A Treatise on Foreign Teas Part 1

A Treatise on Foreign Teas.

by Hugh Smith.

INTRODUCTION.

As two of the four meals that form our daily subsistence are chiefly composed of tea, an enquiry into what kind is the most salutary must be as necessary as it may prove interesting and beneficial; for, on the choice of proper or improper tea must greatly depend the health or disease of the public in general. To this may be attributed the const.i.tution being either preserved from that innumerable train of afflictions, which arise from too great a relaxation of the nervous system by acute distempers, misfortunes, &c. or being so debilitated by excessive drinking of India Tea, as to render it alone the prey of melancholy, palsies, epilepsies, night-mares, swoonings, flatulencies, low spirits, hysteric and hypochondriacal affections. For tea that is pernicious is not only poison to those who, from any cause of corporal debility or mental affliction, are liable to the above diseases;--but it is also too frequently found to render the most healthy victims of these alarming complaints. And as nervous disorders are the most complicated in their distressing circ.u.mstances, the greater care should be taken to avoid such aliments as produce them, as well as to choose those which are the most proper for their relief and prevention. Those who are now suffering from the inconsiderate use of improper tea, what pitiable objects of distress and disease do they not represent for the caution of those who may timely preserve themselves? Nervous disorders are the most formidable, by being the most numerous in their attacks upon the human frame. Every moment, comparatively speaking, produces some new distress of mind or body. The imagination cannot avoid the horrors of its own creation, while the memory is harra.s.sed with the shadows of departed pleasures, which serve but to encrease the pain of existing torments. All the endearments of life are vanished to the poor wretch who sees himself surrounded by the spectres of dismay, terror, despondency, and melancholy. And such is but the thousandth part of the afflictions that are to be avoided or produced by the choice of the prevailing beverage of tea. Not only the innumerable train of nervous afflictions, but all those disorders that arise from an improper temperature of the fluids, may be produced from the action, corrosion, and stimulation of pernicious teas. In proportion to the state of the fluids, in particular const.i.tutions, they may either prove too relaxing or astringent, too condensing or attenuating, and too acrid or viscid; for India teas, that to some const.i.tutions are very diluting, may produce in others contrary effects: therefore such should be chosen as possess a combination of quality that may render them, as nearly as possible, to a general specific. But this cannot be well expected where one single ingredient is used, and that is distinguished for its particular qualities, which, if wholesome, can only be such to those whose fluids are so, by nature or circ.u.mstances, as to require such a particular a.s.sistant; for to every other state of the fluids they must be pernicious. It is consequently evident, that if teas imported from India have any virtues, they cannot be such as to render them worthy of being universally adopted as a general aliment. If wholesome to a few, they must be pernicious to the rest of mankind, with whose const.i.tutions they have no congeniality, medicinal or alimentary virtue. Supposing they may possess some physical properties, like all other medicines, they can only benefit such disorders as nature particularly formed them to relieve. Those who have been advocates for their positive virtues have, in this instance, but more confirmed the impropriety of adopting them as a general morning and evening beverage.

This only explains more evidently the cause of so many being injured, where one is benefited, by drinking constantly India tea. There cannot possibly be stated a more self-evident proposition than where any simple or combined matter is adopted for a particular purpose, it must, in every opposite instance, prove injurious. In proportion, therefore, to such particular qualities, they are the more improper to be generally and indiscriminately adopted. This observation, although it may be applied to every art or science, is still more applicable to physic. Thus is it found that no medicine can be safely taken as a constant and general aliment. Even those who, at first, might find it beneficial in their respective complaints, have too frequently found the constant use of it afterwards hurtful to the const.i.tution it had before relieved. It may be deduced, from the above considerations, that India teas, however physically beneficial, to allow them all their best of praise, must be as an aliment generally injurious. Instead of preserving health, they sow innumerable disorders, which can only be cured by subst.i.tuting a beverage from such salutary native or exotic herbs as are formed for the particular afflictions the former have so pitiably brought upon the too greater part of mankind.

As almost every disorder to which the human frame is liable may be r.e.t.a.r.ded in its cure, if not confirmed in the const.i.tution, by the power of secretion being weakened, India teas are the most dangerous that can be possibly used as a general beverage. By too much dilating the ca.n.a.ls, the concussive force of the sides is increased, which destroys the oscillatory motion, and thus are the secretions altered and disturbed; and as the action of medicines consists in removing impediments to the equal motion of the fluids, the greater care should be taken to abstain from all food or drink that may increase those impediments. That India teas not only increase but occasion such evils is evident, from their having been experienced to relax the tone and reduce the consistence of the solids. As the powers of secretion depend upon the just equilibrium of force between the solids and the liquids, the latter must, in the above instance, make a greater _impetus_ upon one part than another, from which proceeds that morbid state so justly and emphatically termed Disease. Thus, according to the learned Boerhaave, to heal is to take away the disease from the body; that is, to remove and expel the causes which hinder the equal motion or transflux. Medicines, he says, are those mechanical instruments by which an artist may remove the causes of the balance being destroyed, and thus re-instate the lost equilibrium of solids and liquids. He therefore concludes, that a medicine supposes a flowing of the humours or liquids; that it operates mechanically; that it acts only mediately; that its good or bad effects depend entirely on the bulk, motion, and figure of the acting particles, and that the destruction of the balance must be deduced from the solids. So that, as it has been found that the solids are wasted and impaired by the constant use of India tea, the chief cause of disease, in general, may be attributed to such a pernicious custom; even the properties which he ascribes to medicines are in direct opposition to what have been found to be the prevailing effects of teas imported into Europe. It is consequently evident, that the drinking of this injurious tea being not only, in its operation, productive of disease in its general sense, but also repugnant to the salutary operation of medicine, it is the most dangerous beverage that can be generally taken; for it appears, from the above consideration, that its pernicious effects are not confined to any system of disorders; it is found inimical to the first principles of health, and therefore may be justly dreaded as capable of being the source of disease indefinitely understood.

Having thus stated, as an Introduction to this Essay on Teas, the general tendency of those imported from India, under the t.i.tles of Green, Souchong, and Bohea, to injure the const.i.tution, the following pages will be particularly devoted to the consideration of the nature, preparation, and manner of using, and the effects of such foreign teas.

ESSAY ON TEAS.

There is, perhaps, no subject on which there has been more declamation, for and against its properties and effects, than those of teas imported into this country by the companies trading from the different maritime nations of Europe to China and India. Nor has there been a controversy in which the health of the community has been so materially concerned, that has afforded so little direction of moment to those who would wish to ascertain the truth of such teas being either beneficial, injurious, or innocent in their effects. Amidst a ma.s.s of declamatory a.s.sertion so little intelligence is to be gained, that those who have had the greatest interest in being informed of the real qualities of teas, have most abandoned the enquiry before they obtained the least knowledge of what they sought. Either perplexed with abstruse science, or dissatisfied with a.s.sertion equally unfounded and unsupported, thousands have discontinued the research, and committed themselves to fatal experience. Thus have too many acquired a knowledge of the detrimental qualities of teas, by the ruin of their const.i.tution. To avoid therefore such an inconvenience, the greatest care will be taken to prevent an indiscriminate reference to authors, whose sentiments can neither sanction adduced arguments or ill.u.s.trate technical allusions.

The enquiry will be made with some reference to science, but more to convince by demonstration than to confound by abstruse perplexities. So that, while empty declamation is avoided, the principles of truth are meant to be investigated by reason and experience. With this view, the Nature of Green, Souchong, and Bohea teas is first considered. To judge of the nature of these herbs with equal candour and propriety, it may be necessary to consider their qualities in relation to what are ascribed them, and what have been discovered by their a.n.a.lysis, and what have resulted from experience. The virtues that have been ascribed to them are chiefly, being a greatful diluent in health, and salutary in sickness, by attenuating viscid juices, promoting natural excretions, exciting appet.i.te, and proving particularly serviceable in fevers, immoderate sleepiness, and head-aches after a debauch. It is also added to the list of their ascribed virtues, that there is no plant yet known, the infusions of which pa.s.s more freely from the body, or more speedily excite the spirits. To a person of any physical knowledge, these qualities will either appear contradictory in themselves, or rather ultimately injurious, than absolutely beneficial.

As the full examination of these a.s.sumed qualities, by the rules of science, would require a volume, instead of a few pages, which the limits of this Essay will afford, the enquiry must be made as perspicuous as the necessity of brevity will admit. Allowing they are diluting in health, their constant use may so attenuate the liquids as to destroy their natural force and tensity. But Boerhaave says, there is no proper diluent but water; it is therefore evident it is the water, and not the tea, which is the diluting medium. With respect to its being an attenuative of viscid humours, it can never possess this virtue from being a diluent, for an attenuant acts _specially_ on the particles, by diminishing their bulk, while the diluent acts upon the whole ma.s.s of the fluid.

The general body of the liquid may be diluted while the viscid humours remain unresolved. Indeed, the operation of an attenuant is not easily known; for many are surprised that a slight inflammation should be so difficult to dissipate. But their surprise would cease, were they to consider, that medicines act more generally upon the whole body than abstractedly upon the part affected. Suppose to attenuate some coagulated blood, six grains of volatile salt were given, how small a proportion must come to the part diseased, when these grains, by the laws of circulation, will mix with the entire ma.s.s of blood, consisting at least of thirty pounds!

Teas being said to promote natural excretions, can be no recommendation of what is generally used; for this constant effect must render them too copious, and thus, according to all physical experience, the blood must be thickened in the greater vessels, which frequently terminates in an atrophy.

The appet.i.te being excited by the drinking of tea, is more a proof of its attrition of the solids than any stimulus to a wholesome desire of food. This quality accounts for the acrimonious effects too many have experienced by its use. Many have not only had their blood impoverished, but corrupted by the constant drinking of these teas.

Whether it arises from any positive acrimonious salt it naturally possesses, or from any acquired corrosiveness from its mode of drying, is not here necessary to enquire: it is only requisite to state that a pernicious effect is too fatally experienced by those who are unfortunately its slaves.

How India tea can be serviceable in fevers is not easy to be understood; for, if it has that effect upon the nerves to excite watchfulness, it must greatly tend to increase, instead of diminish feverish symptoms. Dr. Buchan attributes even one cause of the palsy to drinking much tea or coffee, &c. and, in a note, he subjoins: "Many people imagine that tea has no tendency to hurt the nerves, and that drinking the same quant.i.ty of warm water would be equally pernicious.

This, however, seems to be a mistake, many persons drinking three or four cups of warm milk and water daily, without feeling any bad consequences; yet the same quant.i.ty of tea will make their hands shake for twenty-four hours. That tea affects the nerves is likewise evident from its preventing sleep, occasioning giddiness, dimness of the sight, sickness, &c."

With regard to India teas possessing the quality of exciting the spirits, this, like every other stimulus, either by constant use loses its effect, or unnerves the system it is meant to strengthen. The nerves through which the animal spirits circulate being, like the strings of a violin or harpsichord, too frequently braced, lose, at last, their natural tensity, and thus render the human frame one system of debility.

Having thus, as briefly as possible, stated that even their ascribed virtues are either derogatory to all physical principle, or else destructive to the const.i.tution, from their constant use, the nature of India teas is next considered, with respect to what appears to be their chief component parts, from a.n.a.lyzation.

Teas have been found to consist princ.i.p.ally of narcotic salts, some astringent oil, and earth. These being found in greater quant.i.ties in bohea than in green teas, those who have very sensible and elastic nerves must be seized with a greater tremor after drinking the former than the latter. The continual and regular influx of the nervous juices is stopped by their component fibres being contracted from the roughness and restringency of such decoctions. The force of the heat, or the brain's propulsion of its nervous juice, being inferior to the resistance of the whole ramified fibres thus encreased by the sudden contraction and unequal motion, the flow of the animal spirits must be greatly impeded and disordered. In fact, the influx suffers a suspension, until the fibres, by relaxing again, admit their empty tubes to receive their appropriated liquids. Thus even green tea must, especially if taken strong and often, stop the natural circulation of humours, and produce the attendant defects of depression of spirits, deficiency of secretion, loss of appet.i.te, decrease of strength, waste of body, and, finally, a total want of effective vigour in all the animal functions. But, as above observed, bohea tea possessing in greater quant.i.ty the pernicious ingredients, the vessels are thrown into momentary spasms and convulsive vibrations, by the relaxing power of the narcotic salts, and the contracting force of the astringent oil and earth. And here it must be noticed, that oil mixed with salt is rendered astringent: thus all vegetables, where a mixture of both prevails, are reckoned stimulating. The narcotic power of the salt is derived from its hindering the flux of the animal spirits through the nerves.

The stomach and bowels being weakened by the above causes, windy complaints or flatulencies are consequently produced. This caused Dr.

Whytt, in his advice to patients afflicted with such diseases, to desire they would abstain from India tea, as one of the flatulent aliments chiefly to be avoided.

If the slightest external motion alone produces the following changes in the body, what effects may not be ascribed to the constant use of teas, which we find, as before stated, operate internally? A person in perfect health, having his nostrils only touched with a feather, cannot avoid his body being so convulsed as to produce what is commonly called sneezing. But if the number of muscles agitated, the force and straining of the body by sneezing, are considered; the slightness of the cause must excite no little astonishment; for this action is occasioned by the muscles of the scapula, abdomen, diaphragm, thorax, lungs, &c. and if the sneezing continues, an universal explosion of the liquids ensues: tears, mucus, saliva, and urine, are excreted. Thus, without any moist, cold, hot, dry, sulphur, salt, or any other internal or external application, an involuntary motion of all the solids and fluids is produced by a feather touching, in the slightest manner, the inside of our nostrils. But Boerhaave relates further, "That if sneezing continues a long time, as it will by taking one hundredth part of a grain of euphorbium up the nose, grievous and continued convulsions will arise, head-aches, involuntary excretions of urine, &c., vomitings, febrile heats, and other dreadful symptoms; and, at last, death itself will ensue." It is therefore evident that the slightest bodies produce the greatest changes in the human frame.

Such is the power of certain particles upon the nerves, that the stomach will be thrown into convulsions that almost threaten an inversion, by taking only four ounces of a wine in which so small a portion of gla.s.s of antimony as one scruple is infused in eight pounds of the former. And what is still more remarkable is, that the gla.s.s of antimony remains not only undissolved, but, comparatively speaking, undiminished in its weight.

These being a few of the fatal afflictions which experience shews to be frequently the consequence of drinking India teas, its injurious nature is too evident to require any further investigation of either their ascribed or positive qualities. The next subject to be considered, relative to India teas, is their Preparation.

Among the different authors of any consequence that have written on the culture, preparation, and virtues of foreign teas, may be ranked Kampfer, Postlethwaite, Dr. Cunningham, Priestley, Lemery, Franchus, Meister, and Sigesbeck; as the limits of this Treatise will not permit a detail of observations from the whole of these writers, remarks can only be selected from the most princ.i.p.al of them. Most of the above, and many other, authors agree that the leaves are spread upon iron plates, and thus dried with several little furnaces contained in one room. This mode of preparation must greatly tend to deprive the shrub of its native juices, and to contract a rust from the iron on which it is dried. This may probably be the cause of vitriol turning tea into an inky blackness. We therefore do not think with Boerhaave, that the preparers employ green vitriol for improving the colour of the finer green teas. It may however be concluded, from the colour of bohea, souchong, and such as are called black teas, that they may be thus tinctured, by the means of vitriol, after they have been dried upon the iron plates in the furnace room; and this may likewise particularly cause that astringent quality which is more experienced in all the black than any of the green teas. According to Sigesbeck, the colours of these teas are artificial; so that if these pernicious arts are used even to give the tea a particular colour, there is no difficulty in ascribing the cause of their injurious effects.

That the native virtues of these teas are liable to considerable perversion is evident from the manner in which Meister relates they are prepared. He says the leaves are put into a hot kettle just emptied of boiling water, and that they are kept in this closely covered until they are cold, when they are strewed upon the hot plates above mentioned for drying. It is easy to conceive how the virtues of a leaf, however salutary by nature, must be destroyed by such a process. Being thus put into a steaming kettle, and suffered to remain there until they are cold, must cause the greatest part of their Virtues to evaporate, and the leaves to imbibe an unwholesome taint from the effluvia of the steaming metal. It cannot, therefore, be ascertained whether teas that are imported in Europe, after such a mutating preparation, have the least remains of their original odour or flavour, no more than they have of their qualities; but, on the contrary, it seems impossible but that the original nature of this shrub is entirely destroyed by an artificial preparation. Some falsely suppose that this species of management is only to soften such of the leaves as are grown too dry, and are therefore liable to break in the curling; but this will evidently appear not the cause, when it is considered that the greater part of the teas must dry in such a hot climate while they are gathering: and as they are particularly anxious to send them in as curious a curled state as possible, such teas must be thus moistened again, in order to curl them afterwards in that perfect manner which is performed on the iron plates of the furnace.

The opinion, therefore, of teas deriving their green colour from being dried upon copper being founded on a misrepresentation of the manner in which they are really prepared, a few observations upon the subject are indispensibly necessary. For those who have always understood that the detrimental qualities of foreign teas were the consequence of their being dried upon copper, may perhaps imagine they cannot be so pernicious if they were dried upon iron; but this opinion cannot be entertained by any persons who have the least knowledge of the manner in which the vegetable acid will corrode iron. Those who are acquainted with culinary processes must know in what manner the acid of onions will operate upon any steel instrument; it corrodes a knife so as to turn the onions black with the particles eaten away from the edge and the face of the blade. To avoid this unwholsome and unseemly inconvenience, a wooden instrument is generally used in all instances where onions form a part of the cookery appendages. It is consequently evident, that although iron utensils are now greatly used instead of copper, yet many injurious effects may happen from their being liable to be corroded by the acid of several vegetables. And if the nitrous acid of the air will corrode iron so as to cause rust, when it will not produce the proportionate effect upon copper, it is a demonstration that iron is the most liable to such a corruption. The corrosions of copper are undoubtedly pernicious; but the damage that tea would derive from its being dried upon sheets of this metal would not operate so injuriously to those who drink it as it does now by lying dried upon iron. For the latter bring more liable to the power of the mineral, vegetable, or animal acid, must impart more particles of its reduced calax to the tea than copper would. And, in order to shew how susceptible of corrosion iron is, the following instance is farther adduced: in Ireland, where some persons practise the art of tanning leather with fern, which possesses a very strong acid, particular care is taken to avoid using any iron vessels in the tannage, lest the colour of the leather should be blackened by the corroding particle of the metal. As it is the peculiar property of iron or steely particles, even in their most perfect state, to operate as too great an astringent for an aliment that is taken twice a day constantly, tea, when dried upon it, must be rendered proportionably pernicious. But admitting that the popular opinion of their being dried upon copper was just, the teas must be rendered proportionably injurious to the quant.i.ty of copperas or crude vitriol they imbibe from their acidity corroding the metal.

Preparations of steel, that are, in many instances, considered as most salutary, yet in all pulmonary disorders the most eminent physicians have deemed them exceedingly dangerous. And in a country, like Great Britain, Holland, and other places, where a cloudy atmosphere, caused from their marshy soil or watery situation, renders most of the inhabitants subject to complaints of the lungs, foreign teas, contaminated by these iron corrosions, must be particularly detrimental. It is therefore, from these considerations, evident, that foreign teas, by being dried upon iron, have their bad qualities so increased as to render them the most pernicious of any morning and evening liquid that has yet been taken.----To return from whence we began this short digression.

It is remarkable that no satisfactory account has yet been given in what the bohea differs from the green tea. Dr. Cunningham, physician to the English settlement at Cimsan, and Kampfer a.s.sert, that the bohea is the leaves of the first collection.

This, however, being contrary to the general report of all travellers, that none of the first produce is brought to Europe, must be discredited; for these are all preserved for the Princes, to whom they are sold, even in China, at an immense price. Another proof is, that the boheas are brought here in the most considerable quant.i.ties, at a price greatly inferior to what even the second, third, and fourth crops are sold for in China. This not only evinces how inferior in quality the black tea must be, but also how little they are valued among those who must be acquainted with their properties.

Although the European dealers divide the green teas chiefly into three sorts, and the boheas into five, yet it is unknown from what province they are brought, of what crop they are the produce, and to which of the Chinese sorts they belong.

Added to their abuse of preparation may be that of their package. It is impossible but to know that their bad qualities must be considerably augmented by being so closely packed, for such a length of time, in such slight wooden chests, lined with a composition of wood and lead.

Considerable quant.i.ties are likewise damaged by salt water and other causes, which, by the management of the tea dealers, are mostly mixed, and sold under different denominations. How the tea must be affected by the corrosion of the lead and tin by the marine acid, those of the least chemical knowledge will easily determine. To what danger must, therefore, the const.i.tution of those who are in the constant habit of drinking such an empoisoned drug be exposed, may easily be imagined.

Surely, when all these circ.u.mstances are considered respecting the pernicious mode of preparation, and particularly the poisonous qualities they are also liable to contract from the nature of their package, every person must be convinced to what a loss of health, if not of life, the constant use of such teas must expose them. Such evidence of their deleterious tendency is almost sufficient to alarm mankind against so prevailing an evil, without any further arguments; but as health is too precious not to require every possible proof that can persuade us to avoid what so immediately threatens our existence, the following arguments and testimonies of the bad qualities of foreign teas must not be omitted. Previous, however, to an investigation of their effects, it may be necessary to say a few words respecting

THE MANNER OF USING.

Foreign tea, as before observed, being taken as two princ.i.p.al meals of our daily aliment, is undoubtedly one great reason of the const.i.tution of the people having suffered an entire change in its system. That vigour, spirits, and longevity, which characterised us in the last century, is totally subverted; disease, dismay, and debility, now lead us prematurely to the grave, where we end an existence too deplorable to excite the least desire for a longer continuance. Dr. Priestley states, very justly, in his Medical Essays, that it is curious to observe the revolution which hath taken place, within this century, in the const.i.tutions of the inhabitants of Europe. Inflammatory diseases more rarely occur, and in general are much less rapid and violent in their progress than formerly; nor do they admit of the same antiphlogistic method of cure which was practised with success a hundred years ago. The experienced Sydenham makes forty ounces of blood the mean quant.i.ty to be drawn in the acute rheumatism; whereas this disease, as it now appears in the London hospitals, will not bear above half that evacuation. Vernal intermittents are frequently cured by a vomit and the bark, without venaesection, which is a proof that, at present, they are accompanied with fewer symptoms of inflammation than they were wont to be. This advantageous change, however, is more than counterbalanced by the introduction of a numerous cla.s.s of nervous aliments, in a greater measure, unknown to our ancestors, but which now prevail universally, and are complicated with almost every other distemper. The bodies of men are enfeebled and enervated; and it is not uncommon to observe very high degrees of irritability under the external appearance of great strength and robustness. The hypochondriac, palsies, cachexies, dropsies, and all those diseases which arise from laxity and debility, are, in our days, endemic every where; and the hysterics, which used to be peculiar to the women, as the name itself indicates, now attacks both s.e.xes indiscriminately. It is evident that so great a revolution could not be effected without the concurrence of many causes; but amongst these, I apprehend, the present general use of tea holds the first and princ.i.p.al rank. The second cause may perhaps be allotted to excess in spirituous liquors. This pernicious custom owes its rise to the former, which, by the lowness and depression of spirits it occasions, renders it almost necessary to have recourse to what is cordial and exhilarating; and hence proceeds those odious and disgraceful habits of intemperance with which too many of the softer s.e.x of every degree are now, alas! chargeable. These are the sentiments of a character distinguished for his elaborate researches and judicious discoveries in almost every branch of liberal science. It may therefore be safely concluded, that the general manner of using India tea morning and evening has been, and is, the princ.i.p.al cause of the greater part of the diseases with which the natives of Europe are now afflicted. When it is considered that the first meal which is taken to recruit the body, after the loss it sustains from the insensible perspiration of the preceding night, and to prepare it for the avocations of the succeeding day, is India tea, who can be surprised that nature should rapidly become the victim of disease?

Thus, instead of being supported by nutritious aliment, its nerves are enfeebled, its spirits diminished, and all its functions enveloped with the gloom of melancholy. Even in the afternoon, when nature is exhausted by care and fatigue, we fly for refreshment to tea, which, instead of bracing, still further relaxes the unnerved system. Such are the evil effects of the imprudent manner in which this pernicious drug is so constantly and universally used. But how must these evils appear in their extent, when the following view is taken of India teas, with regard to their variety of injurious EFFECTS.

In all the physical experiments that have been made upon India teas, there is, perhaps, none that shews its acid astringency more than one tried by the above writer, Dr. Priestley. Endeavouring to trace the differences and ascertain the astringency and bitterness of vegetables reciprocally bear to each other, he imagined he had found they were distinct and separate properties, by the following experiment: Taking two pieces of calf-skin just stripped from the calf, he immerged them in cold infusions of green and bohea tea; at the expiration of a week he found they were hard and curled up, and that there was no sensible difference between them. He therefore concluded, that this experiment afforded a striking proof of India tea differently affecting a dead and a living fibre; this he considered as the greatest effect of a medicine. But, with deference to so distinguished an author, I cannot but attribute this astringency of the skin to the particular properties of India tea; for all physical as well as medical experience proves that vegetable produce afford some that are astringent, and others that are relaxant, of the dead as well as the living fibre. Oak bark is equally astringent, and hardens the fibres of the hide, as well as it braces the living nerve of our bodies; therefore the effect produced by the India tea upon the dead skin only proves, what we have before related, that an infusion of it has a peculiar effect, which, being too frequently applied to the nerves, destroys their tensity by their fine fibres being either broken or relaxed by overbracing. Were any astringent to be constantly taken, it must ultimately produce more or less such an effect; so that while the above experiment of the learned Philosopher demonstrates that India tea has the power of astringing the dead as well as the living fibres, it does not prove that astringency bitterness are separate qualities. On the contrary, bitterness seems to be the characteristic taste of all that has the tendency to contract whatever is the subject of its application. Thus galls, bark, rhubarb, camomile tea, &c. &c. are all bitter and astringent. It is, therefore, the immoderate use of such an astringent that ultimately relaxes and debilitates: like the too frequent bracing of a drum, or any other stringed musical instrument, destroys its tensity, the body is unnerved by the overstretching of its fibres. Although we sometimes differ with the celebrated Doctor in part of the conclusion he has drawn from his experiment, yet the following sentiments so perfectly coincide with all our observations upon India teas, that we are happy to have the opportunity of corroborating our own with the sentiments of so eminent a Philosopher. He says, from his experiments, "it appears that green and bohea teas are equally bitter, strike precisely the same black tinge with green vitriol, and are alike astringent on the simple fibre.

From this exact similarity in so many circ.u.mstances, one should be led to suppose that there would be no sensible diversity in their operation on the living body; but the fact is otherwise: green tea is much more sedative and relaxant than bohea; and the finer the species of tea, the more debilitating and pernicious are its effects, as I have frequently observed in others, and experienced in myself. This seems to be a proof that the mischiefs ascribed to this oriental vegetable do not arise from the warm vehicle by which it is conveyed into the stomach, but chiefly from its own peculiar qualities." Dr. Hugh Smith, in his Treatise on the Action of the Muscles, justly says, that an infusion of India tea not only diminishes, but destroys the bodily functions.

_Thea infusum, nervo musculove ranae admotum, vires motices minuit perdit._ Newman, in his Chemistry, says, when fresh gathered, teas are said to be narcotic, and to disorder the senses; the Chinese, therefore, cautiously abstain from their use until they have been kept twelve months. The reason attributed for bohea tea being less injurious than green is, being more hastily dried, the pernicious qualities more copiously evaporate.

"Tea," says Dr. Hugh Smith, in his Dissertation upon the Nerves, "is very hurtful both to the stomach and nerves. Phrensies, deliriums, vigilation, idiotism, apoplexies, and other disorders of the brain, are all produced by the nerves being thus disarranged and debilitated. If the digestive faculty of the stomach be weakened, the body, failing of recruiting juices, must tend to emaciation, and the whole frame be rendered one system of distress and infirmity. The nerves, being thus deprived of a sufficiency of their animal spirits, must become languid, and leave every sense void of the first means of conveying to the mind the only enjoyments of our temporal existence.

"But if there be any cla.s.s of persons to whom India tea is more particularly hurtful than to any other, it is that which includes the studious and sedentary, and especially those who are enfeebled with gout, stone, and rheumatism; age, accident, or avocation, cause many persons to be unfortunately ranked amongst those of the latter description. These, from their intensity of thought, want of exercise, injurious position of body, respiration of unwholesome air, and a variety of other causes, have not only their animal spirits exhausted, but their liquids corrupted from the loss of a necessary circulation.

With these evils India tea operates as an absolute poison. Indeed, it frequently renders those incurable, who might, by other means, have been relieved.

"When a view is taken of the dismal effects produced by India teas, the mind seems to be bewildered in searching for the cause of using so generally a drug that is so universally destructive. It chiefly originated in a fundamental mistake of physical principles. About the time that India tea was introduced to Europe, a grievous error crept into the practice of medical professors; they falsely imagined that health could not be more promoted than by increasing the fluidity of the blood. This opinion once established, it is no wonder that mankind, with one accord, adopted the infusion of India tea, which was then a novelty to Europe, as the best means of obtaining the above effect. By the advice of Bentikoe chiefly was the pernicious custom of drinking warm liquors, night and day, established. To this man, and the introduction of India tea, may be ascribed that revolution in the health of Europeans which has happened since the last century. The present age, therefore, have great cause to lament, in what they suffer in nervous complaints, that their forefathers did not attend more to the scientific and judicious advice of the ill.u.s.trious Duncan, Boerhaave, and the whole school of Leyden, who proscribed this error.

Although they could not entirely prevent this physical abuse, yet their zealous endeavours did, in some degree, at first impede its progress; but, however, so powerful did novelty plead in favour of India teas, that, at last, general custom and prejudice bore away every barrier that had been erected by these learned and experienced physicians. This error, instead of diminishing, has increased: most valetudinarians are now of opinion that a thick blood is the sole cause of their complaints; with this impression they adopt what they call the diluent beverage of India teas. It can scarcely be imagined how many disorders this practice produces; it may be justly termed the box of Pandora, without even hope remaining at the bottom." Tissot says, "They are the prolific sources of hypochondriac melancholy, which both adds strength to and is one of the worst of disorders." He adds, "with regard to studious men, who are naturally weak and feeble, such warm beverages are more hurtful to them than to others; for they are not troubled with an over thick, but, on the contrary, too thin a blood. You are all aware," continues he, "respectable auditors, that the density of the blood is as the motion of the solids; the fibres of the learned are relaxed, their motions are slow, and their blood, of consequence, thin.

Bleed a ploughman and a doctor at the same time; from the first there will flow a thick blood, resembling inflammatory blood, almost solid, and of a deep red; the blood of the latter will be either of a faint red, or without any colour, soft, gelatinous, and will almost entirely turn them to water. Your blood, therefore, men of learning, should not be dissolved, but brought to a consistence; and you should in general be moderate in the article of drinking, and cautiously avoid warm spirituous liquors.

"Amongst the favorite beverages of the learned," the same Tissot observes, "is the infusion of that famous leaf, so well known by the name of India tea, which, to our great detriment, has every year, for these two centuries past, been constantly imported from China and j.a.pan. This most pernicious gift first destroys the strength of the stomach, and if it be not soon laid aside, equally destroys that of the viscera, the blood, the nerves, and of the whole body; so that malignant and all chronical disorders will appear to increase, especially nervous disorders, in proportion as the use of India tea becomes common; and you may easily form a judgment, from the diseases that prevail in every country, whether the inhabitants are lovers of tea or the contrary. How happy would it be for Europe, if, by unanimous consent, the importation of this infamous leaf was prohibited, which is endued only with a corrosive force derived from the acrimony of a gum with which it is pregnant."

Having thus considered the dismal and too frequently fatal consequences of the nerves being affected, it is presumed this part of the Essay cannot be more interestingly concluded than by a summary of the distinct symptomatic effects attending, more or less, complaints of the nerves; and although the following symptoms are alarming with regard to their number and variety, yet the reader may be a.s.sured there is not one specified but what is either the immediate or ultimate effect of a nervous affection, and which is too frequently the consequence of the violent astringency of foreign tea taken injudiciously as a constant aliment:--A faintness, succeeded with a delusive vision of motes, mists, and clouds, falling backwards and forwards before the distempered sight--A yawning, gaping, stretching out of the arms, twitching of the nerves, sneezing, drowsiness, and contraction of the breast--Dulness, debility, distress, and dismay, with a great sense of weariness--A wan complexion, a languid eye, a loathing stomach, and an uncertain appet.i.te, which, if not immediately satisfied, is irremediably lost--Heartburning, bilious vomitings, belchings, pains in the pit of the stomach, and shortness of breath--Dizziness, inveterate pains in the temples and other parts of the head, a tingling noise in the ear, a throbbing of the brain, especially of the temporal arteries--Symptoms of asthma, tickling coughs, visible inflations, and unusual scents affecting the olfactory nerves--Sometimes costive and sometimes relaxed--Sudden flushings of heat, and suffusions of countenance--In the night, alternate sweats and shiverings, especially down the back, which seems to feel as if water was poured down that part of the body--A ptyalism, or discharge of phlegm from the glands of the throat, which generally attends all the symptoms--Troublesome pains between the shoulders, pains attended with hot sensations, cramps and convulsive motions of the muscles, or a few of their fibres--Sudden startings of the tendons of the legs and arms--Copious and frequent discharges of pale and limpid urine--Vertigoes, long faintings, and cold, moist, clammy sweat about the temples and forehead--Wandering pains in the sides, back, knees, ancles, arms, wrists, and somewhat resembling rheumatic pains--The head generally warm, while the rest of the body is cold or chilly--Obstinate watchinqs, disturbed sleep, frightful dreams, the night mare, startings when awake, and the mind filled with the most terrific apprehensions--Tremors of the limbs, and palpitations of the heart--A very variable and irregular pulse--Periodical pains in the head--A sense of suffocation, frequent sighings, and shedding of tears--Convulsive spasms of the muscles, tendons, nerves of the back, loins, arms, hands, and a general convulsion of the stomach, bowels, throat, legs, and indeed almost every other part of the body--A quick apprehension, forgetful, unsettled, and constant to nothing but inconstancy--A wandering and delirious imagination, groundless fears, and an exquisite sense of his sufferings--A gradually sinking into a nervous atrophy or consumption--A perpetual alarm of approaching death--Sometimes cheerful, and sometimes melancholy--Without present enjoyment or future expectation of any thing but increasing misery and debility.--If these symptoms are inconsiderately suffered to continue, they soon terminate in palsy, hip, madness, epilepsy, apoplexy, or in some mortal disease, as the black jaundice, dropsy, consumption, &c.

Having ascertained, from this enquiry, the injurious properties of India tea, it may naturally be expected that I should propose some article that might prove more beneficial. With this requisition I shall most readily comply, although I may expose myself to the invidious censure of having directed all my efforts to establish the celebrity of whatever article I may recommend. But being convinced, that, by publishing the virtue of a tea that I have investigated from physical a.n.a.lysis and particular observation, I may essentially serve the public, I am content to suffer the obloquy, provided it is productive of a general benefit. Having, as before observed, examined, with the greatest attention, the nature of most articles that have been offered as morning and afternoon beverage, there are two which claim most particularly the preference of all others that are sold under the denomination of Tea: these are, 1st, that which was discovered by that eminent botanist Sir Hans Sloane; and the other, by a botanist and physician equally celebrated, Dr. Solander. I therefore, without considering in what manner the interest of the proprietors of these teas may be individually affected, propose two articles, in order to shew that my partiality or opinion of the virtues of the one could not prejudice me so far as to prevent my allowing due praise to any other possessing qualities deserving approbation. I am happy to state that, from my a.n.a.lysis of that invented by Sir Hans Sloane, called British Tea, I found it possesses most singular virtues for relieving many nervous complaints; but, from the same trials and experiments made on that invented by Dr. Solander, I have been convinced that, although the qualities of the former are exceedingly salutary, they are not so general in their restoration and nutritious effects as the latter.

Being thus convinced of the extraordinary properties of Dr. Solander's Tea, I have been induced to state, in a Treatise upon their Nature, Preparation, and Effects, reasons founded on chemical a.n.a.lysis, physical efficiency, and experimental observation, in support of their most eminent virtues. After every trial I have made of coffee, chocolate[1], and most other preparations that have been, and are at present, offered to the public as a subst.i.tute for tea, none seem to claim the preference so eminently as that invented by Dr. Solander.

From their a.n.a.lysis, I find their virtues are of the most corrective and balsamic kind; they strengthen the tone of the stomach, not by astringing the solids, but by lubricating the vessels, sheathing the acrids, and attenuating the liquids.

[1] "_Coffee.--In bilious habits it is very hurtful._" Dr.

Carr's Med. Epist. p. 25.

"_Coffee.--I cannot advise it to those of hardness of breathing._" Ibid. p. 29.

"_Coffee, according to Paule, a Danish physician, enervates men and renders them incapable of generation, which injurious tendency is certainly attributed to it by the Turks. From its immoderate use they account for the decrease of population in their provinces, that were so numerously peopled before this berry was introduced among them. Mr. Boyle mentions an instance of a person to whom Coffee always proved an emetic. He also says that he has known great drinking of it produce the palsy._

"_Chocolate is too gross for many weak stomachs, and exceedingly injurious to those liable to phlegm and viscid humours._" Saunders's Nat. & Art. Direct. for Health.

"_Chocolate overloads the stomach, and renders the juices too slow in their circulation._" Smith on the Nerves.