A dissertation upon tea, explaining its nature and properties by many new experiments and demonstrating from philosophical principles, the various effects it has on different constitutions. To which is added the natural history of tea ... Also a discourse on the virtues of sage and water / By Thomas Short.

  • Short, Thomas, 1690?-1772.
Date:
1730
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A dissertation upon tea, explaining its nature and properties by many new experiments and demonstrating from philosophical principles, the various effects it has on different constitutions. To which is added the natural history of tea ... Also a discourse on the virtues of sage and water / By Thomas Short. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    33/136 (page 23)
    *3 true Fffeds of a lax Fibre, and ferous Blood, occafioned by Twilling down To much warm Water, and they are certainly obliged to the T'ea that they are no worfe. But ’tis needlefs to fpend more Time or Pains in vindi¬ cating this Liquor from the grofs Abufcs and Miftakes of its Enemies, in which it only (hares a common Fate with many other Things that are excellent and valuable in their own Nature. One great Reafon of the different Sentiments we meet with concern- The Rea To a ing this' foreign Leaf, I apprehend to be this, that tho’ feveral Authors ?f th®fc dIt' have wrote upon it, yet they have not made a due Enquiry into its Virtues lions' °Pi~ and Properties, but rather taken them upon Truft, than examin’d the Truth of what they affirm or deny, by a fiifficient Number of Experiments and Obfervations; which would give them Tome fiitisfa&ory Light into its Prin¬ ciples, and enable them to account rationally for its various furprifing Ef- fefts. Wtilt am 'Ten-Rhyne (formerly Botaniff and Chymift to the Emperor of ren-Rhyne’s Japan, and afterwards Profeffor of Botany and Anatomy at Batavia in ^ Account- the Eajl-Indies) in his Japamck Obfervations, fays, Tea purifies the° Blood, drives away frightful Dreams, difpels malignant Vapours from the Brain, mitigates Dizzinefs, Pain of the Head, is good in Dropfies, dries up Rheums in the Eyes, corre&s the Acrimony of the Humours, opens Qb- ftrudions of the Bowels, reftores the Sight, temperates dry Humours, cures a hot Liver, mollifies a hardened Spleen, reftrains Sleep, makes the Body lively, and expels Drowfinefi, cheers the Heart and drives away Fear, appeafes the Gripings and Wind in the Guts and Womb, corrobo¬ rates the Vifcera, ftrengthens the Memory, fharpcns the Wit, temperates the Bile, is excellent in the Stone and Gravel, and laffly, promotes kind Correfpondence between both Sexes: But he attempts not to give any ra¬ tional Account why we may exped fetch extraordinary Benefits from it, or what Conftitutions and Countries ’tis mod agreeable to; and ’tis ftrangehe fliould reckon it fetch aCatholick Medicine in Dropfies, malignant Vapours, Gripes, Flatulency and relaxed Vifcera, fence Experience feems To plainly to contradict him. Pechlin fays, we may receive as much Benefit from feveral of our Pechlm% im- own Vegetables, as from ’Tea; and is very laviffi in his Praifes of Vero- proper SubiU- nica and Pauls Betony. However, he gives it a great Character, but af-tutes* ter all feems at a Lofi whether to afcribe the good Effects to the Water or the Tea, and is rather inclined to the former, becaufe ’tis fe> great a Dilutcr and Expeller of the Animal Salts; wherefore he concludes, that many of our own Vegetables are poffefs’d of equal Virtues with Tea, that is in plain Englifh, none of them have any, or more Virtues than what they receive from the Water*' , . Kempher