INTEMPERANCE IN TEA.
AMERICAN medical ,science, casting about for some definite cause to which to attribute the increasing ravages of nervous diseases in the United States, has at last hit upon one which promises, at any rate, some hope of being remedied. The doctors of New York report that at least 10 per cent. of the patients at the chief dispensary of that city are suffering from the effects of "tea drunkenness." The symptoms of this new form of intemperance are said to be almost more distressing than those of alcoholic indulgence, and the effects upon the patient more disastrous and more enduring ; wherefore we need not be surprised to learn that Americans have hastened to proclaim that there is death in the tea-pot, and now hope to find in the discontinuance of tea-drinking a sovereign remedy against those nameless and mysterious ailments to which their fellow-countrymen are so universally subject. It is to be feared that the complicated disorder of Transatlantic nerves is due to an even more com- plicated series of conditions of life, and will not yield to a simple abstention from one of the drugs by which it is aggravated. No doubt tea-drinking in excess must seriously affect a nervous subject; but it must be remembered that most of those people who do drink tea to excess do so with the idea of finding a relief from nervous excitement of some other kind. They pour oil upon the flames ; but it does not follow that, because they should cease from pouring oil, the flames will cease from consuming them. American nerves are the outcome of the conditions of American life, climatic and otherwise ; and it would be no more reasonable to attribute them to the present consumption of tea in the United States, than to attribute American independence to the chests of tea that were once destroyed in Boston harbour. It was not sufficient then to sink a few hundred-weight of tea-leaves in order to wrest full liberty from a tyrannical mother-country; and it will not be sufficient to-day to abjure them in another form in order to find freedom from a tyranny which threatens to be even more intimate and oppressive. Nevertheless, the warning which is issued to tea-drinkers is no doubt a timely one, deserving the attention of English people as well. If it were possible to get the exact statistics of excessive tea-drinking, it is more than probable that this country would prove to be even more harmfully self-indulgent in that respect than the United States. The womankind of England are far from ignorant of the "nerves," "vapours," "hysteria," or whatever the complaints may be, that trouble their cousins across the Atlantic; and, as far as one can judge from appearances, show quite as marked a fondness for the cup which cheers but not inebriates. If the too constant tea-pot is the cause of so much suffering in America, there is every reason to suppose that it may also be accountable for a good many maladies at home. One would be disposed to doubt, however, whether it would be easy to obtain an honest and unbiassed opinion on the subject from public debate. The fact is that England is already somewhat hotly divided on another question of temperance, with which tea is not altogether unconcerned. People who think temperance means nothing but a total abstinence from alcoholic drinks would be very loath to admit the deleterious possibilities of tea-drinking ; and, on the other hand, wine-drinkers would be rather too willing to throw discredit upon the beverage which. above all others, is supposed to be the stay and support of their opponents.
There is no doubt as to the tea-drinking propensities of the English race. We flirt with coffee, but tea is our only serious love; with the exception of Russia, we drink more of it than all the rest of the Continent put together. It is the one universal drink of all classes, and, it is to be feared, by all classes it is abused in the same fashion. The grande dame and the charwoman both find solace in the tea-cup, and both turn to it rather too frequently. The volume of tea consump- tion has steadily increased with the fall of the price of tea, and now that it is within the reach of even the poorest, it is no longer a luxury, but a necessary of English life. Afternoon tea is the most unchangeable of social functions in London. Our neighbours across the Channel, with that sincere flattery which they some- times pay to our failings, have attempted to borrow this custom also, but have never succeeded in actually drinking the tea. French people may invite each other to " five-o- eloquer," but thy have far too great a respect for their digestions to wander, as we do, from house to house, drinking at each a tepid cup of unknown strength. For, after all, it is in the making of the tea, and not in the amount that is consumed, that the real danger lies. The Russians are t.ven greater tea-drinkers than we are, but they would never touch the terrible black draught which is our insular delight. The Chinaman, who should know best how to deal with his own products, is most careful to derive nothing but alight infusi from his tea-leaves, pouring boiling-water upon a small quantity of the leaves, and instantly pouring it off again, so that the liquid may not stand. The Russians obtain much the same effect, with greater economy, by constantly re- p:euishing a very small tea-pot from the samovar, so that the same water is never allowed to stand in the tea-pot long. Is it necessary to describe the English method ? We boil it, btew it, brew it, distil it, do anything, in fact, but get an infusion. Into a capacious tea-pot we put sufficient tea-leaves aud boiling water for unlimited cups. The mixture is some- times allowed to stand for half an hour or so before it is used ; sometimes it is actually placed on the hearth to bin] mer before the fire, or enveloped in an abominable quilt, called a " tea.cosy." The result is a decoction, not an infusion ; all the deleterious elements that may exist in the leaf are brought out into the tea-cup. The worst of this ignorance in tea-making, is that it becomes more pronounced in poorer households. The working classes, to whom the price of tea is a more serious consideration, like to get something strong and tasting for their money. They like their tea to have some " body " in it, and measure the strength of the liquid by the bitterness of its taste and the blackness of the colour. Often, they make no pretence of infusing tea in a tea-pot at all, but frankly boil it in the kettle on the fire,—a process which results in a singularly rank and black beverage when the coarser kinds of tea are used. This is the method which is also adopted by the Australian, though he, at least, can plead the excuse that a tea-pot would be a serious addition to the necessary kettle, or "billy," as he calls it, which constitutes the chief item of his camping equipment. People who maintain that tea is essentially a harm- less beverage, however it is made, not unnaturally point to the British workman and the Australian squatter as confirming their theory. Of course, the tea-drinking Briton and Austra- lian present many manifest superiorities over their spirit.. drinking fellows, but we should greatly doubt to their practising this particular form of tea-making with impunity. Not long ago we had occasion to comment upon the excesses in tea-drinking committed by the Welsh miners, and we should not be surprised to learn that, in spite of the healthy conditions of his life, the Australian incurred equally unplea- sant results. Another favourite argument of the confirmed tea-drinker is the example of Dr. Johnson. The great doctor, it is true, drank deep, but the strength of his drink is open to question. Tea, in his day, cost some 30s. a pound, and hostesses probably were more chary of tea-leaves than they are now. Even when blended with the intoxicating strength of green tea, Dr. Johnson's cups may have been more innocent of poison than those which are offered by a modern hostess "at home."
But, after all, the question of temperance in tea-drinking, as in every other form of bodily indulgence, is purely a relative one. There are men still who can comfortably drink two bottles of port at a sitting, and repeat the dose almost every night of a long and healthy life ; while others cannot finish half a bottle of claret without suffering from the effects of intoxication. Tea and coffee, like wine, affect no two men alike. Upon some people they act as sedatives, upon others as irritants of the nerves. One man will take strong tea to make him sleep ; another will suffer sleepless misery from drinking half a cup of a weak dilution. Dr. Johnson may have been sin- gularly constituted by nature for the safe absorption of tea, and, for all one knows, Mrs. Thrale's generous tea-table played havoc with the nerves of many weaker guests. Every man must be law-giver to himself in the matter of food and .drink, for there are no general laws that can save a fool from
the folly of his own excess. Even with regard to "tea- drunkenness," as the Americans call it, though it might seem that ignorance of the properties of tea and the right method for preparing it., are responsible for much of the suffering that- excess involves, it does not follow that a better way would mean a cessation of the evil. Tea-drunkards—people who drink tea to excess and suffer while they drink—are not to be deterred by knowledge of their danger. Like other confirmed inebriates, they drink for the sake of the after intoxication, and not the present pleasure.
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