Tea Adulteration. — In the earlier days of the tea trade, adulteration, especially prior to importation, was frequent, because the prices obtainable made it remunerative. Now, intentional adulteration is practically non-existent, chiefly because of the fact that in the places of production the price obtainable is so low that any possible adulterant would be too costly to collect. Most countries have a close check upon this at the time of importation, and the customs authorities in Great Britain submit to analysis all samples of a doubtful character. Impure teas are not permitted to pass into consumption, but the quantity condemned after analysis as unfit for food in the year 1906 was 41 packages, out of a total of 317,000,000 ℔.
Effect on Health.—The effect of the use of tea upon health has been much discussed. In the days when China green teas were more used than now, the risks to a professional tea-taster were serious, because of the objectionable facing materials so often used. In the modern days of machine-made black tea, produced under British supervision, both the tea-taster and the ordinary consumer have to deal with a product which, if carefully converted into a beverage and used in moderation, should be harmless to all normal human beings. There has been constant controversy as to whether China tea is better than that of other growths, but the verdict first of all of Great Britain, and subsequently of all the other large consuming countries, has relegated the produce of the Celestial Empire to a very subordinate position. A limited section of medical opinion has recommended China tea for reasons of health, and undoubtedly the inferior strength it possesses reduces the risk arising from improper use, but it also reduces the stimulating and comforting effects the ordinary tea-drinker hopes to experience. Next to water, tea is the beverage most widely in use throughout the world as regards the number of its votaries as well as the total liquid quantity consumed.
Bibliography.—The statistics given are taken as far as possible from official returns, and where such are unavailable they have been carefully compiled from reliable data.
The literature of tea is very copious, but scattered in pamphlet form to a great extent. In addition to the books quoted in the text, the following may be mentioned: — Bontekoe, Tractat van het txcellensle Kruyd Thee (The Hague, 1679) ; Sylvestre Dufour, Traités Nouveaux et Curieux du Café, du Thé, et du Chocolat (2nd ed., Lyons, 1688; translation of 1st edition by John Chamberlayne, London, 1685; translations also in Spanish and Latin); J. G. Houssaye, Monographie du Thé (Paris, 1843); Robert Fortune, Three Years’ Wanderings in China (London, 1847); Id., A Journey to the Tea Countries of China (London, 1852); S. Ball, Tea Cultivation in China (London, 1848); J. J. L. L. Jacobson, Handboek voor de Kultuur en Fabrikatie van Thee (3 vols., 1 843) ; S. A. Schwarzkopf, Die narkotischen Genussmittel—i. Der Thee (Halle, 1881); Lieut.-Colonel E. Money, Cultivation and Manufacture of Tea (3rd ed., London, 1878); F. T. R. Deas, Young Tea Planter’s Companion (London, 1886). See also parliamentary papers and official publications of Indian government; Monographs on brick tea, Formosa tea and other special studies, prepared for the Tea Cess Committees of India and Ceylon ; Journals of the Royal Asiatic Society, Journal of the Society of Arts, Geographical Journal, Tea and Coffee Trade Journal (New York), &c. For practical planting details, see Tea; its Cultivation and Manufacture, by David Crole (1897), with a full bibliography; also Rutherford’s Planter’s Handbook. For scientific aspects see Chemistry and Agriculture of Tea, by M. Kelway Bamber (1893). (J. McE.)
TEA-CADDY, a box, jar, canister or other receptacle for
tea. The word is believed to be derived from catty, the Chinese
pound, equal to about a pound and a third avoirdupois. The
earliest examples that came to Europe were of Chinese porcelain,
and approximated in shape to the ginger-jar. They had lids
or stoppers likewise of china, and were most frequently blue and
white. The English kilns at first imitated them, but speedily
devised forms and ornament of their own, and there was hardly
a ceramic factory in the country which did not compete for
the supply of the new fashion. But tea-caddies were not for
long confined to procelain or faience. They were presently
made in a great variety of materials, and in an equal variety
of shapes. Wood, pewter, tortoise-shell, brass, copper and
even silver were employed, but in the end the material most
frequently used was wood, and there still survive vast numbers
of Georgian box-shaped caddies in mahogany, rosewood, satin-
wood and other choice timbers, often mounted in brass and
delicately inlaid, with knobs of ivory, ebony or silver. Although
many examples were made in Holland, principally of the earthen-
war of Delft, the finer varieties enamelled, enriched with
ciphers, and emblazoned with heraldry, the tea-caddy was a
typically English product. As the use of the jar waned and
that of the box increased, the provision of different receptacles
for green and black tea was abandoned, and the wooden caddy,
with a lid and a lock, was made with two and often three
divisions, the centre portion being reserved for sugar. Chippen-
dale's caddies in Louis Quinze fashion were delightful, with
their claw and ball feet and exquisite finish. On the whole
the mahogany or rosewood caddy of the latter part of the 18th
and the early years of the 19th century was, from the artistic
point of view, the most elegant and satisfying. The wood
was rich and well-marked, the inlay simple and delicate, the
form graceful and unobtrusive. Even when it took the shape
of a miniature sarcophagus, imitated from the massive wine-
coolers of the Empire period, with little claw feet and brass
rings, it was a decidedly pleasing object. The larger varieties
were known as tea-chests. As tea grew cheaper it became less important that it should be kept constantly under the mistress's eye, and the tea-caddy gradually fell into desuetude. It has, however, never gone entirely out of use, though handsome examples are now most commonly regarded as ornaments or preserved in collections.
TEACH [Thatch or Thach], EDWARD (d. 1718), English pirate, popularly known as Blackbeard, is believed to have
been born at Bristol. He is said to have gone out to the West
Indies during the war of the Spanish Succession, to have engaged
in privateering, and after the declaration of peace (1713) to
have turned pirate, but he is not actually heard of in this
capacity till the end of 1716. The following year he captured
a large French merchantman, rechristened her " Queen Anne's
Revenge," and converted her into a warship of forty guns. His
robberies and outrages in the Spanish main, the West Indies,
and on the coasts of Carolina and Virginia, quickly earned
him an infamous notoriety. He made his winter quarters in a
convenient inlet in North Carolina, the governor of which
colony was not above sharing in the proceeds of his crimes,
but the governor of Virginia at last despatched two sloops,
manned from the British warships on the station, to cut him
out. On the 22nd of November 1718 Lieutenant Maynard, commanding the attacking forces, boarded Teach's sloop, after a sharp fight, and himself shot the pirate dead. Teach seems to have been an ignorant ruffian. His personal appearance was remarkable. His nickname was due to his habit of tying up the ends of his long and bushy black beard with ribbon and curling them back over his ears. Johnson in his General History of the Pyrates gives his name as Teach, but according to the official records it was really Thatch or Thach.
TEAK,[1] the most valuable of all known timbers. For use in tropical countries it has no equal, and for certain purposes it is preferable to other woods in temperate climates also. Its price is higher than that of any other timber, except mahogany.[2] Great efforts have been made to find substitutes, but no timber has been brought to market in sufficient quantities combining the many valuable qualities which teak possesses.
The first good figure and description of the tree was given by Rheede,[3] the best modern picture being that given by Brandis,[4] The younger Linnaeus called it Tectona grondis. It is a large deciduous tree, of the natural order Verbenaceae, with a tall, straight but often buttressed stem, a spreading crown, and the branch lets four-sided with large quadrangular pith. It is a native of the Indian peninsula, Burma and Siam, and is also found in the Philippine Islands, in Iava and elsewhere in the Malay Archipelago. In India proper its northern limit is 24° 40′ on the west side of the Aravalli Hills, and in the centre, near jliansi, in 25° 30′ N. lat. In Burma it extends
- ↑ The Sanskrit name of teak is saka, and it is certain that in India teak has been known and used largely for considerably more than 2000 years. In Persia teak was used nearly 2000 years ago, and the town of Siraf on the Persian Gulf was entirely built of it. Saj is the name in Arabic and Persian; and in Hindi, Mahratti and the other modern languages derived from Sanskrit the tree is called sag, sagwan. In the Dravidian languages the name is teka, and the Portuguese, adopting this, called it teke, teca, whence the English name.
- ↑ The rate in the London market since 1860 has fluctuated between £10 and £20 per load of 50 cub. ft.
- ↑ Hortus Malabaricus, vol. iv. tab. 27, 1683.
- ↑ Forest Flora of North- West and Central India, Ill. t. 44.
