Tea produces Scurvy , weak Nerves , and bad Teeth . 219 
how hot liquids give pain externally and internally, even when 
they do not scald : you are aifo fenfible, when you go to routs, 
or to theatres, of the pernicious effe&s of hot air to the lungs. 
Do you imagine, that nature requires our drinking liquids even 
fo warm as our blood ? VeTy hot, or very cold liquors, taken as 
medicines, may produce effe&s, which, in the ordinary courfe 
of the animal operations, are not neceffary : the fame as things 
very hot, or very cold, in quality, are not therefore proper 
for common food. In italy they often cure fevers with ice ; 
and you may have heard fome do&ors fay, that mustard is 
good in their hands, but not in common ufe. — I fuppofe that 
more than three quarters of mankind drink no other liquor than 
water in its natural ftate. In very cold countries, in the height 
of winter, warm liquors may be fometimes neceffary : but even 
in fuch circumflances, cold water may be taken in fmall quan- 
tities, not only with fafety, but it really invigorates much more 
than hot. The peafant, whofe life is, in fpite of the evils in- 
feparable from poverty, generally the longeft, finds that cold 
water is the beft remedy for fevers, agues, and many other dif- 
orders. Nature, indulgent to all created beings, feems to have 
provided this as a medicine, as well as a nutriment, for all 
mankind, tho’ fome experience is neceffary as to the manner of 
ufing it. 
But whilft we fondly attempt to cure the scurvy by hot li- 
quors, may we not die of weak nerves ? I appeal to the me- 
mory and experience of every thinking perfon in this ifiand, if 
they ever heard of, or knew of any period, in which paralitic 
diforders, and thofe called nervous, prevailed fo much as at 
4 F f 2 this 
