TEA.-ITS EFFECTS by M. B. Smith

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 21, 1861

TEA.—ITS EFFECTS.

By M. B. Smith

PERHAPS the majority of tea-drinkers are not fully acquainted with the deleterious effects of this article as it is used at the present time. No doubt many think it a very wholesome drink; that its effects are beneficial rather than harmful. We desire with all longsuffering toward those who use it, to show that it is hurtful to both body and mind when used as a beverage. And here we might remark that whatever injures the body, will in a corresponding degree injure the mind, since mind is dependent on matter for action.

Perhaps some will think that there is no need of writing on such small things, and will say that the Bible does not say anything about drinking tea. We answer that there was no need of the writers of the Old or New Testaments mentioning tobacco, tea, coffee, &c.;

for these articles were none of them then in use, or if they were, it was only among some of the distant tribes of China or Japan. Tea was first introduced into Europe about two hundred years ago.

Again, the Bible does not mention whiskey, brandy or gin; but is this a sufficient reason why men may drink them merely to gratify an appetite for them? The Bible does say, No drunkard shall inherit the kingdom of heaven, but does not say whether or not it is merely confined to those who become drunk on whiskey or any fermented liquors. Query: Can a person be a drunkard and not use fermented liquors? I would not say that tea-drinkers are drunkards, or that whiskey-drinkers are; but would show that some of the arguments brought to justify the use of tea, will also justify the use of whiskey, and all kinds of fermented liquors.

It is sufficient for me to show that tea is an injury to the user; for we have no right, morally speaking, to use that which destroys the health of the body, and consequently our chances for usefulness. Paul says, Whether you eat or drink, &c., do all to the glory of God. What! says one, must we eat and drink in a certain manner in order to glorify God? Well, if we are to eat and drink to the glory of God, then it necessarily follows that we can do the contrary, and we certainly cannot use that which we know to be an injury to us, and yet obey this scripture.

Again, Paul says [1 Thess. v, 23], I pray that your whole spirit and soul and body, be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Here Paul exhorts christians to keep their bodies blameless. Alas! the majority of professing christians have been so blinded by the immortal-soul theory, have so exalted the soul above the body, as to almost forget that their bodies were any part of them, or that they had any duties connected with the body to perform. May God help us to cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh as well as spirit, and preserve our bodies blameless as well as our souls.

But to the question. If tea injures the body, produces disease and ill health, then we cannot use it and obey the above scripture. I will give the comments of Mahan on this subject, or at least the substance of them, believing them to be correct in the main. He says that in order to keep the body blameless it is our duty to become acquainted with these organic laws by which we as organized beings are governed, as much as our circumstances will admit, and then in our eating, drinking, clothing, &c., to pay strict obedience to these laws, so far as our circumstances will admit. Query: Is tea, used as a beverage, in accordance with these organic laws? or is it one among the many other stimulants of daily consumption that is gradually but steadily wasting the vitality of mankind, and producing nervous invalids, and the many nervous diseases with which the human family are now afflicted.

I shall now bring evidence from good authority that tea is a medicinal substance. Let the reader keep in mind that it is a settled fact among medical and scientific men that all medicines are poisonous, and that if they are continued to be used for any great length of time, they prove deleterious in the end.

Dr. Wm. A. Alcott says, "One evidence that tea is poisonous, is found in the fact that, like alcohol, stramonium, belladonna, and many other medicines, it produces its specific disease—the tea disease." This will be more fully appreciated, coming as it does from one who is so generally known in this country, and one who has written so much on the subject of life and health.

John Cole, member of the Royal College of surgeons in London, has written much on the tea disease, and has paid much attention to the effects of tea on the human system. He shows that all tea-drinkers are liable to the tea disease just as much as every dram-drinker is liable to the delirium tremens. He gives a list of ten patients who were suffering from this disease, and says that they were almost all cured by the disuse of tea.

Dr. Smith, of Edinburg, by a series of careful experiments, proved that an infusion of tea has the same effect as henbane, tobacco, cicuta, &c., on the living tissues of the animal body.

Dr. Lettsom, of Ireland, made a series of similar experiments with similar results.

Dr. Beddoes, of England, also still later proved by a thorough course of experiments that tea is as destructive to life as laural water, opium, or digitalis.

Dr. Cullen, whose writings are among the standard books of our best medical schools, observes that "scientific experiments prove that an infusion of green tea has the effect to destroy the sensibility of the nerves, and the irritability of the muscles." He further adds, not even excluding black tea, that "from the experiments above mentioned, and from the observations which I have made in the course of fifty years upon all sorts of persons, I am convinced that the properties of tea are both narcotic and sedative." But what is a narcotic? Hear Dr. Cullen's definition: "As their power and operation (that of narcotics generally) may be extended so far as to extinguish the principle of life altogether, they form that set of substances which properly and strictly may be called poisonous."

Dr. Combe, in his work on Digestion and Dietetics, observes that when made very strong, or taken in large quantities, especially late in the evening, they (tea and coffee) not only ruin the stomach, but very seriously derange the health of the brain and nervous system. The Encyclopædia Americana says, "The effects of tea on the human system are those of a very mild narcotic taken in small quantities."

The Catechism of Health, says that "tea when drank strong, and in large quantities, impairs the powers of the stomach, produces nervous symptoms," &c.

Dr. Hooper, in his Medical Dictionary, says of tea, "When taken too copiously, it is apt to occasion weakness, tremor, palsies, and various other symptoms arising from narcotic plants."

Dr. Burdell, of New York, says of tea and coffee, "Not a case of sick headache has ever occurred within my knowledge, except with drinkers of narcotic drinks, and not a case has failed of cure on the entire renunciation of these drinks."

Dr. Beaumont, a surgeon in the United States army, whose experiments have attracted the attention of the whole medical world, says, "Even coffee and tea, the common beverage of all classes of people, have a tendency to debilitate the digestive organs."

These writers show by irrefutable experiments that tea and coffee are hostile to life and health, as they are generally used. Besides this, many of the worst kinds of coarse black tea are converted into green tea by a certain process of drying and mixing with a composition of tumeric indigo and white lead, by which it is made more unhealthy than it would be otherwise.

A writer in The London Quarterly Review, says he saw 50,000 chests of this spurious article ready for shipping, and was told it was for the United States.

There are not a few who know that drinking tea and coffee is a foolish habit, and some believe it to be absolutely wrong. Now the christian is under solemn obligation to get rid of every improper and foolish habit, and do all to the glory of God. Think of the recent introduction of these articles into Europe. Only about two hundred years have elapsed since they were first introduced. Dr. Alcott estimates that not more than one twentieth part of all the people that ever inhabited Europe ever tasted of tea. Has its introduction added to their happiness of mind or health of body? I think not. Is there consistency in spending the Lord's money for that which is at least unnecessary?

There are some, no doubt, who will have a hard struggle to get rid of these things, and there may be some who will not give them up under any consideration; but if there is first a willing mind, the Lord will give grace to overcome. Many who have quit the use of these articles can testify that they are better off without them than with them. Sabbath-keepers are generally poor, and many of them in debt. We ought to be economical and consistent, and save what we can by a disuse of unnecessary articles to pay our debts and advance the cause of God. We have much that we can do to advance the cause of God, and but little in a pecuniary point of view can do it with; but God is able to make all grace abound toward us, that we may have a sufficiency in all things, and abound to every good work.

M. B. SMITH. Marion, Iowa.