Note 21 — Chapter XI · Tree-, Herb-, and Stone-lore
Reading edition
Tea first came into use in China as a life-prolonger. The shrub is an evergreen, and appears to have attracted the attention of the Chinese herbalists on that account. Our eighteenth-century writer says: “As to the properties of tea, they are very much controverted by our physicians; but the Chinese reckon it an excellent diluter and purifier of the blood, a great strengthener of the brain and stomach, a promoter of digestion, perspiration, and cleanser of the veins and urethra”. Large quantities of tea were in China given “in fevers and some sorts of colics”. Our author adds: “That the gout and stone are unknown in China is ascribed to the use of this plant”.21