NAT. ORDER. COLUMNIFER^. 65 



once every week dui-iag the summer months, except ivhen they are 

 in flower. 



Medical Properties and Uses. With respect to the qualities 

 of this plant as a medicine, we extract from Dr. Cullen, whose 

 oj)inion in this place cannot fail to be well received. "An infusion 

 of its leaves like that of the green Tea, has the effect of destroying 

 the sensibility of the nerves, and the irritability of the muscles ; and 

 the recent plant contains an odorous narcotic power, which we 

 might jjrcsume from the necessity which the Chinese find of drying 

 it with considerable heat before they will allow it to be brought 

 into market, and even after such preparation they abstain from its 

 use, for a year or more, until its volatile parts are still further dis- 

 sipated ; also it is said that unless they use this precaution, the Tea 

 in its more recent state manifestly shows strong narcotic powers. 

 Even in this country the more odorous Teas often show their seda- 

 tive powers in weakening the nerves of the stomach, and indeed the 

 whole system." 



From these considerations we must conclude, that Tea pos- 

 sesses both narcotic and sedative properties, especially so, in its 

 most odorous state. Its effects however appear different in differ- 

 ent pei'sons, and hence the various and contradictory accounts, that 

 are reported from its use. But if we consider the difference of 

 constitution, which occasions some difference of the operation of 

 the same medicine in difTerent persons, and of which we have a 

 remarkable proof in the operation of opium, we shall not be sur- 

 prised at the different operations of Tea. 



If to this we add the fallacy arising from the condition of the 

 Tea employed, which is often so inert as to have no effect at all : 

 and still add to this the power of habit, which can destroy the 

 powers of the most powerful substances, we shall not allow the 

 various and contradictory reports of its effects to alter our judg- 

 ment with respect to its ordinary and more general qualities in 

 affecting the human body. 



