ALCOHOL AND TEA. [To THE EDITOR OF TRH " SPRCTIT011:1
SIR,—In your note upon my paper on alcoholic drinks, delivered before the Medical Society of London, you ask a pertinent ques- tion,—viz., " Might not the same be said of tea ?" I need not commend the use of tea under all circumstances, for even water may be injurious in excess. But tea, as ordinarily taken, has never yet been the cause of death to any one ; and the pathologist is not able to point to it as a cause of disease, in the same manner in which he can as regards alcohol, in a large proportion of the cases which find their way into the post-mortem room of a general hospital. Coroners' juries have not condemned it. Tea does not deprive a man of his senses, or bring ruin on innocent persons, or shorten the lives of a family. It does not help to fill our lunatic asylums and our jails, or manifestly add to the pauperism of the country. These results, and many others of a correspond- ing kind, appear to be sequences to the moderate use of alcohol, for no man is a drunkard at once, or damages his constitution. by a single glass of liquor.
The moderate use of tea is not, therefore, on a par with the- moderate use of alcohol. We must consider the sequences, in assessing their value.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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