340 
Its effects however seem to be very different in different persons; and 
hence the contradictory accounts that are given of them. But if we consi¬ 
der the difference of constitution, which occasions some variation in the 
operating of the same medicine, and of which we have a remarkable proof 
in the operation of opium , we shall not be surprised at the different opera¬ 
tions of tea . 
It is not at the same time to be denied, that green tea may sometimes 
have good effects. It is very possible, that in certain persons, taken- in 
moderate qualities, it may, like other narcotics, prove exhilarating, or like 
them, have some effect in taking off irritability, or in quieting some irregu¬ 
larities of the nervous system. 
As its bad effects have been often imputed to the warm water that accom¬ 
panies the tea, so there is no doubt that some of its good effects may also be 
ascribed to the same cause, and particularly its being so often grateful after 
a full meal.* 
After all, the infusion of tea, as it is commonly taken in England, with 
a competent quantity of cream or milk and sugar, cannot be very narcotic or 
sedative, especially as after a long voyage it is kept some time in the East 
India Company’s warehouses; and the finer sorts of it are not so much in 
request as formerly. Nor can it be an unwholesome beverage for sedentary 
persons and such as live freely, provided it be not taken too hot, or in im¬ 
moderate quantities, or without any solid food accompanying it.f For the 
* Cullen, Mat. Med. Vol. II. 309 . Woodville, Vol. IV. 120 . See Lettsom, p. 59 , to the end. 
f Anxious to ascertain this point as far as possible (for my Grandmother, Mrs. Winstanley, at 
the age of near one hundred, was in the habit of taking very strong Green Tea, and would not 
allow any bad effects from tea, often being told it was a slow poison, of which slowness she was a 
tolerably good proof), I enquired of a gentleman who is smeller and taster to the East India Company 
of the Teas at Canton, from whom I obtained the following information. 
My dear Sir, London, Sept. 7 , 1808. 
‘ I had the pleasure to receive your letter of the 5th instant, and it always will afford me much 
satisfaction to be of the least service to you. You know the confined state we are in during our stay 
either at Canton or Macao, and the difficulty there is to obtain any information relating to the manu¬ 
factures and customs of the Chinese, which we can only get from the Hong merchants, none of whom 
I believe ever w^ere in the tea country themselves, but derive all their information from their pursers, 
who they annually send there to buy them tea. From what I could collect from them, I understand 
that the tree which produces the Black and Green Tea is of the same species, but is cultivated and 
manufactured in different provinces. The manner of curing the black differs from that of the green/ 
the former is not fired (or tach d, as the Chinese call jt) so often as the latter, and I am pretty cer¬ 
tain that the fine light green or bluish colour we observe in the hyson, and other fine sorts of the 
green tea, to possess, is not natural, but a given colour, either by Prussian blue, or by some other 
