The natural history of the tea-tree, with observations on the medical qualities of tea, and on the effects of tea-drinking / by John Coakley Lettsom.

  • Lettsom, John Coakley, 1744-1815.
Date:
1799
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The natural history of the tea-tree, with observations on the medical qualities of tea, and on the effects of tea-drinking / by John Coakley Lettsom. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

    11/130
    PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION, 1772. The fubjeCt of the following Eftay being now in general ufe among the inhabitants of this kingdom, as well as in many other parts of Europe, and conftituting a large part of our com- merce, it cannot but afford pleafure to the curious to poffefs the hiftory of a fhrub, with the leaves of which they are fo well acquainted. Many treatifes have been publifhed on the ufes and effects of Tea; a few writers have likewife given fome circumftances re- lative to its natural hiftory and preparation, the indefatigable Kscmpfer particularly ; but thefe circumftances lie fo difperfed, and the accounts which have been given of the virtues and efficacy of Tea are in general fo contradictory, and void of true medical obfervation, that it ft ill feemed no improper fubjeCl for a candid difeuffion. The reader may at leaft have the fatis- faCtion of feeing, in a narrow compafs, the principal opinions relative to this fubjeCt. W ithin