Rensselaer Republican, Volume 19, Number 7, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 October 1886 — Diseases Caused by Tea. [ARTICLE]

Diseases Caused by Tea.

It is not a little curious. says_the_ Lancet, that the diseases arising from the wrong use of tea should be met with in greater frequency in countries foreign to its growth. The diseases due to this cause are well known to doctors, but the public seem to be strangely indifferent to the teachings of their medical advisers in these matters. Recently in France, M. Eloy has reminded medical men how vast is the number of diseases owing an allegiance to the dominion of queen tea. America and England are the two countries that are afflicted most with the maladies arising from its excessive consumption. Individuals may suffer in a variety of ways. It is customary to speak of acute, sub-acute, and chronic “theism," a form that has no connection with theological matters. The predominance of nervous symptoms is a characteristic of theism. General excitations of the functions of the nervous system may be observed, or the weakness may be noted more especially in the brain as distinguished from the spinal cord. Perversion of the s§nse (of hearing is not at all a common symptom, patients hearing voices that have no real or bbjective existence. The irritability that oyertakes women so frequently may sometimes be clearly traced to an excessive indulgence in afternoon tea. No doubt the tannin which tea that has been standing contains does a great amount of mischief; Jbut theism belongs rather to that class *of diseases in which morphinism, caffeism, and vanillism are found. The habit of tea-drinking is one that grows on its victims like the similar ones of opium and alcohol. Taken in strict moderation and with due precautions in the mode of preparation, tea is, like alcohol, a valuable stimulant; in its abuse there is also a certain analogy.— Science.