d the
discovery of a number of new diseases to the debility born of
daily tea-drinking. Dr. Paulli denied that it had either taste or
fragrance, owing its reputation entirely to the peculiar vessels
and water used by the Chinese, so that it was folly to partake of
it, unless tea-drinkers could supply themselves with pure water
from the Vassie and the fragrant tea-pots of Gnihing. This
sagacious sophist and dogmatizer also discovered that, among
other evils, tea-drinking deprived its devotees of the power of
expectoration, and entailed sterility; wherefore he hoped
Europeans would thereafter keep to their natural beverages--
wine and ale--and reject coffee, chocolate, and tea, which were
all equally bad for them.

In spite of the array of old-fashioned doctors, wits, and lovers of
the pipe and bottle, who opposed evil effects, sneered at the
finely bred men of England being turned into women, and
grumbled at the stingy custom of calling for dish-water after
dinner, the custom of tea-drinking continued to grow. By 1689
the sale of the leaf had increased sufficiently to make it politic
to reduce the duty on it from eight pence on the decoction to
five shillings a pound on the leaf. The value of tea at this time
may be estimated from a customhouse report of the sale of a
quantity of divers sorts and qualities, the worst being equal to
that "used in coffee-houses for making single tea," which, being
disposed of by "inch of candle," fetched an average of twelve
shillings a pound.

During the next three years the consumption of tea was greatly
increased; but very little seems to have been known about it by
those who drank it--if we may judge from the enlightenment
received from a pamphlet, given gratis, "up one flight of stairs,
at the sign of the Anodyne Necklace, without Temple Bar." All it
tells us about tea is that it is the leaf of a little shoot growing
plentifully in the East Indies; that Bohea--called by the French
"Bean Tea"--is best of a morning with bread and butter, being
of a more nourishing nature than the green which may be used
when a meal is not wanted. Three or four cups at a sitting are
enough; and a little milk or cream renders the beverage smoother
and more powerful in blunting the acid humors of the stomach.

The satirists believed that tea had a contrary effect upon the acid
humors of the mind, making the tea-table the arena for the
display of the feminine capacity for backbiting and scandal.
List