SECTION IV.
There is one circumstance, however, that renders it more difficult to investigate the certain effects of Tea; which is, the great unwillingness that most people shew, to giving us a genuine account of their uneasy sensations after the free use of it; from a consciousness that it would be extremely imprudent to continue its use, after they are convinced from experience that it is injurious.
That it produces watchfulness in some constitutions is most certain, when drank at evening in considerable quantities. Whether warm water, or any other aqueous liquor, would have the same effect, is not certain.
That it enlivens, refreshes, exhilarates, is likewise well known. From all which circumstances it would seem, that Tea contains an active penetrating principle, speedily exciting the action of the nerves; in very irritable constitutions, to such a degree as to give very uneasy sensations, and bring on spasmodic affections: in less irritable constitutions, it rather gives pleasure, and immediate satisfaction, though not without occasionally producing some tendency to disagreeable tremours and agitation.