Such is the growing consumption of this now indispensable article in
England, that in 1789 there were imported 14,534,601 lbs., and in 1833 the
quantity was increased to 31,829,620 lbs.; the latter importation yielding
a revenue of 3,444,101_l._ In other countries we find the consumption much
less. Russia in 1832 imported 6,461,064 lbs.; Holland consumes about
2,800,000 lbs., and France only 230,000 lbs.
It is supposed that tea was first introduced into Europe by the Dutch,
about the middle of the seventeenth century; and Lords Arlington and
Ossory are said to be the first persons who made it known in England. In
1641, Tulpius, a Dutch physician, mentioned it in his works. In 1667,
Fouquet, a French physician, recommended it to the French faculty; and in
1678, an elaborate treatise was written on it by Cornelius Boutkoe,
physician to the Elector of Brandenburg. About the same time, several
travellers and missionaries, amongst whom we find Koempfer, Kalm,
Osbeck, Duhalde, and Lecomte, give various accounts of the plant and its
divers qualities.
The Chinese name of this plant is _theh_, a _Fokien_ word. In the Mandarin
it is _tcha_, and the Japanese call it _tsjaa_. _Loureiro_, in his _Flora
Cochin-China_, describes three species of tea. It is a polyandrous plant
of the natural order _Columniferae_, growing to a height varying from three
to six feet, and bearing a great resemblance to our myrtle. The blossom is
white, with yellow style and anthers, not unlike that of the dog-rose; the
leaves are the only valuable part of the plant. The _camellias_,
particularly the _camellia sesanqua_, of the same natural family, are the
only plants liable to be confounded with it. The leaves of the latter
camellia are indeed frequently used as a substitute for those of the
tea-plant in several districts of China. This shrub is a hardy evergreen,
growing in the open air from the equator to the forty-fifth degree of
northern latitude; but the climate that appears the most congenial to it
seems to be between the twenty-fifth and thirty-third degree. Almost every
province and district in China produces tea for local consumption: but
what is cultivated for trade is chiefly in Fokien, Canton, Kiang-nan,
Kiang-si, and Che-Kiang; Fokien being celebrated for its black tea, and
Kiang-nan for the green. The plant is also cultivated in Japan, Tonquin,
and Cochin-China, and in some parts of the mountainous tracts of Ava,
where, in addition to its use in infusion, it is converted into a pickle
preserved in oil. When tea was first introduced as a luxury on particular
occasions in the wild districts of Ireland, the people used to throw away
the water in which it had been boiled, and eat the leaves with salt-butter
or bacon like greens. The Dutch are now endeavouring to propagate this
valuable plant in Java, and for that purpose employ cultivators, who have
emigrated from Fokien. The Brazilians are making similar attempts, and
some tolerable tea has been reared near Rio Janeiro.
The black teas usually imported from Canton are the _bohea_, _congou_,
_souchong_, and _pekoe_, according to our orthography: the French
missionaries spelt them as follows: _boui_, _camphou_ or _campoui_,
_saotchaon_, and _pekao_ or _peko_. Our green teas are the _twankay_,
_hyson-skin_, and _hyson_, _imperial_, and _gunpowder_; the first of which
French travellers write _tonkay_, _hayswin-skine_, and _hayswin_. The
French import a tea called _tehulan_, but it is artificially flavoured
with a leaf called _lan hoa_, or the _olea fragrans_ of Linnaeus.
The tea-plant grows to perfection in two or three years: the leaves are
carefully picked by the family of the growers, and immediately carried to
market, where they are purchased for drying in sheds. The tea-merchants
from Canton repair to the several districts where it is produced, and,
after purchasing the leaves thus simply desiccated, submit them to various
manipulations; after which they are packed in branded cases and parcels
called _chops_, from a Chinese word meaning a seal. Some of the leaf-buds
of the finest black tea plants are picked early in the spring, before they
expand: these constitute _pekoe_, sometimes called "white-blossomed tea,"
from their being intermixed with the blossoms of the _olea fragrans_. The
younger the leaf, the more high-flavoured and valuable is the tea. Green
teas are grown and gathered in the same manner; but amongst these the
gunpowder stands in the grade of the _pekoe_ among the black, being
prepared with the unopened buds of the spring crops. The alleged
preparation of green teas upon copper plates, to give them a verdant
colour, is an idle story. They are dried in iron vases over a gentle fire;
and the operator conducts this delicate work with his naked hand, and the
utmost care not to break the fragile leaves. This part of the
manipulation is considered the most difficult, as the leaves are rolled
into their usual shape between the palms of the hands until they are cold,
to prevent them from unrolling. Teas are adulterated by various
odoriferous plants, more especially the _vitex pinnata_, the _chloranthus
inconspicuus_, and the _illicium anisatum_. In our markets the chief
adulteration is operated by the mixture of sloe and ash leaves, and
colouring with terra Japonica and other drugs.
That tea is a substance injurious to health is beyond a doubt. Nothing but
long habit from early life renders it less baneful than it otherwise would
be: persons who take its infusion for the first time invariably experience
uncomfortable sensations. It is well known that individuals who are not in
the practice of taking tea in the evening, never transgress this habit
with impunity; and it is quite clear that a preparation which deprives
them of sleep, and renders them restless during a whole night, cannot be
salubrious by day; and although the following opinion of Dr. Trotter
regarding the use of this leaf is somewhat exaggerated, it is founded on
experience; and I have known several persons afflicted with a variety of
serious affections who never could obtain relief until they had ceased to
consume it.
"Tea is a beverage well suited to the taste of an indolent and voluptuous
age. To the glutton it affords a grateful diluent after a voracious
dinner; and, from being drunk warm, it gives a soothing stimulus to the
stomach of the drunkard: but, however agreeable may be its immediate
flavour, the ultimate effects are debility and nervous diseases. There may
be conditions of health, indeed, where tea can do no harm, such as in the
strong and athletic; but it is particularly hurtful to the female
constitution, to all persons who possess the hereditary predisposition to
dyspepsia, and all diseases with which it is associated, to gout, and to
those who are naturally weak-nerved. Fine tea, where the narcotic quality
seems to be concentrated, when taken in a strong infusion, by persons not
accustomed to it, excites nausea and vomiting, tremors, cold sweats,
vertigo, dimness of sight, and confusion of thought. I have known a number
of men and women subject to nervous complaints, who could not use tea in
any form without feeling a sudden increase of all their unpleasant
symptoms; particularly acidity of the stomach, vertigo, and dimness of the
eyes. As the use of this article of diet extends among the lower orders of
the community and the labouring poor, it must do the more harm. A man or
a woman who has to go through much toil and hardship has need of
substantial nourishment; but that is not to be obtained from an infusion
of tea. And if the humble returns of their industry are expended in this
leaf, what remains for the purchase of food better adapted to labour? In
this case tea becomes hurtful, not only from its narcotic quality, but
because that quality acts with double force in a body weakened from other
causes. This certainly is one great reason for the increased and
increasing proportion of nervous, bilious, spasmodic, and stomach
complaints, &c. appearing among the lower ranks of life."
It is well known that tea is frequently resorted to by literary men to
keep them awake during their lucubrations. Dr. Cullen said he never could
take it without feeling gouty symptoms; and we frequently see aged
females, who are in the habit of taking strong green tea, subject to
paralytic affections. Many experienced physicians, such as Grimm,
Crugerus, Wytt, Murray, Letsom, condemn the abuse of the plant as highly
dangerous.[25] That it is a most powerful astringent we well know; and the
hands of the Chinese who are employed in its preparation are shrivelled,
and, to all appearance, burned with caustic. Chemists have extracted from
it an astringent liquor containing tannin and gallic acid. This liquor,
injected in the veins or under the integuments of frogs, produces palsy of
the posterior extremities, and, applied to the sciatic nerve for half an
hour, has occasioned death.
There is no doubt that tea acts differently on various individuals. In
some it is highly stimulant and exhilarating; in others its effects are
oppression and lowness of spirits; and I have known a person who could
never indulge in this beverage without experiencing a disposition to
commit suicide, and nothing could arouse him from this state of morbid
excitement but the pleasure of destroying something, books, papers, or any
thing within his reach. Under no other circumstances than this influence
of tea were these fearful aberrations observed. It has been remarked that
all tea-drinking nations are essentially of a leucophlegmatic temperament,
predisposed to scrofulous and nervous diseases. The Chinese, even the
degraded Tartar races amongst them, are weak and infirm, their women
subject to various diseases arising from debility. Although their
confined mode of living, and want of the means of enjoying pure air and
exercise, materially tends to render them liable to these affections;
still their immoderate use of strong green tea, taken, it is true, in very
small quantities at the time, but repeatedly, greatly adds to this
predisposition.
From long experience I am convinced that, although tea may in general be
considered a refreshing and harmless beverage, yet in some peculiar cases
it is decidedly injurious; and many diseases that have baffled all medical
exertions, have yielded to the same curative means so soon as the action
of tea had been suspended.