at the first boil. Nickel or silver pots are unobjectionable, provided they be kept scrupulously clean ; but ordinary earthen or porcelain pots are preferable on all accounts.

Tea made as above described will be drank with or without loaf-sugar sweetening, and needs no softening and spoiling with milk or cream.