as a tendency to cause
digestive disturbances. It is seemingly not generally known that
there are many varieties of tea, and that some of them are so
superior in flavor and bouquet to others that they might well be
entirely different substances. The best of all (in the writer's
opinion) are those that are composed largely of leaves grown in
Ceylon, usually mixed with India tea. If we will demand of our
grocer a first-class Ceylon tea we will find that a beverage may be
made from it that will appeal quite as much to the palate as a good
coffee.

Before dismissing this subject finally, some reference should be
made to ice-tea. This beverage is exceedingly palatable when
properly prepared, and under such circumstances by no means
deserves the disfavor with which it is regarded by many. The latter
circumstance is entirely due to two things; first, we find too
frequently that it is the habit of house-keepers to pour boiling
water on the leaves when the midday meal is cooked and to allow
them to soak together until night, and second, the fact that
lemon-juice is very commonly added to the tea before being drunk.
The ice that the tea contains has little or nothing to do with the
dyspeptic disturbances that frequently follow the drinking of cold
tea. If we will leave out the lemon and pour off the water after it
has been in contact with the tea leaves for something like a
minute, it will be discovered that practically all of the ill
effects usually ascribed to this palatable beverage have been done
away with.

_Alcohol._--A discussion of beverages would not be complete without some
mention of those containing alcohol. This at once brings us face to face
with the bitter controversy on this subject that has been waged so long
throughout the United States, and which can only be considered here from
the standpoint of the effects of alcohol on the human economy, and to
draw corresponding conclusions.

That alcohol, even in very small quantities, reduces the general strength
and capacity for work there can be no question, and in addition we find
from experiments carefully conducted on the lower animals that the
liability to infection by various disease-producing germs is greatly
increased by the administration of even minute amounts of the drug. A
man then who is a habitual user of alcoholic drinks not only