Tea and the effects of tea drinking

W. SCOTT TEBB, M.A., M.D., Cantab., D.P.H.
Fellow of the Institute of Chemistry, Public Analyst to the Metropolitan Borough of Southwark.
London: T. Cornell & Sons, Commercial, Law and General Printers, 63, Borough Road, S.E.
In March, 1904, the Southwark Borough Council at the request of Sir William Collins gave permission for an inquiry to be made into the constituents of tea in order to ascertain what injurious ingredients were present, and if it were possible to obtain the characteristic effects without subjecting tea-drinkers to any of the deleterious symptoms. The subject will be seen to be of importance and I propose to include a brief history of the use of the Tea plant, together with a general review of the experience gained by those best competent to judge of the effects since its introduction of what has now come to be considered a necessity of life. In addition there are set forth the results of examination of different samples of tea and the general conclusions to which I have arrived.
What we call tea, is called by the Chinese tcha, tha, or te, and by the Russians tchai. The original English word was tee, at least this is the name used by Samuel Pepys one of the earliest to allude to the herb in this country. Tee was afterwards altered to tay, as will be seen from Pope’s lines in the “Rape of the Lock.”
Soft yielding minds to water glide away And sip, with nymphs, their elemental tay.
Or again,
Hear thou, great Anna! whom three realms obey Dost sometimes counsel take, and sometimes tay.
Some of the modern editions of Pope have altered the spelling at the expense of the rhyme.
The tea-plant, Thea Sinensis, botanically speaking a close ally of the Camellia is in its natural state a tree which attains to 20 or 30 feet in height. Under cultivation it remains a shrub from three to six feet high. It grows in all tropical and sub-tropical countries, and roughly it takes the labour of one man a day to produce a pound of tea. The leaves—the only part of the plant used in commerce—vary from two to six inches long, are evergreen, lanceolate and serrated throughout nearly the whole margin; the leaves are stalked and arranged alternately on axis, the flowers somewhat resemble apple blossoms but are smaller.