Tea and the Effects of Tea Drinking

Part 1

TEA

AND THE

EFFECTS OF TEA DRINKING.

W. SCOTT TEBB, M.A., M.D., CANTAB., D.P.H.

FELLOW OF THE INSTITUTE OF CHEMISTRY, PUBLIC ANALYST TO THE

METROPOLITAN BOROUGH OF SOUTHWARK.

London: T. CORNELL & SONS, Commercial, Law and General Printers, 63, Borough Road, S.E.

In March, 1904, the Southwark Borough Council at the request of Sir William Collins gave permission for an inquiry to be made into the constituents of tea in order to ascertain what injurious ingredients were present, and if it were possible to obtain the characteristic effects without subjecting tea-drinkers to any of the deleterious symptoms. The subject will be seen to be of importance and I propose to include a brief history of the use of the Tea plant, together with a general review of the experience gained by those best competent to judge of the effects since its introduction of what has now come to be considered a necessity of life. In addition there are set forth the results of examination of different samples of tea and the general conclusions to which I have arrived.

What we call tea, is called by the Chinese tcha, tha, or te, and by the Russians tchai. The original English word was tee, at least this is the name used by Samuel Pepys one of the earliest to allude to the herb in this country. Tee was afterwards altered to tay, as will be seen from Pope’s lines in the “Rape of the Lock.”

Soft yielding minds to water glide away And sip, with nymphs, their elemental tay.

Or again,

Hear thou, great Anna! whom three realms obey Dost sometimes counsel take, and sometimes tay.

Some of the modern editions of Pope have altered the spelling at the expense of the rhyme.

The tea-plant, Thea Sinensis, botanically speaking a close ally of the Camellia is in its natural state a tree which attains to 20 or 30 feet in height. Under cultivation it remains a shrub from three to six feet high. It grows in all tropical and sub-tropical countries, and roughly it takes the labour of one man a day to produce a pound of tea. The leaves--the only part of the plant used in commerce--vary from two to six inches long, are evergreen, lanceolate and serrated throughout nearly the whole margin; the leaves are stalked and arranged alternately on axis, the flowers somewhat resemble apple blossoms but are smaller.

The shrubs are planted in rows three or four feet apart and look like a field of currant or gooseberry bushes; at the end of the third year the bushes become large enough to allow of the first picking and in the eighth year the plant is cut down, when new shoots spring up from the old roots. In Ceylon and parts of India the first picking is in March and there may be as many as 25 pickings in the season until October; in China the first picking is in April, and in Japan late in April or early May. The early pickings make the finest quality of tea, and the very late leaves are not usually exported at all, but are used by the peasants locally. In preparation for commerce the leaves are subjected to various processes of drying, rolling and roasting, into which it would not be necessary at any length to enter; the essential point to remember is that black tea differs from green in that after a short preliminary rolling and roasting, the leaves are exposed to the air in a soft moist state, when they undergo fermentation with the result it is said that a portion of the tannic acid is converted to sugar. Robert Fortune, an authority on the cultivation of the tea plant thought that the differences of manufacture “fully account for the difference in colour, as well as for the effect produced on some constitutions by green tea, such as nervous irritability, sleeplessness, &c.”

When we come to look into the early origin of the practice of tea-drinking we find that the subject is shrouded in the mists of antiquity. There are many legendary stories of the discovery and use of tea by the Chinese, but the only authentic and well-attested accounts were given by two Mahommedans who travelled in India and China in the ninth century. The original manuscript was found in the Comte de Seignelay’s library by Eusebius Renaudot and published in 1733. There is plain internal evidence that the manuscript was written about 1173, for there are observations upon the extent and circumference of the walls and towers of Damascus and other cities in subjection to the Sultan Nuroddin, who is spoken of as living at that time. This prince died in 1173 which fixes the date of the narrative before that time. The account speaks of the Arab merchants having been present in China in the years 851 and 867 respectively. On page 25 occurs the following important passage “The Emperor also reserves to himself the revenues which arise from the salt mines and from a certain Herb which they drink with hot water, and of which great quantities are sold in all the cities, to the amount of great sums. They call it sah and it is a shrub more bushy than the pomegranate tree and of a more taking smell, but it has a kind of bitterness with it. Their way is to boil water, which they pour upon this leaf, and this drink cures all sorts of diseases; whatever sums are lodged in the treasury arise from the Poll-tax, and the duties upon salt, and upon this leaf.”

Tea was therefore much in vogue in China in the 9th century. From China the knowledge was carried to Japan, and there the cultivation was established at the beginning of the 13th century; from that time until the 19th century China and Japan have been the only two tea producing countries. As with all innovations Europe and particularly England was very slow to take to the practice, for tea is hardly mentioned by any of the writers prior to the 16th century.

One of the earliest to allude to the subject was Giovanni Botero in 1596, in his treatise on the causes of the magnificence and greatness of cities; he remarks that “they (the Chinese) have also an herb, out of which they press a delicate juice, which serves them for drink instead of wine, it also preserves their health and frees them from all those ills that the immoderate use of wine doth breed unto us.”

It will be observed that in these early accounts much stress is laid on the beneficial action of tea in preserving health and curing disease, and this was in all probability the first use to which the shrub was applied. Thus one of the Sloane Manuscripts, dated 1686, gives a long list of “qualities and operations,” attributed by the Chinese to the tea plant. It was said to purify the blood and kidneys, cure giddiness and pains in the head, vanquish superfluous sleep and heavy dreams, open obstructions, clear the sight, strengthen the memory, sharpen the wits and quicken the understanding.

About the year 1657, Thomas Garway of the Exchange Alley issued a sheet proclaiming the virtues of tea; the alleged qualities being almost identical with those given in the Sloane Manuscript just mentioned. This was a sort of advertisement of his place of business and he tells us that “many noblemen, physitians, merchants, and gentlemen of quality” sent to town for the “said leaf,” and “daily resort” to his house in Exchange Alley to drink tea. He informs us that prior to 1657 it was only used as a “regalia in high treatments and entertainments,” and for presents for princes and grandees.

Another early reference is from an advertisement in the “Mercurius Politicus” for 1658. “That excellent, and by all physitians approved China drink, called by the Chineans, Tcha, by other nations Tay alias Tee is sold at the Sultaness-head, a Cophee-house in Sweetings Rents, by the Royal Exchange, London.”

A further early reference is by Thomas Rugge which may be seen in a manuscript at the British Museum. “About this time the parliment that was forced out the 13th day of October, 59; it was called by all sorts of persons the Rump, because they war soe few in number; and there war also att this time a Turkish drink to be sould, almost in every street called Coffee, and another kind of drink called Tee, and also a drink called Chocolate which was a very harty drink.”

It is rather difficult to reconcile this account of the prevalence of the use of tea as a drink with that of other writers of the period. Thus Pepys writing a year afterwards under date September 25, 1660, says: “I did send for a cup of tee (a China drink) of which I never had drank before.” This clearly points to the novelty of the practice in 1660 for Samuel Pepys was Secretary of the Admiralty, and a public man of keen observation, and it is almost impossible if tea was commonly sold as a drink at this time that he should have been unaware of the fact. Macaulay also mentions that about this time tea “had been handed round to be stared at.” It seems therefore clear that the herb was quite recently introduced in 1660, and it is possible that Rugge under the name of “tee” is referring to hot infusions of other leaves for it is well known that herbs were commonly used for making different sorts of teas as sage tea, &c.

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