John Coakley Lettsom

“ Perhaps it will not be deemed foreign to an essay upon this subject, to take a concise view of the manners and dispositions of the Chinese, as we have done of their diseases. Those who are best acquainted with human nature seem to ascribe even to their food, and way of life, as well as to their climate and education, certain propensities at least to vice and virtue; and it may be of use to draw what light we can in these respects, from the character of a people, who have used the infusion of Tea for a long series of years. ”

“ The difficulty with which animal food is procured by the lower ranks of society, in quantity sufficient for daily nutriment, has led many of them to substitute, in the place of more wholesome provisions, a cheap infusion of this foreign vegetable, whose grateful flavour (and perhaps narcotic quality, which it possesses in a small degree in common with most other ever-greens) is found to create an appetite for itself, in preference to all other kinds of aliment that the scanty income of poverty allows these deluded objects to procure ”

“ SECTION I. As the custom of drinking Tea is become general, every person may be considered as a judge of its effects, at least so far as it concerns his own health; but, as the constitutions of mankind are various, the effects of this infusion must be different also, which is the reason that so many opinions have prevailed upon the subject. ”

“ And indeed Tea is the common beverage of all the labouring people in China: one scarcely ever sees them represented at work of any kind, but the Tea pot and Tea cup appear as their accompaniments. Reapers, threshers, and all who work out of doors, as well as within, have these attendants [56] .
To make Tea, and to serve it in a genteel and graceful manner, is an accomplishment, in which people of both sexes in Japan are instructed by masters, in the same manner as Europeans are in dancing, and other branches of polite education. ”

“ Neither the Chinese, nor natives of Japan, ever use Tea before it has been kept at least a year; because when fresh it is said to prove narcotic, and to disorder the senses [51] . The former pour hot water on the Tea, and draw off the infusion in the same manner as is now practised in Europe; but they drink it simply without the addition of sugar or milk [52] . The Japanese reduce the Tea into a fine powder, by grinding the leaves in a hand-mill; they then mix them with hot water into a thin pulp, in which form it is sipped [53] , particularly by the nobility and rich people. ”

“ In regard to the effects of Tea on the human constitution, one might have imagined that long and general use would have furnished so many indisputable proofs of its good and bad properties, that nothing could be easier than to determine these with precision: yet so difficult a thing is it to establish physical certainty in regard to the operation of food or medicines on the human body, that our knowledge in general, even with respect to this article, is very imperfect. ”

“ Tea, therefore, if not too fine, nor drank too hot, or in too great quantities, is, perhaps, preferable to any other vegetable infusion we know. And if we take into consideration likewise its known enlivening energy, it will appear that our attachment to Tea is not merely from its being costly or fashionable, but from its superiority in taste and effects to most other vegetables. ”

“ From what has been said upon this subject, it will probably be admitted, that children and very young persons in general should be deterred from the use of this infusion. It weakens their stomachs, impairs the digestive powers, and favours the generation of many diseases. We seldom perceive the rudiments of scrophulous diseases so often any where as in the weak feeble offspring of the inhabitants of towns, and whose breakfast and supper often consist of the weak runnings of ordinary Tea, with its usual appurtenances. It ought by no means to be the common diet of boarding-schools ”

“ I found the leaves of green Tea as large as those of bohea, and nearly as fibrous; which would lead one to suspect, that the difference does not so much depend upon the age, as upon the other circumstances.
We know that in Europe the soil, culture, and exposure, have great influence on all kinds of vegetables: but the same species of plants differ in the same province, and even in the same district; and in Japan, and particularly along the continent of China, it must be much more considerable, where the air is in some parts very cold, in others moderate, or warm almost to an extreme. ”

“ It would be unjust to ascribe all these qualities to their manner of living: other causes have undoubtedly their share: but it may be suspected, that the manner of life, or kind of diet, that tends to debilitate, virtually contributes to the increase of the meaner qualities. When force of body is wanting, cunning often supplies its place; and if not regulated by other principles, it would discover its effects more universally; and thus will take place whether the debility is natural, or acquired by a diet that enfeebles the body. ”

“ Whether the present age exhibits as many instances of superior excellence as the preceding, is beyond my abilities to determine: that it is tarnished more than some others with one vice at least, is generally confessed; and it may, perhaps, be a problem not unworthy of consideration, whether the general use of Tea may not gradually increase the disposition. ”

“ These effects are not to be attributed so much to the peculiar properties of this costly vegetable, as to the want of proper food, which the expence of the former deprived these poor people from procuring. I knew a family, confiding of a mother and several children, whose fondness for Tea was so great, that three times a day, as often as their meals, which generally confided of the same articles, they regularly sent for Tea and sugar, with a morsel of bread to support nature; by which practice, and the want of a due quantity of nutritious food, they grew more enfeebled ”

“ If drank in the forenoon, it affects his stomach with an uneasy sensation, which continues for several hours, and entirely takes away his appetite for food at dinner; though at other times, when he takes chocolate for breakfast, he generally makes a very hearty meal at noon, and enjoys the most perfect health. If he drink a single dish of tea in the afternoon, it affects him in the same manner, and deprives him of sleep for three or four hours through the succeeding night; yet he can take a cup of warm water with sugar and milk, without the least inconvenience. ”

“ What motive first led the natives to use an infusion of Tea in the present manner is uncertain; but probably in order to correct the water, which is said to be brackish and ill-tasted in many parts of those countries [16] . Of the good effects of Tea in such cases, we have a remarkable proof in Kalm’s journey through North America, which his translator gives us in the following words:
“Tea is differently esteemed by different people, and I think we would be as well, and our purses much better, if we were without tea and coffee. ”

“ Waving, however, any attempts to fix with precision the effects of Tea from these experiments alone, let us endeavour to collect from observation likewise, such facts as may enable us to judge what its effects are on the human frame, and from thence draw the clearest inferences we can, how far it is salutary or otherwise.
The long and constant use of Tea, as a part of our diet, makes us forget to enquire whether it is possessed of any medicinal properties. ”

“ A Plant very like the Tea flourished at this time on the tides and the very tops of mountains, where the soil consisted of little more than fragments of stone crumbled into a sort of coarse earth by the joint action of the sun and rain. The Chinese call this plant Cha-whaw, or Flower of Tea, on account of the resemblance of one to the other; and because its petals, as well as the entire flowers of the Arabian jessamine, are sometimes mixed among the Teas, in order to increase their fragrance. ”

“ There are many people who cannot bear to drink a single dish of Tea, without being immediately sick and disordered at the stomach: To some it gives excruciating pain about that part, attended with general tremours. But in general the most tender and delicate constitutions are most affected by the free use of Tea; being frequently attacked with pains in the stomach and bowels; spasmodic affections; attended with a copious discharge of limpid urine, and great agitation of spirits on the least noise, hurry, or disturbance. ”

“ However, it is certain, from the Chinese drawings, which exhibit a faithful picture, though rudely executed, of the whole process from beginning to end, that the Tea tree grows for the most part in hilly countries, on their rocky summits, and steep declivities; and it would seem by the pains the Chinese are at, in making paths, and fixing a kind of scaffolds, to assist them, that these places afford the finest Tea. It appears from these drawings, that the trees in general are not much taller than man’s height: The gatherers of the leaves are never represented but on the ground ”

“ It may be of some use in our inquiries to consider its effects where it has been long and universally used. Of Japan we know little at present: of China we have more recent accounts; from these it appears, that Tea of some kind, coarser or finer, is drank plentifully by all degrees of people; the general provision of the lower ranks especially is rice, their beverage Tea. The superior classes of people drink Tea; but they likewise partake of animal food, and live freely.
Of their diseases we know but little, nor what effects Tea may have in this respect. They seldom or never bleed. ”

“ Infusions of fine bohea Teas do not differ a great deal in colour from those of green. To spirit they equally impart a fine deep green colour.
[46] I am informed by intelligent persons, who have resided some time at Canton, that the Tea about that city affords very little smell whilst growing. The same is observed of the Tea plants in England; and also of the dried specimens from China. We are not hence to conclude, that art alone conveys to Teas when cured the smell peculiar to each kind; for our vegetables, grasses for instance, have little or no smell till dried, and made into hay. ”

“ If young plants could be procured in China, they might be sent over in a growing state in some of these boxes.
The young Tea-plants in the gardens about London thrive very well in the green-houses in winter, and some bear the open air in summer. The leaves of many of them are from one to three inches long, not without a fine deep verdure; and the young shoots are succulent. It is therefore probable, that in a few years many layers may be procured from them, and the number of plants considerably increased thereby. ”

“ IV. Sometimes the succulent Tea leaves are twisted into cords like packthread, about an inch and a half or two inches long; and usually three of these are tied together at the ends by different-coloured silk threads. These resemble little bavins, one of which might suffice for tea for one person. I have seen them both of green and bohea Tea.
The Chinese likewise prepare an extract from Tea, which they exhibit as a medicine dissolved in a large quantity of water, and ascribe to it many powerful effects in fevers and other disorders, when they wish to procure a plentiful sweat. ”

“ Strong Tea drunk in any considerable quantity, in a morning, especially if I eat little bread with it, generally makes me fainter before dinner than if I had taken no breakfast at all; at the same time it quickens my pulse, and often affects me with a kind of giddiness. These bad effects of Tea are most remarkable when my stomach is out of order. ”

“ Between these two extremes there are many gradations; and, every thing else being alike, Tea will in general be found more or less beneficial or injurious to individuals, in proportion as their constitutions approach nearer to these opposite extremes. To descend into all the particulars would require experience and abilities, more than I can boast. Suffice it to say, that, except as a medicine, or after great fatigue, large quantities are seldom beneficial, nor should it ever be drank very hot ”

“ Curiosity and interest would mutually induce the Europeans to make the most diligent enquiries in order to discover the real Tea shrub, or a substitute in some other vegetable most resembling it. Simon Paulli, a celebrated physician and botanist at Copenhagen, was the first who pretended to have discovered the real Tea plant in Europe. ”

“ Public buildings, or drying houses, are erected for curing Tea, and so regulated, that every person, who either has not suitable conveniences, or wants the requisite skill, may bring his leaves at any time to be dried. ”

“ It seems not unreasonable therefore to suppose, that, as the diet of our ancestors was more generous, their exercises more athletic, and their diseases more generally the produce of a rich blood, than are observable in the present times, these debilitating effects before-mentioned may in part be attributed to the use of Tea, as no cause appears to be so general and so probable. ”

“ It is remarkable, that in all the forms which Du Halde relates, for administering Tea as a stomachic medicine among the Chinese, it is ordered to be boiled for some time, or prepared in such a manner, as to cause a dissipation of its fragrant perishable flavour; which practice, as it seems consonant to experiments here (Sect. II. Exp. III.) , may probably have taken its rise in China, from long experience and repeated facts. ”

“ Where, therefore, large quantities of the infusion must be taken, to produce or support a considerable diaphoresis, a decoction of Tea, or a strong infusion, may be administered with great propriety, particularly in inflammatory complaints; the sedative power of Tea, assisted by the diluting effects of warm water, generally producing a diaphoresis, without stimulating the system. The Chinese most commonly give it as a medicine in decoction, in a variety of diseases ”