The uses of tea in the healthy system / by Edward Smith.

  • Smith, Edward, 1818?-1874.
Date:
1861
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The uses of tea in the healthy system / by Edward Smith. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

    5/10 (page 11)
    although no food may be taken with the tea, the tea cannot be said to be taken in the absence of food. 2. At breakfast, except there remains unused food from the supper on the previous night, or except the system be usually too full of nutritive material, as in those who dine heartily at a late hour. 3. To the ill-fed, except there is also deficient power to transform the kind of food attainable. 4. To those of spare habit, in whom all the vital actions are performed with much activity. 5. To a prison or other dietary, in which it is a duty to society that the food supplied should not exceed the wants of the system. 6. To exertion, for exertion is itself the most powerful exciter of waste. . 7. To low temperatures, except in connection with abundant food and clothing, and with the addition of milk, fat, acid, or ginger. 8. To those who habitually perspire too freely, unless (as is then seldom the case) there be an excessive supply of food. . . 9. To those cases in hot climates where the appetite is defective and the skin active. 10. To the young, in whom there is naturally the maxi- mum amount of vital action. 11. With our principal meals, or those at which we take the greater part of our animal food, for after such meals a dry and hot skin, that is, lessened action of the skin, is a natural effect, and this would be opposed by the tea. It is worthy of note that neither the Chinese, nor any other nation, usually take tea under this last condition. Such are some of the conditions in which tea should be withheld, and in reference to most of them the results of science correspond with actual practice. It is not usual to give tea to children, or with animal food, as at dinner, or at breakfast, or in prisons, and we seek a stronger beverage in hot weather and during exertion ; but it is universally taken in the afternoon and evening, and after dinner, when the vital actions are declining and there is felt to be ex- cess of food in the system. It is not taken alone as a meal, or with the idea of- taking nourishment. Yet with all this instinctive propriety, the cautions now given are not universally adopted, and in such instances as in those who perspire freely, and those of spare habit, much ignorance prevails, to their own detriment. The subject of low temperatures and exertion raises that of the fitness of tea to supplant spirituous liquors in the dietary of our sailors when residing in the Arctic regions, and has given rise to much difference of opinion. In a recent work on Arctic voyages, it is affirmed that after the first year’s residence the appetite for food changed, so that large quantities of fat were consumed, and tea was found to be highly acceptable and beneficial. The explanation of this last fact appears upon the face of the statement, for it was the excessive quantity of fat which, by its action in lessening the activity of the skin, as well as by the necessity for its own transformation, ren- dered the action of tea desirable. Dr. Kane, in his in- teresting work, states that his crew were pledged to the avoidance of spirituous liquors, but in one period of expo- sure and fatigue of great danger, he gave them brandy; at another period, when g’’eat labour was temporarily re- quired in great cold, he gave them hot coffee ; and in their ordinary dietary he authorised tea, but he does not give any grounds ior this variation. We are informed by an Arctic navigator of great experience and high position, Sir James Ross, K.C.B., F.R.S., that this large increase in the consumption of fat in the Arctic region is not necessary, provided the quantity habitually supplied to sailors is duly eaten ; and it is quite clear that in the ab- sence of an unusual quantity of salt or fat, or some other substance, which tends to lessen the evaporation from the skin, the use of tea is not especially indicated. The pro- blem is one of a mixed nature, each part of which must be investigated before a truthful conclusion can be arrived at. That sailors can do their work better with tea than with other beverages cannot be, as already proved, because it supplies nourishment, but because it causes the avoidance of a disturbing and therefore evil habit, or promotes the digestion of food, as will be shortly pointed out. We may now briefly look at the opposite view of the question, and point out the states in which the use of tea is clearly beneficial. These are— 1. Some time after a full meal, when the system is op- pressed by food, or by the heat produced in its conversion. 2. In the after part of the day, when.the body is full of partly-digested food, and when the activity of the trans- forming function is considerably lessened. 3. For the corpulent. 4. For some of those in whom the vital actions proceed slowly, and in whom the power of transforming food is greatly lessened. 5. For the old, with their deficient vital actions. 6. For hot climates, and especially to those who, living there, eat freely and drink milk or alcohols. 7. In cases of suspended animation, as from drowning, where the object is to restore the respiratoiy functions— an object more likely to be assisted by hot tea than by brandy. „ , 8. For those who eat much starchy (bread, rice, &c.) and fat food, and especially if they do not take flesh. This is due to the fact that our experiments have proved that tea clearly promotes the transformation of starch and probably also of fat—in the former case by means of its gluten, which doubtless acts as a ferment in reference to the starch. 9. For soldiers, who in time of peace take too much food in relation to the waste proceeding in the body. 10. For soldiers and others marching in the heat of eastern climates, for then, by promoting evaporation and cooling the bodv, it prevents iu a degree the effect of too much food and of too great heat. _ For this purpose a cold in- fusion mav be used (as a hot infusion could not be obtained); of this a quantity equal to 25 grains of tea should be taken often during exposure. IVe urge this upon the consideration of our military authorities, in the conviction of its great value in preventing the occurrence of sun-stroke and of other diseased states of system due to excess of heat, and have entered into the subject more in detail in a short paper published in the 3Iedical Times and Gazette for 1860. 11. For the sedentary, who require increased vital action. 12. For those who have usually a dry and non-perspirmg skin. All these conditions resolve themselves into this general law that tea is beneficial in ail conditions in which there is temporary excess of food regarded in relation to the necessity of the system for it and the power to trans- form it. Such is a concise view of the results of our enquiry into the influence of tea, and we cannot but think that it will suggest to thoughtful minds material for reflection and practical application. It is evident that the way the instinctive cravings of man find expression in the (right) use of this article of food, with singular unanimity, under the most diverse circumstances of climate and condition, confirms the truthfulness of scientific re- search, whilst at the same there is much reason to fear that in our own country the indiscriminate employ- ment of a substance which possesses great power, is daily leading a large portion of the commuuity to their own injury. We hinted, in the earlier part of this paper, at the pos- sibility of showing that there is truth both in the state- ment made by Professor Johnstone and in those which are now offered, although the former asserts that tea nourishes, while the latter demonstrate that it may waste the system. The key to the solution of this enigma is found' in the explanation of the source of the nitrogenous or flesh-forming material which is thrown out of the body under the influence of tea. It has recently been shown that this is partly due to the waste of tissue, partly to the