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A
TREATISE
ON
FOREIGN TEAS,
ABSTRACTED
FROM
An ingenious WORK, lately published,
ENTITLED
AN ESSAY ON THE NERVES;
ILLUSTRATING
Their efficient, formal, material, and final Causes; with the Manner of the Liquids being corrupted by corrosive Acids, and stagnated by obtuse Alkalies:
IN WHICH ARE
OBSERVATIONS ON MINERAL WATERS, COFFEE, CHOCOLATE, &c.
AND
An Investigation of the Nature and Preparation of Foreign Teas, with their pernicious Effects in debilitating the Nervous System:
INTERSPERSED WITH
THE AUTHOR'S REMARKS,
Arising from an Analysis of such Preparations as may be most beneficially substituted for INDIA TEA.
THIS SELECTION, containing the Sentiments of the many eminent Physical Professors who have written on Foreign Teas, is designed to shew, by the most forcible Arguments and distinguished Authorities, the extreme Danger to which the Public are exposed from the continual Use of an Article so pernicious and destructive to the Constitution.
[Price Six-pence.]
Dr. SOLANDER's SANATIVE ENGLISH TEA.
UNIVERSALLY APPROVED and RECOMMENDED
BY THE MOST
EMINENT PHYSICIANS, IN PREFERENCE TO FOREIGN TEA, As the most Pleasing and POWERFUL RESTORATIVE,
IN ALL NERVOUS DISORDERS, HITHERTO DISCOVERED.
Our first aliment at breakfast, being designed to recruit the waste of the body from the night's insensible perspiration; an inquiry is important, whether INDIA TEA, which the Faculty unanimously concur in pronouncing a Species of Slow Poison, that unnerves and wears the substance of the solids, is adequate to such a purpose—If it be not—the inquiry is further necessary to find out a proper substitute. If an Apozem PROFESSIONALLY approved and recommended for its nutritive qualities, as a general aliment, has claim to public attention, certainly Dr. SOLANDER'S TEA, so sanctioned, is the most proper morning and afternoon's beverage.
Prepared for the Proprietor by an eminent Botanist.
Sold Wholesale and Retail by the Proprietor's Agent, Mr. T. GOLDING, at his Warehouse for Patent Medicines, No. 42, Cornhill, London; and Retail by Mr. F. NEWBERY, No. 45, St. Paul's Church-Yard; Messrs. BAILEY'S, Cockspur-street; Mr. W. BACON, No. 150, Oxford-street; Mr. OVERTON, No. 47, New Bond-street; and by Mr. J. FULLER, South Side of Covent Garden. Also by the Venders of Patent Medicines in most Cities and Towns, in England, Ireland, and Scotland.
Sold in Packets at 2s. 9d. and in Canisters at 10s. 6d. each, Duty included.
Liberal Allowance for Exportation, to Country Venders, and to Schools.
The native and exotic Plants which chiefly compose Dr. Solander's Tea, being gathered and dried with peculiar attention, to the preserving of their sanative Virtues, must render them far more efficacious than many similar Preparations, which by being reduced to Powder, must have those Qualities destroyed they might otherwise possess.
A Packet of this Tea at 2s. 9d. is sufficient to breakfast one Person a Month.
ADVERTISEMENT TO THE FOREIGN TEAS.
Having, in the preceding enquiry, traced, from the system of the nerves, that on their state the health of the constitution chiefly depends, our immediate concern is next to ascertain what kind of food we either adopt from choice, custom, or necessity, is the most likely to destroy the economy of the nerves. And as Foreign Teas have long been censured as being the cause of many disorders which arise from the nerves being disarranged or debilitated, an impartial enquiry is here made into the nature, preparation, and effects, of these Teas. By this investigation it will appear, that Teas imported from China and India are the most injurious of any beverage that can possibly be taken as a general and constant aliment. But, not prematurely to anticipate any part of the following subject, the Reader is most respectfully referred to the following pages for further evidence.
INTRODUCTION.
As two of the four meals that form our daily subsistence are chiefly composed of tea, an enquiry into what kind is the most salutary must be as necessary as it may prove interesting and beneficial; for, on the choice of proper or improper tea must greatly depend the health or disease of the public in general. To this may be attributed the constitution being either preserved from that innumerable train of afflictions, which arise from too great a relaxation of the nervous system by acute distempers, misfortunes, &c. or being so debilitated by excessive drinking of India Tea, as to render it alone the prey of melancholy, palsies, epilepsies, night-mares, swoonings, flatulencies, low spirits, hysteric and hypochondriacal affections. For tea that is pernicious is not only poison to those who, from any cause of corporal debility or mental affliction, are liable to the above diseases;—but it is also too frequently found to render the most healthy victims of these alarming complaints. And as nervous disorders are the most complicated in their distressing circumstances, the greater care should be taken to avoid such aliments as produce them, as well as to choose those which are the most proper for their relief and prevention. Those who are now suffering from the inconsiderate use of improper tea, what pitiable objects of distress and disease do they not represent for the caution of those who may timely preserve themselves? Nervous disorders are the most formidable, by being the most numerous in their attacks upon the human frame. Every moment, comparatively speaking, produces some new distress of mind or body. The imagination cannot avoid the horrors of its own creation, while the memory is harrassed with the shadows of departed pleasures, which serve but to encrease the pain of existing torments. All the endearments of life are vanished to the poor wretch who sees himself surrounded by the spectres of dismay, terror, despondency, and melancholy. And such is but the thousandth part of the afflictions that are to be avoided or produced by the choice of the prevailing beverage of tea. Not only the innumerable train of nervous afflictions, but all those disorders that arise from an improper temperature of the fluids, may be produced from the action, corrosion, and stimulation of pernicious teas. In proportion to the state of the fluids, in particular constitutions, they may either prove too relaxing or astringent, too condensing or attenuating, and too acrid or viscid; for India teas, that to some constitutions are very diluting, may produce in others contrary effects: therefore such should be chosen as possess a combination of quality that may render them, as nearly as possible, to a general specific. But this cannot be well expected where one single ingredient is used, and that is distinguished for its particular qualities, which, if wholesome, can only be such to those whose fluids are so, by nature or circumstances, as to require such a particular assistant; for to every other state of the fluids they must be pernicious. It is consequently evident, that if teas imported from India have any virtues, they cannot be such as to render them worthy of being universally adopted as a general aliment. If wholesome to a few, they must be pernicious to the rest of mankind, with whose constitutions they have no congeniality, medicinal or alimentary virtue. Supposing they may possess some physical properties, like all other medicines, they can only benefit such disorders as nature particularly formed them to relieve. Those who have been advocates for their positive virtues have, in this instance, but more confirmed the impropriety of adopting them as a general morning and evening beverage. This only explains more evidently the cause of so many being injured, where one is benefited, by drinking constantly India tea. There cannot possibly be stated a more self-evident proposition than where any simple or combined matter is adopted for a particular purpose, it must, in every opposite instance, prove injurious. In proportion, therefore, to such particular qualities, they are the more improper to be generally and indiscriminately adopted. This observation, although it may be applied to every art or science, is still more applicable to physic. Thus is it found that no medicine can be safely taken as a constant and general aliment. Even those who, at first, might find it beneficial in their respective complaints, have too frequently found the constant use of it afterwards hurtful to the constitution it had before relieved. It may be deduced, from the above considerations, that India teas, however physically beneficial, to allow them all their best of praise, must be as an aliment generally injurious. Instead of preserving health, they sow innumerable disorders, which can only be cured by substituting a beverage from such salutary native or exotic herbs as are formed for the particular afflictions the former have so pitiably brought upon the too greater part of mankind.
As almost every disorder to which the human frame is liable may be retarded in its cure, if not confirmed in the constitution, by the power of secretion being weakened, India teas are the most dangerous that can be possibly used as a general beverage. By too much dilating the canals, the concussive force of the sides is increased, which destroys the oscillatory motion, and thus are the secretions altered and disturbed; and as the action of medicines consists in removing impediments to the equal motion of the fluids, the greater care should be taken to abstain from all food or drink that may increase those impediments. That India teas not only increase but occasion such evils is evident, from their having been experienced to relax the tone and reduce the consistence of the solids. As the powers of secretion depend upon the just equilibrium of force between the solids and the liquids, the latter must, in the above instance, make a greater impetus upon one part than another, from which proceeds that morbid state so justly and emphatically termed Disease. Thus, according to the learned Boerhaave, to heal is to take away the disease from the body; that is, to remove and expel the causes which hinder the equal motion or transflux. Medicines, he says, are those mechanical instruments by which an artist may remove the causes of the balance being destroyed, and thus re-instate the lost equilibrium of solids and liquids. He therefore concludes, that a medicine supposes a flowing of the humours or liquids; that it operates mechanically; that it acts only mediately; that its good or bad effects depend entirely on the bulk, motion, and figure of the acting particles, and that the destruction of the balance must be deduced from the solids. So that, as it has been found that the solids are wasted and impaired by the constant use of India tea, the chief cause of disease, in general, may be attributed to such a pernicious custom; even the properties which he ascribes to medicines are in direct opposition to what have been found to be the prevailing effects of teas imported into Europe. It is consequently evident, that the drinking of this injurious tea being not only, in its operation, productive of disease in its general sense, but also repugnant to the salutary operation of medicine, it is the most dangerous beverage that can be generally taken; for it appears, from the above consideration, that its pernicious effects are not confined to any system of disorders; it is found inimical to the first principles of health, and therefore may be justly dreaded as capable of being the source of disease indefinitely understood.
Having thus stated, as an Introduction to this Essay on Teas, the general tendency of those imported from India, under the titles of Green, Souchong, and Bohea, to injure the constitution, the following pages will be particularly devoted to the consideration of the nature, preparation, and manner of using, and the effects of such foreign teas.
ESSAY ON TEAS.
There is, perhaps, no subject on which there has been more declamation, for and against its properties and effects, than those of teas imported into this country by the companies trading from the different maritime nations of Europe to China and India. Nor has there been a controversy in which the health of the community has been so materially concerned, that has afforded so little direction of moment to those who would wish to ascertain the truth of such teas being either beneficial, injurious, or innocent in their effects. Amidst a mass of declamatory assertion so little intelligence is to be gained, that those who have had the greatest interest in being informed of the real qualities of teas, have most abandoned the enquiry before they obtained the least knowledge of what they sought. Either perplexed with abstruse science, or dissatisfied with assertion equally unfounded and unsupported, thousands have discontinued the research, and committed themselves to fatal experience. Thus have too many acquired a knowledge of the detrimental qualities of teas, by the ruin of their constitution. To avoid therefore such an inconvenience, the greatest care will be taken to prevent an indiscriminate reference to authors, whose sentiments can neither sanction adduced arguments or illustrate technical allusions. The enquiry will be made with some reference to science, but more to convince by demonstration than to confound by abstruse perplexities. So that, while empty declamation is avoided, the principles of truth are meant to be investigated by reason and experience. With this view, the Nature of Green, Souchong, and Bohea teas is first considered. To judge of the nature of these herbs with equal candour and propriety, it may be necessary to consider their qualities in relation to what are ascribed them, and what have been discovered by their analysis, and what have resulted from experience. The virtues that have been ascribed to them are chiefly, being a greatful diluent in health, and salutary in sickness, by attenuating viscid juices, promoting natural excretions, exciting appetite, and proving particularly serviceable in fevers, immoderate sleepiness, and head-aches after a debauch. It is also added to the list of their ascribed virtues, that there is no plant yet known, the infusions of which pass more freely from the body, or more speedily excite the spirits. To a person of any physical knowledge, these qualities will either appear contradictory in themselves, or rather ultimately injurious, than absolutely beneficial. As the full examination of these assumed qualities, by the rules of science, would require a volume, instead of a few pages, which the limits of this Essay will afford, the enquiry must be made as perspicuous as the necessity of brevity will admit. Allowing they are diluting in health, their constant use may so attenuate the liquids as to destroy their natural force and tensity. But Boerhaave says, there is no proper diluent but water; it is therefore evident it is the water, and not the tea, which is the diluting medium. With respect to its being an attenuative of viscid humours, it can never possess this virtue from being a diluent, for an attenuant acts specially on the particles, by diminishing their bulk, while the diluent acts upon the whole mass of the fluid.
The general body of the liquid may be diluted while the viscid humours remain unresolved. Indeed, the operation of an attenuant is not easily known; for many are surprised that a slight inflammation should be so difficult to dissipate. But their surprise would cease, were they to consider, that medicines act more generally upon the whole body than abstractedly upon the part affected. Suppose to attenuate some coagulated blood, six grains of volatile salt were given, how small a proportion must come to the part diseased, when these grains, by the laws of circulation, will mix with the entire mass of blood, consisting at least of thirty pounds!
Teas being said to promote natural excretions, can be no recommendation of what is generally used; for this constant effect must render them too copious, and thus, according to all physical experience, the blood must be thickened in the greater vessels, which frequently terminates in an atrophy.
The appetite being excited by the drinking of tea, is more a proof of its attrition of the solids than any stimulus to a wholesome desire of food. This quality accounts for the acrimonious effects too many have experienced by its use. Many have not only had their blood impoverished, but corrupted by the constant drinking of these teas. Whether it arises from any positive acrimonious salt it naturally possesses, or from any acquired corrosiveness from its mode of drying, is not here necessary to enquire: it is only requisite to state that a pernicious effect is too fatally experienced by those who are unfortunately its slaves.
How India tea can be serviceable in fevers is not easy to be understood; for, if it has that effect upon the nerves to excite watchfulness, it must greatly tend to increase, instead of diminish feverish symptoms. Dr. Buchan attributes even one cause of the palsy to drinking much tea or coffee, &c. and, in a note, he subjoins: "Many people imagine that tea has no tendency to hurt the nerves, and that drinking the same quantity of warm water would be equally pernicious. This, however, seems to be a mistake, many persons drinking three or four cups of warm milk and water daily, without feeling any bad consequences; yet the same quantity of tea will make their hands shake for twenty-four hours. That tea affects the nerves is likewise evident from its preventing sleep, occasioning giddiness, dimness of the sight, sickness, &c."
With regard to India teas possessing the quality of exciting the spirits, this, like every other stimulus, either by constant use loses its effect, or unnerves the system it is meant to strengthen. The nerves through which the animal spirits circulate being, like the strings of a violin or harpsichord, too frequently braced, lose, at last, their natural tensity, and thus render the human frame one system of debility.
Having thus, as briefly as possible, stated that even their ascribed virtues are either derogatory to all physical principle, or else destructive to the constitution, from their constant use, the nature of India teas is next considered, with respect to what appears to be their chief component parts, from analyzation.
Teas have been found to consist principally of narcotic salts, some astringent oil, and earth. These being found in greater quantities in bohea than in green teas, those who have very sensible and elastic nerves must be seized with a greater tremor after drinking the former than the latter. The continual and regular influx of the nervous juices is stopped by their component fibres being contracted from the roughness and restringency of such decoctions. The force of the heat, or the brain's propulsion of its nervous juice, being inferior to the resistance of the whole ramified fibres thus encreased by the sudden contraction and unequal motion, the flow of the animal spirits must be greatly impeded and disordered. In fact, the influx suffers a suspension, until the fibres, by relaxing again, admit their empty tubes to receive their appropriated liquids. Thus even green tea must, especially if taken strong and often, stop the natural circulation of humours, and produce the attendant defects of depression of spirits, deficiency of secretion, loss of appetite, decrease of strength, waste of body, and, finally, a total want of effective vigour in all the animal functions. But, as above observed, bohea tea possessing in greater quantity the pernicious ingredients, the vessels are thrown into momentary spasms and convulsive vibrations, by the relaxing power of the narcotic salts, and the contracting force of the astringent oil and earth. And here it must be noticed, that oil mixed with salt is rendered astringent: thus all vegetables, where a mixture of both prevails, are reckoned stimulating. The narcotic power of the salt is derived from its hindering the flux of the animal spirits through the nerves.
The stomach and bowels being weakened by the above causes, windy complaints or flatulencies are consequently produced. This caused Dr. Whytt, in his advice to patients afflicted with such diseases, to desire they would abstain from India tea, as one of the flatulent aliments chiefly to be avoided.
If the slightest external motion alone produces the following changes in the body, what effects may not be ascribed to the constant use of teas, which we find, as before stated, operate internally? A person in perfect health, having his nostrils only touched with a feather, cannot avoid his body being so convulsed as to produce what is commonly called sneezing. But if the number of muscles agitated, the force and straining of the body by sneezing, are considered; the slightness of the cause must excite no little astonishment; for this action is occasioned by the muscles of the scapula, abdomen, diaphragm, thorax, lungs, &c. and if the sneezing continues, an universal explosion of the liquids ensues: tears, mucus, saliva, and urine, are excreted. Thus, without any moist, cold, hot, dry, sulphur, salt, or any other internal or external application, an involuntary motion of all the solids and fluids is produced by a feather touching, in the slightest manner, the inside of our nostrils. But Boerhaave relates further, "That if sneezing continues a long time, as it will by taking one hundredth part of a grain of euphorbium up the nose, grievous and continued convulsions will arise, head-aches, involuntary excretions of urine, &c., vomitings, febrile heats, and other dreadful symptoms; and, at last, death itself will ensue." It is therefore evident that the slightest bodies produce the greatest changes in the human frame.
Such is the power of certain particles upon the nerves, that the stomach will be thrown into convulsions that almost threaten an inversion, by taking only four ounces of a wine in which so small a portion of glass of antimony as one scruple is infused in eight pounds of the former. And what is still more remarkable is, that the glass of antimony remains not only undissolved, but, comparatively speaking, undiminished in its weight.
These being a few of the fatal afflictions which experience shews to be frequently the consequence of drinking India teas, its injurious nature is too evident to require any further investigation of either their ascribed or positive qualities. The next subject to be considered, relative to India teas, is their Preparation.
Among the different authors of any consequence that have written on the culture, preparation, and virtues of foreign teas, may be ranked Kampfer, Postlethwaite, Dr. Cunningham, Priestley, Lemery, Franchus, Meister, and Sigesbeck; as the limits of this Treatise will not permit a detail of observations from the whole of these writers, remarks can only be selected from the most principal of them. Most of the above, and many other, authors agree that the leaves are spread upon iron plates, and thus dried with several little furnaces contained in one room. This mode of preparation must greatly tend to deprive the shrub of its native juices, and to contract a rust from the iron on which it is dried. This may probably be the cause of vitriol turning tea into an inky blackness. We therefore do not think with Boerhaave, that the preparers employ green vitriol for improving the colour of the finer green teas. It may however be concluded, from the colour of bohea, souchong, and such as are called black teas, that they may be thus tinctured, by the means of vitriol, after they have been dried upon the iron plates in the furnace room; and this may likewise particularly cause that astringent quality which is more experienced in all the black than any of the green teas. According to Sigesbeck, the colours of these teas are artificial; so that if these pernicious arts are used even to give the tea a particular colour, there is no difficulty in ascribing the cause of their injurious effects.
That the native virtues of these teas are liable to considerable perversion is evident from the manner in which Meister relates they are prepared. He says the leaves are put into a hot kettle just emptied of boiling water, and that they are kept in this closely covered until they are cold, when they are strewed upon the hot plates above mentioned for drying. It is easy to conceive how the virtues of a leaf, however salutary by nature, must be destroyed by such a process. Being thus put into a steaming kettle, and suffered to remain there until they are cold, must cause the greatest part of their Virtues to evaporate, and the leaves to imbibe an unwholesome taint from the effluvia of the steaming metal. It cannot, therefore, be ascertained whether teas that are imported in Europe, after such a mutating preparation, have the least remains of their original odour or flavour, no more than they have of their qualities; but, on the contrary, it seems impossible but that the original nature of this shrub is entirely destroyed by an artificial preparation. Some falsely suppose that this species of management is only to soften such of the leaves as are grown too dry, and are therefore liable to break in the curling; but this will evidently appear not the cause, when it is considered that the greater part of the teas must dry in such a hot climate while they are gathering: and as they are particularly anxious to send them in as curious a curled state as possible, such teas must be thus moistened again, in order to curl them afterwards in that perfect manner which is performed on the iron plates of the furnace.
The opinion, therefore, of teas deriving their green colour from being dried upon copper being founded on a misrepresentation of the manner in which they are really prepared, a few observations upon the subject are indispensibly necessary. For those who have always understood that the detrimental qualities of foreign teas were the consequence of their being dried upon copper, may perhaps imagine they cannot be so pernicious if they were dried upon iron; but this opinion cannot be entertained by any persons who have the least knowledge of the manner in which the vegetable acid will corrode iron. Those who are acquainted with culinary processes must know in what manner the acid of onions will operate upon any steel instrument; it corrodes a knife so as to turn the onions black with the particles eaten away from the edge and the face of the blade. To avoid this unwholsome and unseemly inconvenience, a wooden instrument is generally used in all instances where onions form a part of the cookery appendages. It is consequently evident, that although iron utensils are now greatly used instead of copper, yet many injurious effects may happen from their being liable to be corroded by the acid of several vegetables. And if the nitrous acid of the air will corrode iron so as to cause rust, when it will not produce the proportionate effect upon copper, it is a demonstration that iron is the most liable to such a corruption. The corrosions of copper are undoubtedly pernicious; but the damage that tea would derive from its being dried upon sheets of this metal would not operate so injuriously to those who drink it as it does now by lying dried upon iron. For the latter bring more liable to the power of the mineral, vegetable, or animal acid, must impart more particles of its reduced calax to the tea than copper would. And, in order to shew how susceptible of corrosion iron is, the following instance is farther adduced: in Ireland, where some persons practise the art of tanning leather with fern, which possesses a very strong acid, particular care is taken to avoid using any iron vessels in the tannage, lest the colour of the leather should be blackened by the corroding particle of the metal. As it is the peculiar property of iron or steely particles, even in their most perfect state, to operate as too great an astringent for an aliment that is taken twice a day constantly, tea, when dried upon it, must be rendered proportionably pernicious. But admitting that the popular opinion of their being dried upon copper was just, the teas must be rendered proportionably injurious to the quantity of copperas or crude vitriol they imbibe from their acidity corroding the metal. Preparations of steel, that are, in many instances, considered as most salutary, yet in all pulmonary disorders the most eminent physicians have deemed them exceedingly dangerous. And in a country, like Great Britain, Holland, and other places, where a cloudy atmosphere, caused from their marshy soil or watery situation, renders most of the inhabitants subject to complaints of the lungs, foreign teas, contaminated by these iron corrosions, must be particularly detrimental. It is therefore, from these considerations, evident, that foreign teas, by being dried upon iron, have their bad qualities so increased as to render them the most pernicious of any morning and evening liquid that has yet been taken.——To return from whence we began this short digression.
It is remarkable that no satisfactory account has yet been given in what the bohea differs from the green tea. Dr. Cunningham, physician to the English settlement at Cimsan, and Kampfer assert, that the bohea is the leaves of the first collection.
This, however, being contrary to the general report of all travellers, that none of the first produce is brought to Europe, must be discredited; for these are all preserved for the Princes, to whom they are sold, even in China, at an immense price. Another proof is, that the boheas are brought here in the most considerable quantities, at a price greatly inferior to what even the second, third, and fourth crops are sold for in China. This not only evinces how inferior in quality the black tea must be, but also how little they are valued among those who must be acquainted with their properties.
Although the European dealers divide the green teas chiefly into three sorts, and the boheas into five, yet it is unknown from what province they are brought, of what crop they are the produce, and to which of the Chinese sorts they belong.
Added to their abuse of preparation may be that of their package. It is impossible but to know that their bad qualities must be considerably augmented by being so closely packed, for such a length of time, in such slight wooden chests, lined with a composition of wood and lead. Considerable quantities are likewise damaged by salt water and other causes, which, by the management of the tea dealers, are mostly mixed, and sold under different denominations. How the tea must be affected by the corrosion of the lead and tin by the marine acid, those of the least chemical knowledge will easily determine. To what danger must, therefore, the constitution of those who are in the constant habit of drinking such an empoisoned drug be exposed, may easily be imagined. Surely, when all these circumstances are considered respecting the pernicious mode of preparation, and particularly the poisonous qualities they are also liable to contract from the nature of their package, every person must be convinced to what a loss of health, if not of life, the constant use of such teas must expose them. Such evidence of their deleterious tendency is almost sufficient to alarm mankind against so prevailing an evil, without any further arguments; but as health is too precious not to require every possible proof that can persuade us to avoid what so immediately threatens our existence, the following arguments and testimonies of the bad qualities of foreign teas must not be omitted. Previous, however, to an investigation of their effects, it may be necessary to say a few words respecting
THE MANNER OF USING.
Foreign tea, as before observed, being taken as two principal meals of our daily aliment, is undoubtedly one great reason of the constitution of the people having suffered an entire change in its system. That vigour, spirits, and longevity, which characterised us in the last century, is totally subverted; disease, dismay, and debility, now lead us prematurely to the grave, where we end an existence too deplorable to excite the least desire for a longer continuance. Dr. Priestley states, very justly, in his Medical Essays, that it is curious to observe the revolution which hath taken place, within this century, in the constitutions of the inhabitants of Europe. Inflammatory diseases more rarely occur, and in general are much less rapid and violent in their progress than formerly; nor do they admit of the same antiphlogistic method of cure which was practised with success a hundred years ago. The experienced Sydenham makes forty ounces of blood the mean quantity to be drawn in the acute rheumatism; whereas this disease, as it now appears in the London hospitals, will not bear above half that evacuation. Vernal intermittents are frequently cured by a vomit and the bark, without venaesection, which is a proof that, at present, they are accompanied with fewer symptoms of inflammation than they were wont to be. This advantageous change, however, is more than counterbalanced by the introduction of a numerous class of nervous aliments, in a greater measure, unknown to our ancestors, but which now prevail universally, and are complicated with almost every other distemper. The bodies of men are enfeebled and enervated; and it is not uncommon to observe very high degrees of irritability under the external appearance of great strength and robustness. The hypochondriac, palsies, cachexies, dropsies, and all those diseases which arise from laxity and debility, are, in our days, endemic every where; and the hysterics, which used to be peculiar to the women, as the name itself indicates, now attacks both sexes indiscriminately. It is evident that so great a revolution could not be effected without the concurrence of many causes; but amongst these, I apprehend, the present general use of tea holds the first and principal rank. The second cause may perhaps be allotted to excess in spirituous liquors. This pernicious custom owes its rise to the former, which, by the lowness and depression of spirits it occasions, renders it almost necessary to have recourse to what is cordial and exhilarating; and hence proceeds those odious and disgraceful habits of intemperance with which too many of the softer sex of every degree are now, alas! chargeable. These are the sentiments of a character distinguished for his elaborate researches and judicious discoveries in almost every branch of liberal science. It may therefore be safely concluded, that the general manner of using India tea morning and evening has been, and is, the principal cause of the greater part of the diseases with which the natives of Europe are now afflicted. When it is considered that the first meal which is taken to recruit the body, after the loss it sustains from the insensible perspiration of the preceding night, and to prepare it for the avocations of the succeeding day, is India tea, who can be surprised that nature should rapidly become the victim of disease? Thus, instead of being supported by nutritious aliment, its nerves are enfeebled, its spirits diminished, and all its functions enveloped with the gloom of melancholy. Even in the afternoon, when nature is exhausted by care and fatigue, we fly for refreshment to tea, which, instead of bracing, still further relaxes the unnerved system. Such are the evil effects of the imprudent manner in which this pernicious drug is so constantly and universally used. But how must these evils appear in their extent, when the following view is taken of India teas, with regard to their variety of injurious EFFECTS.
In all the physical experiments that have been made upon India teas, there is, perhaps, none that shews its acid astringency more than one tried by the above writer, Dr. Priestley. Endeavouring to trace the differences and ascertain the astringency and bitterness of vegetables reciprocally bear to each other, he imagined he had found they were distinct and separate properties, by the following experiment: Taking two pieces of calf-skin just stripped from the calf, he immerged them in cold infusions of green and bohea tea; at the expiration of a week he found they were hard and curled up, and that there was no sensible difference between them. He therefore concluded, that this experiment afforded a striking proof of India tea differently affecting a dead and a living fibre; this he considered as the greatest effect of a medicine. But, with deference to so distinguished an author, I cannot but attribute this astringency of the skin to the particular properties of India tea; for all physical as well as medical experience proves that vegetable produce afford some that are astringent, and others that are relaxant, of the dead as well as the living fibre. Oak bark is equally astringent, and hardens the fibres of the hide, as well as it braces the living nerve of our bodies; therefore the effect produced by the India tea upon the dead skin only proves, what we have before related, that an infusion of it has a peculiar effect, which, being too frequently applied to the nerves, destroys their tensity by their fine fibres being either broken or relaxed by overbracing. Were any astringent to be constantly taken, it must ultimately produce more or less such an effect; so that while the above experiment of the learned Philosopher demonstrates that India tea has the power of astringing the dead as well as the living fibres, it does not prove that astringency bitterness are separate qualities. On the contrary, bitterness seems to be the characteristic taste of all that has the tendency to contract whatever is the subject of its application. Thus galls, bark, rhubarb, camomile tea, &c. &c. are all bitter and astringent. It is, therefore, the immoderate use of such an astringent that ultimately relaxes and debilitates: like the too frequent bracing of a drum, or any other stringed musical instrument, destroys its tensity, the body is unnerved by the overstretching of its fibres. Although we sometimes differ with the celebrated Doctor in part of the conclusion he has drawn from his experiment, yet the following sentiments so perfectly coincide with all our observations upon India teas, that we are happy to have the opportunity of corroborating our own with the sentiments of so eminent a Philosopher. He says, from his experiments, "it appears that green and bohea teas are equally bitter, strike precisely the same black tinge with green vitriol, and are alike astringent on the simple fibre. From this exact similarity in so many circumstances, one should be led to suppose that there would be no sensible diversity in their operation on the living body; but the fact is otherwise: green tea is much more sedative and relaxant than bohea; and the finer the species of tea, the more debilitating and pernicious are its effects, as I have frequently observed in others, and experienced in myself. This seems to be a proof that the mischiefs ascribed to this oriental vegetable do not arise from the warm vehicle by which it is conveyed into the stomach, but chiefly from its own peculiar qualities." Dr. Hugh Smith, in his Treatise on the Action of the Muscles, justly says, that an infusion of India tea not only diminishes, but destroys the bodily functions. Thea infusum, nervo musculove ranae admotum, vires motices minuit perdit. Newman, in his Chemistry, says, when fresh gathered, teas are said to be narcotic, and to disorder the senses; the Chinese, therefore, cautiously abstain from their use until they have been kept twelve months. The reason attributed for bohea tea being less injurious than green is, being more hastily dried, the pernicious qualities more copiously evaporate.
"Tea," says Dr. Hugh Smith, in his Dissertation upon the Nerves, "is very hurtful both to the stomach and nerves. Phrensies, deliriums, vigilation, idiotism, apoplexies, and other disorders of the brain, are all produced by the nerves being thus disarranged and debilitated. If the digestive faculty of the stomach be weakened, the body, failing of recruiting juices, must tend to emaciation, and the whole frame be rendered one system of distress and infirmity. The nerves, being thus deprived of a sufficiency of their animal spirits, must become languid, and leave every sense void of the first means of conveying to the mind the only enjoyments of our temporal existence.
"But if there be any class of persons to whom India tea is more particularly hurtful than to any other, it is that which includes the studious and sedentary, and especially those who are enfeebled with gout, stone, and rheumatism; age, accident, or avocation, cause many persons to be unfortunately ranked amongst those of the latter description. These, from their intensity of thought, want of exercise, injurious position of body, respiration of unwholesome air, and a variety of other causes, have not only their animal spirits exhausted, but their liquids corrupted from the loss of a necessary circulation. With these evils India tea operates as an absolute poison. Indeed, it frequently renders those incurable, who might, by other means, have been relieved.
"When a view is taken of the dismal effects produced by India teas, the mind seems to be bewildered in searching for the cause of using so generally a drug that is so universally destructive. It chiefly originated in a fundamental mistake of physical principles. About the time that India tea was introduced to Europe, a grievous error crept into the practice of medical professors; they falsely imagined that health could not be more promoted than by increasing the fluidity of the blood. This opinion once established, it is no wonder that mankind, with one accord, adopted the infusion of India tea, which was then a novelty to Europe, as the best means of obtaining the above effect. By the advice of Bentikoe chiefly was the pernicious custom of drinking warm liquors, night and day, established. To this man, and the introduction of India tea, may be ascribed that revolution in the health of Europeans which has happened since the last century. The present age, therefore, have great cause to lament, in what they suffer in nervous complaints, that their forefathers did not attend more to the scientific and judicious advice of the illustrious Duncan, Boerhaave, and the whole school of Leyden, who proscribed this error. Although they could not entirely prevent this physical abuse, yet their zealous endeavours did, in some degree, at first impede its progress; but, however, so powerful did novelty plead in favour of India teas, that, at last, general custom and prejudice bore away every barrier that had been erected by these learned and experienced physicians. This error, instead of diminishing, has increased: most valetudinarians are now of opinion that a thick blood is the sole cause of their complaints; with this impression they adopt what they call the diluent beverage of India teas. It can scarcely be imagined how many disorders this practice produces; it may be justly termed the box of Pandora, without even hope remaining at the bottom." Tissot says, "They are the prolific sources of hypochondriac melancholy, which both adds strength to and is one of the worst of disorders." He adds, "with regard to studious men, who are naturally weak and feeble, such warm beverages are more hurtful to them than to others; for they are not troubled with an over thick, but, on the contrary, too thin a blood. You are all aware," continues he, "respectable auditors, that the density of the blood is as the motion of the solids; the fibres of the learned are relaxed, their motions are slow, and their blood, of consequence, thin. Bleed a ploughman and a doctor at the same time; from the first there will flow a thick blood, resembling inflammatory blood, almost solid, and of a deep red; the blood of the latter will be either of a faint red, or without any colour, soft, gelatinous, and will almost entirely turn them to water. Your blood, therefore, men of learning, should not be dissolved, but brought to a consistence; and you should in general be moderate in the article of drinking, and cautiously avoid warm spirituous liquors.
"Amongst the favorite beverages of the learned," the same Tissot observes, "is the infusion of that famous leaf, so well known by the name of India tea, which, to our great detriment, has every year, for these two centuries past, been constantly imported from China and Japan. This most pernicious gift first destroys the strength of the stomach, and if it be not soon laid aside, equally destroys that of the viscera, the blood, the nerves, and of the whole body; so that malignant and all chronical disorders will appear to increase, especially nervous disorders, in proportion as the use of India tea becomes common; and you may easily form a judgment, from the diseases that prevail in every country, whether the inhabitants are lovers of tea or the contrary. How happy would it be for Europe, if, by unanimous consent, the importation of this infamous leaf was prohibited, which is endued only with a corrosive force derived from the acrimony of a gum with which it is pregnant."
Having thus considered the dismal and too frequently fatal consequences of the nerves being affected, it is presumed this part of the Essay cannot be more interestingly concluded than by a summary of the distinct symptomatic effects attending, more or less, complaints of the nerves; and although the following symptoms are alarming with regard to their number and variety, yet the reader may be assured there is not one specified but what is either the immediate or ultimate effect of a nervous affection, and which is too frequently the consequence of the violent astringency of foreign tea taken injudiciously as a constant aliment:—A faintness, succeeded with a delusive vision of motes, mists, and clouds, falling backwards and forwards before the distempered sight—A yawning, gaping, stretching out of the arms, twitching of the nerves, sneezing, drowsiness, and contraction of the breast—Dulness, debility, distress, and dismay, with a great sense of weariness—A wan complexion, a languid eye, a loathing stomach, and an uncertain appetite, which, if not immediately satisfied, is irremediably lost—Heartburning, bilious vomitings, belchings, pains in the pit of the stomach, and shortness of breath—Dizziness, inveterate pains in the temples and other parts of the head, a tingling noise in the ear, a throbbing of the brain, especially of the temporal arteries—Symptoms of asthma, tickling coughs, visible inflations, and unusual scents affecting the olfactory nerves—Sometimes costive and sometimes relaxed—Sudden flushings of heat, and suffusions of countenance—In the night, alternate sweats and shiverings, especially down the back, which seems to feel as if water was poured down that part of the body—A ptyalism, or discharge of phlegm from the glands of the throat, which generally attends all the symptoms—Troublesome pains between the shoulders, pains attended with hot sensations, cramps and convulsive motions of the muscles, or a few of their fibres—Sudden startings of the tendons of the legs and arms—Copious and frequent discharges of pale and limpid urine—Vertigoes, long faintings, and cold, moist, clammy sweat about the temples and forehead—Wandering pains in the sides, back, knees, ancles, arms, wrists, and somewhat resembling rheumatic pains—The head generally warm, while the rest of the body is cold or chilly—Obstinate watchinqs, disturbed sleep, frightful dreams, the night mare, startings when awake, and the mind filled with the most terrific apprehensions—Tremors of the limbs, and palpitations of the heart—A very variable and irregular pulse—Periodical pains in the head—A sense of suffocation, frequent sighings, and shedding of tears—Convulsive spasms of the muscles, tendons, nerves of the back, loins, arms, hands, and a general convulsion of the stomach, bowels, throat, legs, and indeed almost every other part of the body—A quick apprehension, forgetful, unsettled, and constant to nothing but inconstancy—A wandering and delirious imagination, groundless fears, and an exquisite sense of his sufferings—A gradually sinking into a nervous atrophy or consumption—A perpetual alarm of approaching death—Sometimes cheerful, and sometimes melancholy—Without present enjoyment or future expectation of any thing but increasing misery and debility.—If these symptoms are inconsiderately suffered to continue, they soon terminate in palsy, hip, madness, epilepsy, apoplexy, or in some mortal disease, as the black jaundice, dropsy, consumption, &c.
Having ascertained, from this enquiry, the injurious properties of India tea, it may naturally be expected that I should propose some article that might prove more beneficial. With this requisition I shall most readily comply, although I may expose myself to the invidious censure of having directed all my efforts to establish the celebrity of whatever article I may recommend. But being convinced, that, by publishing the virtue of a tea that I have investigated from physical analysis and particular observation, I may essentially serve the public, I am content to suffer the obloquy, provided it is productive of a general benefit. Having, as before observed, examined, with the greatest attention, the nature of most articles that have been offered as morning and afternoon beverage, there are two which claim most particularly the preference of all others that are sold under the denomination of Tea: these are, 1st, that which was discovered by that eminent botanist Sir Hans Sloane; and the other, by a botanist and physician equally celebrated, Dr. Solander. I therefore, without considering in what manner the interest of the proprietors of these teas may be individually affected, propose two articles, in order to shew that my partiality or opinion of the virtues of the one could not prejudice me so far as to prevent my allowing due praise to any other possessing qualities deserving approbation. I am happy to state that, from my analysis of that invented by Sir Hans Sloane, called British Tea, I found it possesses most singular virtues for relieving many nervous complaints; but, from the same trials and experiments made on that invented by Dr. Solander, I have been convinced that, although the qualities of the former are exceedingly salutary, they are not so general in their restoration and nutritious effects as the latter. Being thus convinced of the extraordinary properties of Dr. Solander's Tea, I have been induced to state, in a Treatise upon their Nature, Preparation, and Effects, reasons founded on chemical analysis, physical efficiency, and experimental observation, in support of their most eminent virtues. After every trial I have made of coffee, chocolate[1], and most other preparations that have been, and are at present, offered to the public as a substitute for tea, none seem to claim the preference so eminently as that invented by Dr. Solander. From their analysis, I find their virtues are of the most corrective and balsamic kind; they strengthen the tone of the stomach, not by astringing the solids, but by lubricating the vessels, sheathing the acrids, and attenuating the liquids.
[1] "Coffee.—In bilious habits it is very hurtful." Dr. Carr's Med. Epist. p. 25.
"Coffee.—I cannot advise it to those of hardness of breathing." Ibid. p. 29.
"Coffee, according to Paule, a Danish physician, enervates men and renders them incapable of generation, which injurious tendency is certainly attributed to it by the Turks. From its immoderate use they account for the decrease of population in their provinces, that were so numerously peopled before this berry was introduced among them. Mr. Boyle mentions an instance of a person to whom Coffee always proved an emetic. He also says that he has known great drinking of it produce the palsy.
"Chocolate is too gross for many weak stomachs, and exceedingly injurious to those liable to phlegm and viscid humours." Saunders's Nat. & Art. Direct. for Health.
"Chocolate overloads the stomach, and renders the juices too slow in their circulation." Smith on the Nerves.
In this manner they restore the equilibrium of the oscillatory motions, which establish the tone of the nervous system. This being strengthened, the animal spirits are enabled to dispense their reviving influence to the sensitive, digestive, and intellectual powers. And these being thus restored to their vigour of operation, a simple and moderate portion of food is rendered the most nutritious, and the body is consequently established in the enjoyment of health and happiness.
The above virtues of the sanative tea are not here asserted as a declamatory panegyric, but as the result of a physical analysis of their nature, and a serious examination into their mode of operating as a restorative and constant aliment. Without presuming their qualities to be an unlimited remedy for all complaints, the nature of the preparation of this tea is compared with the causes and effects of nervous disorders: from this comparison their relative virtue to such diseases are most clearly evinced: and thus is this invaluable discovery proved to be the most effectual remedy for all those complaints caused by drinking foreign teas, that was ever yet or may be hereafter invented.
In proposing to the public any simple or compound, for the preserving, increasing, or restoring health, the first object should be to explain its nature. This is the principal test by which its merits can be known, or mankind rationally induced to try its virtues. And as this sanative tea is offered as a substitute for what is generally used as two fourths of our aliment, and which, from the preceding enquiry, has been found the principal cause of our present infirmities, the greater necessity there is for a candid investigation of its nature.
Impressed with the above conviction, it is fairly stated that the nature of this sanative tea is not from any combination of the animal or mineral kingdom, but a collection of the most salutary native and exotic herbs that are produced in the vegetable empire of nature. These have not been collected by the fanatic devotees of occult qualities, but by the scientific researches and personal experience of a character that is equally and justly admired for his philosophical, medical, and botanical knowledge. The discoverer, Dr. Solander, of this tea, inquired into the virtues of each native and exotic herb of which it is composed, not only by abstract reasoning upon its relative qualities, but by the more immediate evidence of his senses: by submitting each vegetable to his taste and smell, he derived the most certain physical proof of its qualities. Thus he knew the particular virtues of each, and what salutary effects they must, from their preparation as a compound, produce when applied as a relief for the innumerable diseases caused by drinking foreign teas. Not confining himself to English Plants, he studied and examined the virtues of Exotics, among which he discovered some that possess virtues he had not found in those of his own country: by adopting these, he has increased the salutary effects of his invaluable tea. From reading Hippocrates, Discorides, and Galen, he found the ancients derived all their knowledge of plants by their taste and smell. With these examples before him, and his own propensity to study, joined to his penetrating judgement, it is no wonder he should have so well succeeded. Thus he recurred to the original mode of inquiry, which first established and raised the eminence of physic; neglecting that delusive principle of Aristotle's philosophy, which has since taught too many physicians to express the virtue of medicines by hot, cold, moist, and dry, without deriving the least information from their senses Dr. Solander, aided by chemical analysis, distinguished the virtue by the taste or odour of every plant. By this means their specific juices he found tasted either earthy, mucilaginous, sweet, bitter, aromatic, fetid, acrid, or corrosive. From this experience he found the observation of some botanists to be true, "That there is no virtue yet known in plants but what depends on the taste or smell, and may be known by them."[2] With this infallible means of pursuing his enquiry, he formed a tea composed of herbs that are in their nature astringent, balsamic, aromatic, cephalic, and diaphoretic. These virtues combined may be said to form one of the most incomparable specifics, as a nutritive and restoring aliment, that has been discovered.
[2] Floyer, Malpighus, Epew, Harvey, Willis, Lower, Needham, Glisson, &c.
In the astringent, the acid fixing upon the more earthly parts, the nutritious oil is more easily separated, which renders them also pectoral, cleaning, and diuretic. This part of the tea is in its nature particularly serviceable in all cases where vulnerary medicines are requisite. They particularly amend the acid in the nervous juice, and thus restore the equal motion of the spirits, which were obstructed or retarded by spasms or convulsions. By the volatile oil and volatile pungent salt, obstructions are opened, and the motions of the languid blood increased to a healthy degree of circulation. They resolve coagulated phlegm in the stomach, preserve the fluidity of the juices, and promote digestion, by assisting the bile in its operation.
And with regard to their balsamic and aromatic nature, these qualities warm the stomach and expel wind, by rarefying the flatuous exhalations from chyle in the prima viae. These, by their sweetness, allay the sharpness of rheums, and lenify their acrimony. Being filled with an oily salt, they open the passage of the lungs and kidnies. By opening the pores, they extraordinarily discuss outward tumours, and attenuate the internal coagulation. All these virtues may be said to be derived from the union of their balsamic oil and volatile salt.
By a second class of aromatics, with which Dr. Solander composed this sanative tea, is such as have a bitter astringency joined to their volatile oil and salt. These united qualities correct acids in the stomach, cleanse the lungs, and open obstructions in the glands caused by coagulated serum; and the saline pungent oil altering the acids in the glands of the brain, by correcting and attenuating its lympha and succus nervosus, produces the same effect; for the lympha and nervous juice are, like other glandulous humours, liable to acidity and stagnation; therefore these aromatics, by exciting their motion and correcting their acidities, render the liquids of the nerves more volatile, and are therefore justly termed cephalics. And as it is the property of volatiles to ascend, the reason is evident of the brain being assisted by their salutary qualities. These aromatics likewise evacuate serum from the blood, promote its circulation, and attenuate the coagulations of chyle, lympha, and succus nervosus. And here, it is proper to add, that all aromatics, by rarefying the blood, are cordial. There being aromatic astringents in this tea, its infusion strengthens the fibres and membranes of the stomach, and all the nervous system, in such a manner as not to destroy their tensity by that too great contraction caused by the foreign teas; and, having no acid in their astringency, the blood is preserved from too great a rarefaction, which would otherwise happen from the pungency of their oily qualities. These also excite the appetite, by stimulating the natural progress of the chyle, and thus prevent its too rapid fermentation of its spirituous parts into windy flatulencies. For the same reason vinegar is taken with hot meats and herbs. Having mentioned vinegar, it may not be improper to state this vegetable acid is the best antidote against the poison of any acrid herbs. That part of the tea which has a mucilaginous taste is inwardly cooler than oil, although it be different in nature. Such herbs defend the throat from the sharpness of rheums, the stomach from corrosive humours of disease or acrimonious medicines; the ureters from sharp, choleric, or acid urine, and lubricate the passage for the stony gravel. Their crude parts cool the heat of scorbutic blood, lessen its violent motion, and sheathe its acrid saline particles.
By their different mucilaginous principles they produce the following various salutary effects:
The earthy repel and cool outward inflammations.
The watery, which is thick and gummose, stop fluxes and correct sharp humours.
Those of an oily odour alleviate pains.
Those of a pungent acrid dissolve tartareous concretions in the kidnies.
From these and a variety of other salutary properties, it is evident the general nature of Dr. Solander's tea is such as to correct acrid humours, promote the secretions, restore the equilibrium between the fluids and solids, and finally to brace every part of the relaxed nervous system. The body being thus relieved from obstructions, its circulations restored, the digestive faculties invigorated, and the spirits re-animated, the debilitated constitution is reinstated in all its enjoyments of health and hilarity. It may be therefore observed, that the principle of this tea is to nourish as a general aliment, while it renovates the human constitution, without having recourse to the nauseous portions of galenical preparation, or the hazardous trial of chalybeate waters. As this tea is particularly salutary in all cases where mineral waters are generally recommended, it is very proper the Public should be cautioned against the danger which too frequently attends the constant drinking of them.
Chalybeate waters, it must be acknowledged, have effected very extraordinary cures in certain cases. But when so great an author as Helmont says, that such waters are fatal to all those who are afflicted with peripneumonic complaints, it is surely necessary they should be resorted to with the greatest caution; and even in complaints where they may be serviceable, it is necessary to observe whether they really possess those chalybeate qualities for which they are commended. Those who have written upon their virtues assert, and with seeming propriety, that where they deposit an ochreous sediment, they are certainly dispossessed of their steely virtues; for ochre being no other than the calx of iron, such a residue evinces the evaporation of the more eminent properties of the chalybeate, by the phlogiston of the mineral escaping by its extreme volatility. Every metal deprived of this igneous principle is immediately reduced to a calx, and thus deprived of its splendour, fusibility, and other properties, until restored again by the readmission of its phlogiston. Calcined lead having lost this inflammable quality, is reduced to a red calx or mineral earth, which, if fluxed with any igneous body, such as oil, pitch, wax, fat, wood, bone, or mineral oil or bitumen, the fiery principle is resorbed, and the lead restored to its essential qualities; from these physical observations the reader may be convinced of those mineral waters as afford such a sediment being in a state of decomposition. They are thus deprived of one of the four elements or principles of which they are all more or less composed. Every analysis of mineral waters in their perfect state has demonstrated that they possess a fixed air, a volatile alkali, a volatile vitriolic acid, and the phlogiston. If, therefore, either of these essential qualities is evaporated or corrupted, the water, being in a state of decomposition, must lose the virtues of a medicinal chalybeate.
It is only necessary to add a few further remarks, in order to shew in what particular complaints chalybeates, even in their most perfect state, are pernicious. By this means many of the diseased will be guarded against a fatal error: and as the prejudice in favour of such applications is so universally prevalent, it is hoped a few pages allotted to this subject will be deemed a most essential service to a deluded community. By removing such a pernicious partiality, the health, if not the lives of thousands, may be saved, to the great enjoyment of themselves and their relatives. Dr. Knight says very justly, "that the explication of the manner of the operation of chalybeate medicines in human bodies is grounded upon false principles, and not matters of fact; to wit, that all chalybeate preparations, in a liquid form, owe their medicinal efficacy to the metal dissolved, whether in an aqueous or spirituous menstruum, retaining its metallic texture." To avoid entering into the whole detail of this interesting argument, it is only here stated in support of the above assertion, that as mineral waters are impregnated with a combination of sulphurs, salts, and earth, their virtues cannot be properly ascribed, as they have been, to the metals which they contain. It might be further proved, that iron cannot possibly enter the blood, retaining its essential qualities; for metals in general, except mercury, are suspended in liquids in solutis principiis, or principles disengaged, which are thus deprived of their metallic properties. Iron, entering the body as a volatile vitriolic acid, cannot act by its specific gravity as mercury does; it therefore acts per accidens, and not per se. But admitting that waters, however impregnated with iron, are efficacious in checking all diarrhoea and other profuse evacuations, by closing the relaxed vessels, and incrassating the fluids, yet as they prove sometimes so astringent as to stop the natural secretions, the consequences are frequently cramps, dangerous convulsions, which often end in fevers, inflammations, and mortifications, their indiscriminate use should be most cautiously avoided. Chalybeates, thus contracting the least pervious glands, should not be taken in acute inflammations, or in any complaints that are attended with a quick and strong pulse, a plethora, or extravasation of humours. They are equally dangerous in all nervous contractions, or where the blood is got into the arteriolae, or capillary vessels. Thus, instead of acting like the sanative tea, which softens, smoothes, and unbends the two constringed fibres, the vitriolic salts of this mineral water but more contract the fibrillae, by operating like so many wedges, which ultimately tear, rend, or divide the tender filaments. It must, however, be admitted that mineral waters are very beneficial in cachexies, scurvies, jaundice, hypochondriacal and hysterical affections. Having paid this tribute to their virtues, it is evident that what is above stated respecting their pernicious effects has been dictated by candour, and with no illiberal disposition to deny their absolute virtues[3]. These few remarks have only been made in order to warn the community against a prevailing and indiscriminate use which might otherwise, in many complaints, prove at least fatal to their health, if not to their existence. And as the tea discovered by Dr. Solander possesses all the virtues of the chalybeate, without its dangerous principles, it was an immediate duty not only to warn but direct the Public in their adoption of an aliment so essential to their health, and consequently temporal happiness.
[3] Waters drank at their source are efficacious in many complaints that are not accompanied with inflammatory symptoms; but if they are drank after a long or short conveyance, their effects must be proportionably injurious instead of beneficial.
PREPARATION.
As the native and exotic herbs of this tea are dried in a pure air, without any artificial means of preparation to improve their colour or increase their natural astringency, they must be free from those deleterious, corrosive, and violent contractive effects with which we have observed the general and indiscriminate use of foreign teas and mineral waters are attended. In the first part of this Essay, it was stated that foreign teas were dried upon iron, and thus produced those astringent effects we have seen to characterize chalybeate waters. It is therefore evident, that the simple preparation of these salutary herbs being free from what renders teas and mineral waters in many cases pernicious, must leave their qualities pure and unadulterated, according to the intent and principle of nature in their production. They are, therefore, found particularly free from those injurious properties which render green tea so destructive to emaciated constitutions. Instead of being, like the above foreign tea, hurtful to those worn down by a long fever, or such as have weak and delicate stomachs, their qualities are in such complaints essentially nutritious and restorative. That stimulating roughness, which foreign teas imbibe from their iron preparation, is not to be found in the sanative tea discovered by Dr. Solander; the latter is therefore very beneficial where the mucous coat of the bowels is very thin, or the ramification of the nerves numerous, extensive, and exquisitely sensible of impression. The cholic, gripes, or painful prickings of the nervous coat by the India teas, are allayed by the drinking of the sanative tea, from its tepid and lubricating nature not being perverted by any corrosive preparation. To thin and meagre bodies, which are greatly affected by green and bohea teas, the above is a most restorative aliment. The atrophy and diabetes, so frequently caused by the foreign teas, are, from the herbs of Dr. Solander's tea possessing their natural nutritious qualities uncontaminated by metallic preparation, often cured by using it as a morning and evening beverage; and the depression of spirits occasioned by green and bohea, and which induces many of its drinkers to take sal volatile, or spirits of hartshorn, is avoided by the sanative tea; for the latter is found one of the greatest and most salutary exhilarators of the nervous system. And thus those who drink it as a constant aliment, are saved from the dangers that attend rendering the blood too thin by the use of the above volatile alkalies, or drams, which are too frequently taken to avoid that lowness of spirits caused by the great, sudden, and violent contraction of the nervous fibrillae. As the inconveniencies of the foreign teas arise from the metallic properties derived from their preparation, the advantages of the sanative tea are evidently seen to arise from the preparation being such as leaves every herb possessed of its natural and essential quality. This clearly evincing the superiority of Dr. Solander's tea to every herbal beverage, it only remains to proceed to the two remaining enquiries respecting the mode of using and the effects of this salutary combination of vegetables. The next subject, therefore, of investigation is the
MANNER OF USING.
As the time of drinking this tea is morning and evening, it is necessary to enquire whether its qualities are such as are calculated to suit the temporary necessities of nature at those periods. From what has been observed respecting foreign teas, it is evident that their properties are diametrically opposite to those which nature at such times requires. When the body is exhausted by insensible perspiration, the most requisite aliment is that which can equally restore the loss of the solids and the languid flow of the animal spirits. What is then taken ought therefore to be neither too heavy for the state of the unbraced system; nor too volatile, to afford a sufficient quantity of nutritive juices to the whole animal economy. Nor should the aliment be so stimulating as to disorder instead of re-establishing the equalized motion of the yet perturbed state of the animal spirits. What is then given should have the power of sedating the nervous fluids, while it disseminates through the viscera the elements of nutrition. These being the requisite properties of what is taken as a breakfast, it remains to consider whether those of the sanative tea are adequate to such indispensible purposes.
In the preceding part of this enquiry, it has been found that the principal qualities of this tea are moderately astringent, balsamic, and aromatic; it is therefore evident, that, from a combination of these eminent medical principles, this tea must operate as a sedator of perturbation, a renovator of exhausted solids, and an exhilarator of nervous depression. It may therefore be used as a morning beverage with the greatest advantage, for the preservation and re-establishment of health; for never were the qualities of any aliment so particularly adapted to the necessities of the body at any stated period as those of the sanative tea are at the time of breakfast. Without loading the exhausted viscera, they afford it a sufficiency of balsamic and nutritive aliment; nor does the sanative tea, by sedating the fluttering spirits, destroy their vigour; but, on the contrary, by calming their motion, they contribute more active energy by promoting their equalized progress; and thus is the animal economy restored to the proper use and enjoyment of its functions. And in proportion as the spirits are restored to an equilibrium of motion and fluidity, the relaxed tone of the nerves is recovered, and the whole functions of man rendered capable of exercise and enjoyment.
The above being stated as the advantages attending the use of the sanative tea in the morning, it is next expedient to consider what benefit is derived from the use of it in the afternoon.
At this time the body is in a very different state of temperature from that of the morning. By the toil, care, study, or amusement of the former part of the day, the solids are wasted, and the fluids in a state of ferment and evaporation. Added to this, the aliment which is taken at dinner time so exhausts the animal warmth, as to leave the whole body in a state of refrigeration. What is therefore taken in this situation should be neither relaxing, constipating, nor heating; it should possess a genial warmth, a cordial assistant, and a restorative nutriment. The first should be such as to supply the deficiency of warmth which the body feels by the act of digestion, without inflaming the blood, or too greatly increasing the pulse. The second, or cordial assistant, should rather increase the powers of the body than those of the heart; for the force of the heart may be increased to the detriment of health. This is evident from a weakness of the body being the consequence of the force of the heart being increased in an inflammatory fever. And with regard to what is taken in the afternoon requiring a restorative nutriment, it is necessary that it should be light, pure, and wholesome, lest its solidity and heaviness should oppress the bowels at a time when their tone is relaxed by recent fatigue and digestion. These qualities being the most proper to produce fresh animal spirits, are the most fit to be taken when a new accession of them is necessary. It has been observed those are the most robust whose serum resembles most the white of an egg. It has therefore been most rationally concluded, that the origin of the animal spirits is from aliments capable of being changed into a similar substance, but so attenuated by incalation as to concrete by fire. For this reason the greatest support of the spirits is afforded by light and nourishing meats and drinks, which in taste and smell are even agreeable to infants. All cordials and aromatics are consequently the most proper for such purposes, and at such times, when heavier foods would impress, instead of recruiting, the exhausted solids and fluids. It is therefore Boerhaave recommends such aromatics, for the reviving and recruiting the animal spirits, as have the most pleasing taste and smell. Agreeably to this opinion, Dr. Solander employed his researches to form an afternoon beverage of such herbs as should possess all the above cardiac and balsamic qualities. The use of the sanative tea between dinner and supper operates as the most reviving and wholesome aliment that can, at such a time, be possibly taken. An enquiry having been made into the nature, preparation, and manner of using the sanative tea, there only remains to conclude this Second Part of the Essay with the consideration of its
EFFECTS.
From the view that has been taken of the nature, preparation, and manner of using, the salutary effects are most clearly and easily to be ascertained. As the basis of this tea is the combined principle of the most balsamic oils, nutritious salts, and animating sulphurs, which the vegetable world produces, their effects must be proportionably salutary. And as their combination is such as to correct the pernicious qualities of each other, their conjoint effect must be the most wholesome that can possibly be administered for the health of human nature. As every simple, however specific in certain cases, possesses qualities that are pernicious in other respects, it has been the first principle of physical enquiry not only to find the basis of a medicine, but to form compounds or ingredients that corrected the injurious tendency of each other. With this scientific principle Dr. Solander having composed his sanative tea, has rendered it the most general specific in its effects of any medicinal aliment.
This tea affording a compound oil, which is formed of the most aromatic vegetables the earth affords, it is no wonder its effects, like honey, should approach so near a general specific. The invaluable oils, uniting with the sulphurs of the sanative tea, recruit, soften, and lubricate the juices, diminish the too great elasticity, dryness, and crispness of the nervous fibres, and afford the exhausted liquids fresh supplies. Their effects are consequently exceedingly restorative in all cases, where the force of the fibres and the vessels are too strong, the circulation too rapid, and the blood too attenuated or diminished; as it prevents the too quick action of the solids, and the too rapid motion of the blood, the body is nourished, and the mind prepared for the refreshment of sleep when the approach of night invites to repose. In spitting of blood its effects are particularly beneficial. The oil being easily detached from the earth of the plant is, in such cases, exceedingly nutritive, and, by its checking the stimulation, and sheathing the acrimony of the humours, the blood is replenished with the most healing and balsamic virtues.
In pleurisies, ulcers, and abscesses of the lungs, hectic fevers, dry coughs, night sweats, and difficulty of breathing, the balsamic oil and sulphur of this tea is most salutary.
The dropsical, phlegmatic, corpulent, cathetic, and all such as are in their stamina relaxed, will find the greatest relief in its constant use; and to those who are emaciated, either from hereditary or acquired disease, it is particularly beneficial.
In seasons when experience informs us that the blood requires cleansing and attenuating, this tea will be of considerable service to the healthy as well as the diseased. By these means the constitution will be preserved and restored from all those chronic and acute afflictions, which are the consequences of acrimonious humours and foulness of blood.
As this tea produces the effects of cleansing the stomach, promoting digestion, diluting the chyle, and invigorating the whole viscera, it should be constantly drank by those who live freely.
Unlike most medicinal applications, this tea requires no previous preparation of the body. Such are its nature and progression of effects, that it first renders the body in a state suitable to receive succeeding benefits; nor is it dangerous, like mineral waters, to which persons afflicted with nervous complaints generally resort. Persons suffering acute or inflammatory diseases, or who have their vessels too greatly constringed, need not be under the apprehensions of suffering scirrhuses, or even death, which is the confluence of drinking, in such cases, mineral waters; but, on the contrary, they may expect to receive, from the use of the sanative tea, the most beneficial effects, not only in the above, but also in the gout and rheumatism, from its moderate use producing a gentle perspiration.
To account for the variety of salutary effects that this valuable discovery produces, we shall now proceed to consider its operation as a medicine and an aliment, which will afford the most convincing and conclusive arguments that can be possibly adduced in favour of its sanative qualities.
To consider its medicinal properties or effects, it is necessary to state in what manner it acts first upon the solids, next upon the fluids, and lastly, how it operates upon both together; for on these three principles the power and quality of a medicine solely depend. In acting upon the solids, it either alters their texture and cohesion, or, by diluting the canals, change the figure of the sides. But a medicine acting upon fluids only either alters their properties, or brings them out of the body. All medicines, however, act as well upon the solids as the fluids; for the latter can scarcely be altered without in some degree affecting the former.
As all medicines derive the greatest qualities from their filling, evacuating, or altering the smallest parts, the sanative tea possesses the most restorative properties from its action upon the smallest nervous vessels, and not in the arteries, veins, glands, lymphatic and adipose vessels. Thus, as all augmentation and accretion of the greater depend on the extension of the smallest lateral vessels, which are nervous tubuli, the nutrition and restitution of what is wasted must be considerably derived from the constant use of this beverage morning and evening. From this the medicinal effects of the tea upon the solids are found to be consistent with the first of physical principles; for the nutrition of the solids, which is made by the application of any part to the place of a wasted part, is always effected in the smallest canals, of which the greater consist.
And as every salutary change of the fluids is made in the smallest vessels, the sanative tea possessing the power of conveying nutrition into the most minute channels of the body, the liquids must derive from it the greatest renovation.
From this combined effect upon the solids and liquids, the strength of the greater vessels is increased, and thus is the whole aggregate body invigorated; for every artery derives its energy from its sides, which are composed of the minutest vessels. To enter into a complete detail of its medicinal principles, would require a volume itself; we must therefore avoid any further enquiry of its effects as a physical remedy, in order to leave a few lines for its consideration as an aliment.
The qualities of an aliment chiefly depend on their nature affording that nourishment which is proper to the time of taking and the state of the body. Indeed, without their possessing these relative properties, either meats or drinks are injurious instead of beneficial. For this reason physical necessity, more than tyrant custom, has caused a thinner aliment to be taken in the morning and evening than what forms the meals of dinner and supper. This necessity arises from the state of the body being in the morning just recovering its spirits from a comparative state of relaxation and imbecility, and in the afternoon from the stomach being enfeebled by recent digestion. That the body, immediately after sleep, is in a relaxed state, may be perceived by the perturbation the spirits experience from any surprise or violent action instantly succeeding. Fits and faintings have frequently been the consequence of persons of quick sensibilities being wakened. In such a state of relative debility, gross and solid food must oppress the spirits, and thus render the body incapable of deriving nourishment from such an untimely aliment. But if what is taken is light, pure, and apt for producing chyle, the stomach being capable of digesting it, must turn it to the most wholesome nutrition. To attain this end, foreign teas, from their lightness, have been universally adopted; but, as we have found, from their nature, how ill adapted they are to be given when the nerves are already too weak to bear their violent astringency, such should be used as are possessed of the most nutrition, without a tendency to irritate the relaxed fibrillae.
When the stomach is enfeebled by recent digestion in the afternoon, to take then another meal of solid aliment must evidently tend to depress the digestive powers, and thus prevent the body from having that nourishment it might receive from a lighter aliment.
The sanative tea being found, from the preceding enquiries, to possess the most active, subtle, penetrating, and balsamic compound oils, salts, and sulphurs, which pervade, without irritation, the minutest canals, must afford that species of aliment which the body in a morning and afternoon requires. While it attenuates, it restores the tone and substance of the juices, strengthens the solids, invigorates every natural function, and thus affords the means of enjoying all the comfort that a healthy body and a happy mind can bestow.
THE END.
DR. SOLANDER's SANATIVE ENGLISH TEA.
UNIVERSALLY APPROVED AND RECOMMENDED BY THE MOST EMINENT PHYSICIANS, IN PREFERENCE TO FOREIGN TEA, As the most Pleasing and POWERFUL RESTORATIVE, IN ALL NERVOUS DISORDERS, HITHERTO DISCOVERED.
Our first aliment at breakfast, being designed to recruit the waste of the body from the night's insensible perspiration; an inquiry is important, whether INDIA TEA, which the Faculty unanimously concur in pronouncing a species of Slow Poison, that unnerves and wears the substance of the solids, is adequate to such a purpose—If it be not—the inquiry is further necessary to find out a proper substitute. If an Apozem PROFESSIONALLY approved and recommended for its nutritive qualities, as a general aliment, has claim to public attention, certainly Dr. SOLANDER'S TEA, so sanctioned, is the most proper morning and afternoon's beverage.
Prepared for the Proprietor by an eminent Botanist.
Sold Wholesale and Retail by the Proprietor's Agent, Mr. T. GOLDING, at his Warehouse for Patent Medicines, No. 42, Cornhill, London; and Retail by Mr. F. NEWBERY, No. 45, St. Paul's Church-Yard; Mess. BAILEY'S, Cockspur-street; Mr. W. BACON, No. 150, Oxford-street; Mr. OVERTON, No. 47, New Bond-street; and by Mr. J. FULLER, Covent-Garden, near the Hummums. Also, by the Venders of Patent Medicines in every City and Town, in England, Ireland and Scotland.
Sold in Packets at 2s. 9d. and in Cannisters at 10s. 6d. each, Duty included. Liberal Allowance for Exportation, to Country Venders and to Schools.
The native and exotic Plants which chiefly compose Dr. Solander's Tea, being gathered and dried with peculiar attention, to the preserving of their sanative Virtues, must render them far more efficacious than many similar Preparations, which by being reduced to Powder, must have those Qualities destroyed they might otherwise possess.
A Packet of this Tea at 2s. 9d. is sufficient to Breakfast one Person a Month.
DIRECTION FOR MAKING DR. SOLANDER's TEA.
Two or three tea-spoonfuls of this Tea being put into a tea-pot, or a covered bason, pour boiling water upon it, and let it remain a short time in a state of infusion.—After using milk and sugar agreeably to the taste, drink it moderately warm. A few tea-cups full are sufficient for breakfast, tea in the afternoon, or any other time a person may think proper.
* * * * *
The native and exotic Plants which chiefly compose this Tea, being gathered and dried with peculiar attention to the preserving their Sanative Virtues, must render them far more efficacious than many similar Preparations, which, by being reduced to Powder, must have those qualities destroyed they might otherwise possess.
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A CAUTION.
The high estimation in which Dr. Solander's Tea is held, by the first circles of fashion, as a general beverage—the many cures it has effected—and the pleasantness of its flavor having induced several unprincipled persons to prepare and vend a base and spurious preparation under a similar title; the Proprietor, in justice to the known efficacy of this Tea, and to secure his property from further depredations, has thought proper to have an engraved copper-plate affixed to the canisters and packets of the genuine and original preparation of Dr. Solander's Sanative English Tea. This plate being entered at Stationer's Hall as the Act directs, Aug. 20, 1791, will subject such persons as imitate the same to a consequent prosecution. The Public are therefore cautioned from purchasing any article but what is distinguished by the said plate, and to observe thereon the words specified as above, of its being entered according to Act of Parliament.
DR. SOLANDER's TEA.
This CELEBRATED TEA is peculiarly efficacious in most inward wasting, loss of Appetite, Hysterical Disorders and Indigestion, depression of Spirits, trembling or shaking of the Hands or Limbs, obstinate Coughs, Shortness of Breath, and Consumptive Habits; it purifies the Blood, eases the most violent pains of the Head and Stomach, and is a wonderful Assuager of the excruciating pains of the Gout and Rheumatism, by promoting gentle Perspiration. By the NOBILITY and GENTRY this Tea is much admired as a fashionable BREAKFAST; being pleasant to the taste and smell, gently astringing the fibres of the stomach, and giving them that proper tensity, which is requisite to a good digestion; and nothing can be better adapted to help and nourish the Constitution after late hours, or making too free with wine.
This Sanative Tea is highly esteemed in the East and West Indies, being unlike INDIA TEA, which the Faculty unanimously concur in pronouncing a species of Slow Poison that unnerves and wears the substance of the solids; on the contrary, this nourishes and invigorates the Nervous System, acts as a GENERAL RESTORATIVE CORDIAL, upon debilitated Constitutions, and is a sovereign remedy in Bilious Complaints contracted in hot climates.
In the Measles and Small Pox, nothing need be given but a plenty of this Tea; drank warm at Night it promotes refreshing rest, and, as such, is a regular afternoon's beverage with many aged and infirm Persons. Being of peculiar service to children, and such who are weakly, many Parents, and others, having the care and education of Females, exclude the use of any other than this salubrious Tea.
By the Studious and Sedentary, this CELEBRATED TEA is justly considered as a MENTAL PANACEA, from its sovereign efficacy in removing complaints of the head, invigorating the mind, improving the memory, and enlivening the imagination.
The Proofs of Efficacy of Dr. SOLANDER'S TEA, being so numerous, would far exceed the limitation of a Pamphlet; the Public are therefore required to accept the following abridged List of Cures as Specimens:
CASE I. To the Proprietor of Dr. SOLANDER'S TEA.
HAVING long languished under a severe depression of spirits, an almost continual cough, and to all appearance, a confirmed consumption, being afflicted with violent pains in my head and breast, together with a total lassitude of body and limbs.—I was so weak and emaciated that all my friends and acquaintance apprehended, I could not survive many Weeks. In that unhappy condition, an eminent Physician recommended me to your SANATIVE ENGLISH TEA, in the use of which I persevered for several weeks, with the happiest effect, and am now perfectly cured by that salutary and invaluable Medicine. Happy in the opportunity of contributing my endeavours to alleviate the distresses of humanity, I hereby authorise you to publish my case, with my earnest recommendation of your Sanative Tea, to all persons afflicted with nervous and other consumptive disorders, and am, Sir, your humble servant,
NICHOLAS SANDYS.
N.B. My near relation SAMUEL SANDYS, Esq. No. 61, Berner-street, and many of my friends, will testify to the truth of the above.
CASE II.
Mrs. JONES, of Hammersmith, was for several years afflicted with a bilious and nervous complaint, being recommended by a friend, who (in an obstinate cough attended with spitting of blood) had experienced the peculiar efficacy of Dr. Solander's Tea, was at last persuaded to make trial of it, when in a few months she was perfectly restored to health and spirits, by the use of this celebrated Tea.
CASE III.
Mr. BRYANT, No. 7, King-street, Bethnal-green, for twenty years was violently afflicted with a nervous disorder, but by the constant drinking the Sanative English Tea is now enjoying a good state of health.
CASE IV.
CAPT. R. SMITH, of Liverpool, after a severe nervous fever, was very much afflicted with violent Pains in his breast, attended with a continual cough and excruciating head-ache, which entirely deprived him of rest, and reduced him to a mere skeleton; being persuaded to drink Dr. Solander's tea, was recovered to health and strength by that salubrious panacea.
CASE V. To the Proprietor of Dr. SOLANDER'S TEA.
FOR some Years past I had been violently afflicted with a slow nervous fever attended by a continual head-ache, a total loss of appetite, and a very bad digestion, by which I was reduced to a deplorable state of languor and dejection of spirits. After being attended by many Doctors, and taking a variety of Medicines, my husband, Mr. JOHN TOD, hearing from several persons with whom he was acquainted, of the wonderful effects your excellent Tea had done in nervous disorders, in various Families with whom, in his extensive acquaintance, he was well known, urged me much to drink the Tea; which I began in the Morning for breakfast, and in a few days I found myself much better, and was much pleased with so grateful a remedy. I continued it for some time; and I do assure you I am now entirely recovered, and enjoy a perfect state of health, without any medical assistance whatever. I am therefore prompted to send you this, in gratitude for the benefit I have received, requesting you will make what use of it you think proper, as it may be of the same benefit to others.
I am, Sir, your very humble servant,
FRANCES TOD. Rum and Brandy Warehouse, No. 8, Little Carter-lane, Doctor's Commons, Feb. 20, 1790
CASE VI. To the Proprietor of the Sanative Tea.
WHEN I arrived in England some time ago, I was distressed with a severe depression of the spirits, a very violent cough, and as all my friends thought in a declining consumptive habit of body; my brother hearing the efficacy of your Sanative Tea much praised, bought me a cannister, and begged I would use it according to the directions given with it, which I did, and had a tea-pot of it standing at my bed-side every night, (for as I was very restless and very feverish) drinking it at intervals, and likewise in the morning; before it was all out I was entirely recovered, and have at this time good spirits, good appetite, and good health. I therefore recommend it much. I am, Sir, &c.
MARY MULLARKY. No. 11, York-street, London-road, Sept. 29, 1792
CASE VII. To the Proprietor of Dr. SOLANDER'S Sanative Tea.
A near relation of mine being afflicted with a violent nervous disorder, owing to a fright which happened to her in her lying-in, so much so, as nearly to deprive her of reason; her intellects were for some time, very much impaired, and she was reduced to a state of despondency; she was attended by many eminent physicians, and took many of her apothecary's draughts, &c. but without success, until she was persuaded to try your Sanative Tea, by several of her acquaintances, who had proved its good qualities, which she made use of six weeks, and in which time she found herself perfectly recovered from such alarming disorder. In justice to so valuable and elegant a medicine, I cannot omit giving you this information, that it may be published for the benefit of the community at large, being fully persuaded of its excellent qualities. I am, Sir, &c. |
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