not needed, and are injurious, will equally defend all
kinds; and that all which can be said in defence of tea and coffee, is,
that they _may_ be used, so weak, as to do no harm, and that they
actually have done less harm than some of the other stimulating
narcotics.

The writer is of opinion, that tea and coffee are a most extensive cause
of much of the nervous debility and suffering endured by American women;
and that relinquishing such drinks would save an immense amount of such
suffering. But there is little probability that the present generation
will make so decided a change in their habits, as to give up these
beverages; and the subject is presented rather in reference to forming
the habits of children.

It is a fact, that tea and coffee are, at first, seldom or never
agreeable to children. It is the mixture of milk, sugar, and water, that
reconciles them to a taste, which in this manner gradually becomes
agreeable. Now, suppose that those who provide for a family conclude
that it is not _their_ duty to give up entirely the use of stimulating
drinks, may not the case appear different, in regard to teaching their
children to love such drinks? Let the matter be regarded thus:--The
experiments of physiologists all prove, that stimulants are not needful
to health, and that, as the general rule, they tend to debilitate the
constitution. Is it right, then, for a parent to tempt a child to drink
what is not needful, when there is a probability that it will prove, to
some extent, an undermining drain on the constitution? Some
constitutions can bear much less excitement than others; and, in every
family of children, there is usually one, or more, of delicate
organization, and consequently peculiarly exposed to dangers from this
source. It is this child who ordinarily becomes the victim to
stimulating drinks. The tea and coffee which the parents and the
healthier children can use without immediate injury, gradually sap the
energies of the feebler child, who proves either an early victim, or a
living martyr to all the sufferings that debilitated nerves inflict. Can
it be right, to lead children, where all allow that there is some
danger, and where, in many cases, disease and death are met, when
another path is known to be perfectly safe?

Of the stimulating drinks in common use, _black tea_ is least injurious,
because its flavor is so strong, in comparison with its narcotic
principle, that one who uses it, is much less