THE 



289 



THE 



diet of boarding-schools ; if it be allowed sometimes as a 

 treat, they should be at the same time informed that the 

 constant use of it would be injurious to 'their health, 

 strength, and constitution.' Those to whom it is most 

 suited are the plethoric and sanguine. Upon the same 

 principle it is a proper article of diet and perhaps the best 

 common drink at the beginning of fevers and inflammatory 

 complaints. In a peculiar state of brain, termed by Mr. 

 Newnham (Observations on Medical and Dietetical Pro- 

 perties of Green Tea) sthenic excitement, a state clearly 

 bordering on inflammation, especially if produced by alco- 

 holic stimulants, or by intense and long-continued applica- 

 tion of mind to any particular object of literary research, 

 green tea acts as a salutary remedy. On the contrary, in 

 states of diminished excitement, morbid vigilance and 

 nervous disturbance follow its use. It is not an uncommon 

 practice with ardent students, when pushing their studies 

 lar into the night, to resist the claims of nature for repose, 

 and keep themselves awake by the frequent use of tea. 

 That it answers the purpose at the time cannot be denied, 

 but the object is often attained at a fearful price, the de- 

 struction of health and vigour both of mind and body being 

 the penalty. Less injury results in these cases from the 

 use of coffee. There is this difference between the morbid 

 states of the nervous system produced by coffee and those 

 resulting from tea : that the former generally subside or 

 disappear entirely on relinquishing its use ; those from the 

 latter are more permanent, and often incapable of being 

 eradicated. Nevertheless many persons have immediately 

 found their health improved by entirely relinquishing the 

 use of tea, or even omitting it only at breakfast, for which 

 meal it is certainly less proper than for the evening be- 

 verage. Those for whom tea is unsuited will generally 

 find weak cocoa the most proper substitute. 



Persons of a gouty and rheumatic nature, above all, those 

 prone to calculous diseases of the lithic acid diathesis, find 

 weak tea the least objectionable article of common drink. 

 They should take it without sugar, and with very little 

 milk. (Prout, On the Stomach, p. 217.) Where the water 

 is hard, the addition of a little carbonate of soda not only 

 improves the tea, but renders it a more proper beverage 

 for such persons. Tea should not be used till about four 

 hours after any solid meal. 



The medical uses of tea are not many. In fevers it is 

 not only an excellent diluent at the commencement, but 

 a tincture of tea made by macerating tea in proof-spirit, 

 and adding a tea-spoonful of this to a small cup of water, 

 and given at short intervals during the night, after the 

 acute symptoms have subsided, is often of great service. 

 For this purpose, in hospitals and workhouses, the leaves 

 which have been used for the ordinary infusion may be 

 macerated in alcohol (as suggested above by Mr. Brande), 

 and a spirit of sufficient strength for this purpose obtained 

 at a cheap rate.. 



In some forms of diseased heart tea proves a useful 

 sedative. It is nearly as valuable an antidote to poison- 

 ing by opium as coffee is. Some cases of poisoning by 

 ic and tartarized antimony have been prevented prov- 

 ing fatal by the immediate administration of tea in the 

 form of a very strong infusion. Here its power as an 

 antidote depends upon its tannin decomposing the poison- 

 ous substances. [ASTRINGENTS.] But in poisoning by 

 opium it is useful only in combating the secondary symp- 

 toms, and should not be administered till the stomach- 

 pump or other means have removed the opium from the 

 stomach. (Lancet, 9th November, 1833.) Some cases of 

 severe nervous headache are relieved by a cup of strong 

 green-tea, taken without milk or sugar. But this should 

 be sparingly resorted to ; it is a wiser plan to avoid the 

 causes of such headaches. Tea has been looked upon as 

 the irreat means by which intoxication was to be banished, 

 but it is certain that to relieve the tremblings and other 

 unpleasant effects of the abuse of tea, a little brandy or 

 other alcoholic stimulant is occasionally added to the cup 

 of tea, and so a habit is acquired which can never after- 

 wards be relinquished. 



Tea has frequently been denounced as a useless article 

 of diet to the poor, as it is assumed to be devoid of nutri- 

 ment, and the milk and sugar which are added supposed 

 to be the only beneficial ingredients. Dr. Lettsom has 

 given a calculation, partly his own, and partly taken from 

 ' Essays on Husbandry,' to show how much is, in his view, 

 unnecessarily expended by them in this way. But the 

 V. C.., No. 1524. ' 



observations of Liebig, if correct, and in all probability 

 they are so, offer a satisfactory explanation of the cause of 

 the great partiality of the poor not only for tea, but for 

 tea of an expensive and therefore superior kind. 'We 

 shall never certainly be able to discover how men were 

 led to the use of the hot infusion of the leaves of a certain 

 shrub ('tea), or of a .decoction of certain roasted seeds 

 (coffee). Some cause there must be which would explain 

 how the practice has become a necessary of life to whole 

 nations. But it is still more remarkable that the bene- 

 ficial effects of both plants on the health must be ascribed 

 to one and the same substance, the presence of which in 

 two vegetables belonging to natural families, and the 

 produce of different quarters of the globe, could hardly 

 have presented itself to the boldest imagination. Yet 

 recent researches have shown, in such a manner as to ex- 

 clude all doubt, that caffeine and theine are, in all respects, 

 identical. 



' Without entering minutely into the medical action of 

 caffeine (theine), it will surely appear a most striking 

 fact, even if we were to deny its influence on the process 

 of secretion, that this substance, with the addition of 

 oxygen and the elements of water, can yield taurine, the 

 nitrogenized compound peculiar to bile : 



1 atom caffeine or theine = C8 N2 H5 O2 



9 atoms water . . = H9 O9 



, 9 atoms oxygen . . = Q9 



C8 N2 H14 O20 

 = 2 atoms taurine . = 2 (C4 NH9 OlO) 



To see how the action of caffeine, asparagine, theo- 

 bromine, &c. may be explained, we must call to mind 

 that the chief constituent of the bile contains only 3-8 

 per cent, of nitrogen, of which only the half, or 1-9 per 

 cent., belongs to the taurine. Bile contains in its natural 

 state water and solid matter, in the proportion of 90 parts 

 by weight of the former to 10 of the latter. If we sup- 

 pose these 10 parts by weight of solid matter to be choleic 

 acid, with 3-87 per cent, of nitrogen, then 100 parts of 

 fresh bile will contain 0'171 parts of nitrogen in the shape 

 of taurine. Now this quantity is contained in 0-6 parts of 

 caffeine; or 2,|ths grains of caffeine can give to an 

 ounce of bile the nitrogen it contains in the form of 

 taurine. If an infusion of tea contain no more than the ^Jth 

 of a grain of caffeine, still, if it contribute in point of 

 fact to the formation of bile, the action, even of such a 

 quantity, cannot be looked upon as a nullity. Neither 

 can it be denied, that in the case of an excess of non- 

 azotizcd food and a deficiency of motion, which is re- 

 quired to cause the change of matter of the tissues, and 

 thus to yield the nitrogenized product which enters into 

 the composition of the bile ; that in such a condition the 

 health may be benefited by the use of compounds which 

 are capable of supplying the place of the nitrogenized 

 substance produced in the healthy state of the body, and 

 essential to the production of an important element of 

 respiration. In a chemical sense and it is this alone 

 which the preceding remarks are intended to show caf- 

 feine, or theine, asparagine, and theobromine, are, in vir- 

 tue of their composition, better adapted to this purpose 

 than all other nitrogenized vegetable principles. The 

 action of these substances, in ordinary circumstances, is 

 not obvious, but it unquestionably exists. Tea and coffee 

 were originally met with among nations whose diet is 

 chiefly vegetable.' (Liebig's Animal Chemistry, p. 178.) 

 These facts show in what way tea proves to the poor a 

 substitute for animal food, and why females and literary 

 persons who take little exercise manifest such partiality 

 for it. They also explain why the attempts, and they 

 have been numerous, to find among other plants a substi- 

 tute for tea have invariably failed of success. The first 

 tea-leaves were procured from the Chinese in exchange 

 for those of the Sal via officinalis, or garden sage, but they, 

 like others, soon found out its inferiority, and refused to 

 part with their own precious leaf except in exchange for 

 solid coin. The poor Chinese make use of the leaves of a 

 fern, and also of those of the Sagaretia (Rhamnus) theezans ; 

 but. to this their poverty, not their will, consents. 



Tea Trade. The period when tea was first introduced 

 into this country has already been noticed. How little 

 was it possible at the time to have foreseen that it would 

 one day become one of the most important avlicles of 

 foreign production consumed in England. The first mi 



VOL. XXIV. 2 P 



