The natural history of the tea-tree, with observations on the medical qualities of tea, and effects of tea-drinking / By John Coakley Lettsom.
- John Coakley Lettsom
- Date:
- 1772
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The natural history of the tea-tree, with observations on the medical qualities of tea, and effects of tea-drinking / By John Coakley Lettsom. Source: Wellcome Collection.
12/88
![BY DRINKING TEA AND COFFEE IN EXCES¬ SIVE QUANTITIES. [By John Cole, Esg.J {Concluded.) CASE V. The Heart was here affected with Tain, accompanied hy . violent action. A female servant, 25 years of age, in florid health, drank tea on Sunday afternoon, (August 11th, at her mistress’s in Covent-garden,) and set off to Deptford. Having missed the coach, she walked the whole distance, five miles, with as much rapidity as she could. She found her friends at tea, which induced her to take it again ; but she had not swal¬ lowed it long before she was seized with violent palpitation, and considerable pain in the region of the heart, with great breathlessness on the least attempt at walking. She slept very ill through the night from being unable to breathe in a horizontal position.— 12th. In the morning, she came to town by the coach. When she was first seen, she walked or rather crept to my house, a distance of about eighty yards, and was so completely breathless when she came in, that it was necessary for her to sit for at least ten minutes before she could speak. The pulsations of the heart were so vio¬ lent as to be very visible. She complained of considerable pain from its beating, also of great fulness about the clavicles, with a feeling of suffocation. Her pulse was expanded, and beat 120 in a minute.—13th. The sense of suffocation re¬ lieved, but the palpitation and pain, and inability to exert herself, were much as before.'—14th and 15th. No relief.—. 16th. The pains less, but the palpitation continued unabated in its violence. It was now discovered, that she had con¬ tinued to drink tea, night and morning, as before the attack, from some misunderstanding of the directions she had re¬ ceived. She was now directed to take no more, and on the 18th she was free from pain, and the heart had nearly regained its accustomed tranquillity. On the following day she was well. in the morning. He used to rise about noon, and employed' himself until the time when it was required for hinffro go to,, the House, in reading and writing; with the tea apparatus constantly by his side; and it was not unusual for him to continue drinking very strong green tea for five or six hours together. During the time he pursued this course, it com¬ monly happened two or three times a week that he was found in a state of insensibility on the floor. CASE VII. In which sudden attacks of Insensibility occurred after drinking Black Tea. Mrs. T., aged 35, the mother of several children, had always been very healthy. On making application to me relative to her approaching confinement, she stated, that she had for some time been under the care of the physicians at the dispensary, on account of fits of insensibility, to which she had been subject for some months past. The attacks had come on in the evening, and she had been attended several times by the physicians, for three and four hours at a time, before they could recover her. She had been bled in the arm and cupped repeatedly. A week rarely passed without her being so affected, and she was apprehensive of bad consequences from this complaint at her approaching confinement. I was led to believe that this affection was produced by tea, from its always attacking her in the evening, from its not yielding to the depletory plan of treat¬ ment, which would seem to be suggested by the appearances which had been usually observed to attend the effects of black tea, and from its frequent recurrence. She discon¬ tinued the use of tea, no medicine was given, and she had no return of the complaint. I should add, that she had for a j very long time soon after taking tea, both morning and evening, felt the sinking and craving at the stomach, with \ the fluttering in the left side. i ; CASE VI. In which Syncope was produced by Green Tea« Mr. M., an author by profession, very robust, and in the prime of life, suffered from an affection of the kidneys. On its being proposed that he should be cupped on the loins, he expressed a strong objection to it, stating, that he was apt to faint after losing blood. However, as I thought the bleeding of importance, he complied, and about twelve ounces of blood were obtained. Not understanding why he should faint long after the abstraction of blood, I requested that I might be sent for if he should do so on the present occasion, and ac¬ cordingly, in the afternoon, I was summoned. As he lived im¬ mediately opposite to me, I was with him without loss of time. I found him lying on a sofa, his lips and countenance blood¬ less, his skin bathed with a cold, clammy, moisture, and his pulse so slow and feeble as scarcely to be felt. He was but just able to speak. A stimulant, consisting of ammonia and ether, having been administered, he gradually regained his strength, but was not himself the whole evening. He was cupped about three o’clock, and felt nothing unusual from it; he dined as usual, and was very well till about half an hour after taking his tea, of which he drank a large quan¬ tity, made very strong, and of the green kind. This occurred a second time on his being again cupped, with precisely similar circumstances. It was ascertained afterwards, that he was formerly very subject to fainting,—at a time when he was engaged as a parliamentary reporter, when he was up the greater part of CASE VIII. Headach is the next affection that claims notice, according to the arrangement I have adopted. ] A man between 40 and 50 years of age, a shopman in a fruit warehouse, had been afflicted for a long time with a severe headach, for which he had been repeatedly bled, and had taken a variety of remedies prescribed by different phy-* sicians, without experiencing any relief. The pain was almost constant, but liable to aggravation j about the middle of the day, and in the evening. He had numbness at the back of the head, which extended by de¬ grees over the whole head, with aching and throbbing, an unsteadiness on walking, a sense of sinking and emptiness at the stomach, a fluttering of the heart, and a coldness of the hands and feet at all seasons; the latter symptoms always preceeded an increase of the affection of the head. He was in the habit of drinking coffee two or three times in the course of the morning, and again in the afterboon.' He was directed to discontinue the use of coffee, and in a week all the affection of the stomach and heart had ceased, and the pain in the head had become much ameliorated. Valerian was how prescribed in doses of a scruple three times a day, and in ten days he was quite recovered. CASE IX. Convulsions occasionally occur. Mr. S., aged 22, who had enjoyed excellent health up to the present time, was seized with bleeding at the nose; it had troubled him for two or three days, and on the night previous to the attack he had lost about a pint of blood. About half ah hour after breakfast, he was seized with coiu](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b3041104x_0012.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
