annually, seven hundred thousand pounds. From 1732 to 1742, a
million and two hundred thousand pounds were every year brought to
London; in some years afterwards three millions; and in 1755, near four
millions of pounds, or two thousand tons, in which we are not to reckon
that which is surreptitiously introduced, which, perhaps, is nearly as
much. Such quantities are, indeed, sufficient to alarm us; it is, at
least, worth inquiry, to know what are the qualities of such a plant,
and what the consequences of such a trade.

He then proceeds to enumerate the mischiefs of tea, and seems willing to
charge upon it every mischief that he can find. He begins, however, by
questioning the virtues ascribed to it, and denies that the crews of the
Chinese ships are preserved, in their voyage homewards, from the scurvy
by tea. About this report I have made some inquiry, and though I cannot
find that these crews are wholly exempt from scorbutick maladies, they
seem to suffer them less than other mariners, in any course of equal
length. This I ascribe to the tea, not as possessing any medicinal
qualities, but as tempting them to drink more water, to dilute their
salt food more copiously, and, perhaps, to forbear punch, or other
strong liquors.

He then proceeds, in the pathetick strain, to tell the ladies how, by
drinking tea, they injure their health, and, what is yet more dear,
their beauty.

"To what can we ascribe the numerous complaints which prevail? How many
sweet creatures of your sex languish with a weak digestion, low spirits,
lassitudes, melancholy, and twenty disorders, which, in spite of the
faculty, have yet no names, except the general one of nervous
complaints? Let them change their diet, and, among other articles, leave
off drinking tea, it is more than probable, the greatest part of them
will be restored to health."

"Hot water is also very hurtful to the teeth. The Chinese do not drink
their tea so hot as we do, and yet they have bad teeth. This cannot be
ascribed entirely to sugar, for they use very little, as already
observed; but we all know, that hot or cold things, which pain the
teeth, destroy them also. If we drank less tea, and used gentle acids
for the gums and teeth, particularly sour oranges, though we had a less
number of French dentists, I fancy this essential part of beauty would
be much better preserved.

"The women in the United Provinces, who sip tea from morning till night,
are also as remarka