Before the use of Tea, the general breakfast in this country
consisted of more substantial aliment[91]; milk in various shapes,
ale and beer, with toast, cold meat, and other additions. The like
additions, with sack, and the most generous wines, found their way
amongst the higher orders of mankind. And one cannot suppose but that
such a diet, and the usual exercise they took, would produce a very
different state of blood and other animal juices, from that which
Tea, a little milk or cream, and bread and butter, affords.
It was not the breakfast only that seems to have contributed its
share towards introducing a material alteration in the animal system,
but the subsequent regale likewise in the afternoon. Tea is a second
time brought before company; it is drank by most people, and often
in no very small quantities. Before the introduction of this exotic,
it was not unusual to entertain afternoon guests in a very different
manner; jellies, tarts, sweet-meats; nay, cold meat, wine, cyder,
strong ale, and even spirituous liquors under the title of cordials,
were often brought out on these occasions, and perhaps taken to
excess, much to the injury of individuals.
This kind of repast would tend to keep up the natural inflammatory
diathesis, which was the result of vigour, and a plenitude of rich
blood, as well as savour diseases originating from such causes. It
seems not unreasonable therefore to suppose, that, as the diet of
our ancestors was more generous, their exercises more athletic, and
their diseases more generally the produce of a rich blood, than
are observable in the present times, these debilitating effects
before-mentioned may in part be attributed to the use of Tea, as no
cause appears to be so general and so probable.