our observations upon India teas, that we are happy to have the
opportunity of corroborating our own with the sentiments of so eminent
a Philosopher. He says, from his experiments, "it appears that green
and bohea teas are equally bitter, strike precisely the same black
tinge with green vitriol, and are alike astringent on the simple fibre.
From this exact similarity in so many circumstances, one should be led
to suppose that there would be no sensible diversity in their operation
on the living body; but the fact is otherwise: green tea is much more
sedative and relaxant than bohea; and the finer the species of tea, the
more debilitating and pernicious are its effects, as I have frequently
observed in others, and experienced in myself. This seems to be a proof
that the mischiefs ascribed to this oriental vegetable do not arise
from the warm vehicle by which it is conveyed into the stomach, but
chiefly from its own peculiar qualities." Dr. Hugh Smith, in his
Treatise on the Action of the Muscles, justly says, that an infusion of
India tea not only diminishes, but destroys the bodily functions.
_Thea infusum, nervo musculove ranae admotum, vires motices minuit
perdit._ Newman, in his Chemistry, says, when fresh gathered, teas
are said to be narcotic, and to disorder the senses; the Chinese,
therefore, cautiously abstain from their use until they have been kept
twelve months. The reason attributed for bohea tea being less injurious
than green is, being more hastily dried, the pernicious qualities more
copiously evaporate.

"Tea," says Dr. Hugh Smith, in his Dissertation upon the Nerves, "is
very hurtful both to the stomach and nerves. Phrensies, deliriums,
vigilation, idiotism, apoplexies, and other disorders of the brain, are
all produced by the nerves being thus disarranged and debilitated. If
the digestive faculty of the stomach be weakened, the body, failing of
recruiting juices, must tend to emaciation, and the whole frame be
rendered one system of distress and infirmity. The nerves, being thus
deprived of a sufficiency of their animal spirits, must become languid,
and leave every sense void of the first means of conveying to the mind
the only enjoyments of our temporal existence.

"But if there be any class of persons to whom India tea is more
particularly hurtful than to any other, it is that which includes the
studious and sedentary, and especially those who are enfeebled with
gout, stone, and rheumatism; age, ac