Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1888-03-02
Che Pouseholo.
THE ABUSE OF TEA.

Tea and coffee, like other stimulants,
offer the opportunity for abuse-an OPP
portunity quite often awaited of. Their
devotees drink, for the mere love of them,
more than they ought: the scholar de-
prives himself of needed sleep by their
use; the daily toier finds temporary
surcease of sorrow in the frequent cup.
While there are undoubtedly many who
over-indulge in coffee, they are probably
few in comparison with the victims of
the tea-habit. 1t is an everyday eXper-
fence in the out-patient departments of
the large hospitals for sufferers to apply
for the relief of symptoms reasonably
attributable to the abuse of tea. 1t is the
same old story with the washerwoman,
the kitchen-girl, or the poor mother of
large famly-a lack of appetite, distress
after eating, series of headaches, occa-
sionally attacks of dizziness. 81 has no
mind for the vittels, and l has the pain
in my stomach, and so just takes sup
of tea now and then" There is no day
in the year when at every dispensary and
out-patient room in the large cities some
women (for this is essentially a feminine
dissipation) does not present herself with
a statement of this sort. The victims
account is an "oer true tale" Either
from excess of tea, or for some other
reason, she loses her appetite, and grad
ually comes to loathe food. In this eX-
tremity she seeks solace in the cup, and
thus increases the condition she is already
bewailing. When this sort of thing has
reached a certain point, she applies for
medical aid, and, it is needless to say,
usually scorns the suggestion to 60 with
out tea. 1t has been suggested that the
dyspepsia in these cases attributed to tea
may rather be due to insufficient food.
| iS dnnhtfrl In, tl
case referred to, the food is sufficient.
No doubt there are those who suffer from
lack of suitable food, and who, if they
use tea, lose more than they gain by it;
but such are not found among the tea
drinkers of the hospitals, except as they
wilfully fOrsake good food for tea. 1t is
to be borne in mind that the people of
whom these are representatives get from
tea all the harm there is in it, since, in
one of the slang phrases of the day, they
''work 1t for all 1t is WORTH" Not only
do they get all the theme and most of the
volatile oil, but their method of prepar-
ing it extracts all the tannin possible.
The Chinese, who are the ideal tea-drnk-
ers, pour boiling water on the leaves at
the very moment of use; but it is the
practice of the poorer class to keep a
''pot of tea" sleeping on the stove all
day long, to be drunk from at intervals.
1t is probable that much of the dyspep-
STA and constipation to which this class
OF tea-drunkards is subject is due to this
continual use of an astringent decoction
1t Is not to be Inferred, however, that the
abuse of tea is confined to the poorer
classes. 1t is true that its relative cheap
ness invites them more especially to this
form of Indulgence. But it is within the
experience of every physician to be often
RI fran
from the evils already described, who
lack the excuse of poor food and a hard
lie TO plead for over-indulgence. Proba-
Oily every one numbers among his friends
women who are actually slaves of the
tea-hablt, and who would find tea as
hard to forsake as men find tobacco. 1t
is not unlikely that the functional disor-
der often spoken of as the tobacco
heart" due TO nervous arrangement and
accompanied by palpitation and pain in
the cardiac region, Is more often due to
tea than to tobacco. In fact, the disor-
ders Induced by excessive tea-drinking
nave been grouped as a special disease,
to which has been given the name of
theism, from the (tea). This includes a
train of symptoms, usually progressive,
many of which have been already referred
to-loss of appetite, pain after meals,
headache, constipation, palpitation, car
diac distress, hysterical manifestations,
dizziness, paresis. Whether we are JUS
titled in thus setting off these symptoms
as disease, is open to doubt; but the
fact that it has been done emphasizes the
Importance OF tea in comparison with the
rest or the group, In reference to the
mischief that will follow the abuse of it.
1t is needless to say that the main factor
in the treatment of this condition is ali
stinence from the plant that causes it,
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