Tea and the effects of tea drinking / by W. Scott Tebb.

  • Tebb, William Scott, -1917.
Date:
[1905]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Tea and the effects of tea drinking / by W. Scott Tebb. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    It will be observed that the China teas exhibited a fairly low proportion of tannin. The numbers for ordinary black tea in two of the Companies’ samples were, however, considerable. This points to the advisability of teas being analysed before being placed upon the market, and this is a reform much needed in the interest of the public. The tea should be examined for the amount of the alkaloid, and also the tannin extracted by infusion, and the price based on the proportion of the essential ingredient, viz : the alkaloid and if it is desired to place the matter on any sort of scientific basis, the public should in each case be informed of the weight of tea required to be used with boiling water (this being regulated by the quantity of the alkaloid), and at the same time an indication should be given of the proportion of tannin liable to be extracted in a standard infusion. My general recommendations from the foregoing experiments, and also from the experience of the various authorities are that if tea is to be no longer a source of injury to health we should drink much less, and infuse for a briefer period. The dealers also should more frequently submit samples for analysis as in the case of other foods and drinks; thus when we * do drink tea we should be in a position to avoid those varieties which are especially harmful; and there is no doubt that if these recommendations are carried out we shall be saved from a number of distressing complaints which, although very rarely fatal, have in the past occasioned much ill health, and have been a source of discomfort and misery both of mind and body to thousands who might otherwise have enjoyed the comfort to be derived from a carefully regulated use of the infusion of the leaves of the tea plant.
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