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Chap. xix. ver. 2. Also, that the foul be without knowledge, it is not good.-Rather-SURELY IT IS NOT GOOD to be WITH. OUT KNOWING ONESELF: for thus is often used; and thus the Syriac alfo renders; according to which interpretation the fenfe is equivalent to the fage maxim of the philofophers, T

AUTO.' The farther part of this verfe is thus tranflated by our Author-' BUT HE THAT HASTILY GOETH WITH SPIES SINNETH. To know onefelf, fays he (which is the work of time) is declared in the preceding hemiftic to be good, but to confort with fpies (who confcious they are concerned in a dangerous fort of know. ledge, are hafty in their motions) is a fin. Or, the words may be rendered, HE THAT IS HASTY IN HIS GOINGS (or proceedings) ERRETH; i. e. is liable to err.'

The above fpecimens we imagine will be agreeable to our Readers, and enable them to judge, in fome degree, concerning this performance. In fuch a number of criticisms it will be no wonder should there be fome which appear common, or rather trifling. But, in general, the work feems to be valuable; and no doubt the attentive Reader, in the perufal of it, will find remarks fuperior to thofe which we have here collected.

At the end of the book of Job, Dr. Durell adds fome general reflections. He thinks it clear that the Author of the book was a Jew, and that he lived after the time of Mofes. He feems inclined to regard it as a poem of the dramatic kind, written with the defign of comforting the Jews in their captivity: the great purport of it being to fhew, that temporal evils are not always intended by Providence as punishments for paft crimes, but alfo for trials of virtue, and for the benefit of inftructive example to others; and that patience and fubmiffion to the will of Heaven is both the indifpenfable duty of perfons under afflictions, and the moft probable means of procuring their deliverance and reftoration. In fupport of the opinion that this book was written about the time of the captivity, Dr. Durell mentions the many Chaldee words, and Chaldee terminations of Hebrew words, which are found throughout it: but a yet more forcible argument, he thinks, is the frequent indirect allufions to the Pentateuch and other books of the Jewish canon; a long lift of which is fubjoined to his criticisms upon this part of the Old Testament.

We could have wished that our Author had extended his remarks at the conclufion of the book of Pfalms, to a greater length, as there are, we apprchend, other particulars relating to it, which equally merited his attention. The books of Proverbs and Ecclefiaftes would alfo have admitted of fome general obfervations which this Writer is, we doubt not, well qualified to make, and might have proved an agreeable addition to his performance. As to the Canticles, he concludes it to have been an epithalamium compofed by Solomon on his mar

riage with the daughter of Pharaoh King of Egypt; and this, fays he, appears to me the only point of view in which it ought to be confidered.

We obferve with pleafure that Dr. Durell intends to publifh' fome remarks on the prophetical writings, which we hope will not be long delayed.

For an account of a former publication of this Author's, in which the parallel prophecies of Jacob and Mofes relating to the twelve tribes are critically confidered, we refer the Reader to the 30th volume of our Review, p. 161.

ART. IX. The Natural Hiftory of the Tea-Tree, with Obfervations on the Medical Qualities of Tea, and Effects of Tea-drinking. By John Coakley Lettfom, M. L. F. S. A. 4to. 45. fewed. Dilly. 1772.

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ANY circumftances relating to the natural history of this exotic fhrub, and to the manner of preparing or Curing its leaves, have been given to the public by Kæmpfer, Le Compte, and others. The medical or dietetic qualities of this plant have been largely difcuffed by a ftill greater number of writers, who have maintained very different, and even contradictory opinions, concerning the effects attending the ufe of it. In the prefent publication every thing of confequence that has been written on thefe two heads is very judiciously collected into a narrow compafs; and the fubject fomewhat farther illuftrated by a few additional obfervations peculiar to the Author. We fhall collect fome of the more material particulars from this performance, 'the contents of which cannot be uninterefting to tea-drinkers, that is, to a very great majority of our Readers.

The work is naturally divided into two parts; in the first of which is given the natural, and, in the fecond, the medical hiftory of tea. Its natural hiftory (in which is comprehended an account of the manner of collecting and preparing it) is introduced by a very accurate and minute botanical defcription of the tea plant, taken from one now in the garden at Sion-house, belonging to the Duke of Northumberland, which flowered in October laft, and which, notwithstanding the numerous at tempts that have been made to introduce this plant amongst us, is the first that ever flowered in Europe. This defcription is well illuftrated by an excellent coloured plate, engraved from an original drawing taken of the tree when in its flowering State * ; from which it appears, that the tea-tree, as Mr. Miller

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The fame plate and defcription were lately published by the ingenious Mr. J. Miller, Author of the Illufiration of the Linnen Sexual Syltem. The prefent Author, as we have been informed, previous to the publication of that print and description, procured an elegant Rev. Aug. 1772. engraving

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rft obferved, belongs to the order of Trygynia, and not to that of Monogynia, under which Linnæus has placed it; having been Ied into that mistake, by not having had any opportunities of examining any other than dried fpecimens of this fhrub.

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It is only within these three or four years that the curious have been fuccefsful enough to introduce into this kingdom a few genuine tea plants. Such of them as are in the gardens about London, we are here told, thrive very well in the greenhouses in winter; and fome bear the open air in fummer. The leaves of many of them are from one to three inches long, not without a fine deep verdure; and the young shoots are fucculent. It is therefore probable, the Author adds, that in a few years many layers may be procured from them, and the number of the plants may thereby be confiderably increased." Many exotic vegetables, he obferves, like human conftitutions, require a certain period before they become naturalized to a change of climate; and thofe which, at their first introduction, would not bear our winters without shelter, now endure our hardeft frosts: fo that there is reafon to expect that the teatree may, in a few years, be capable of bearing our climate, and at length thrive as if indigenous to this country, like the common potatoe, for which we are indebted to America or Spain.

It is pleasant to hear old Gerard difcourfing on this laftmentioned foreign dainty, then lately introduced into this kingdom." Potatoes, fays this venerable herbalift, who wrote in 1597, grow in India, &c. and other hotte regions, of which I planted divers rootes (that I bought at the Exchange in London) in my garden, where they flourished until winter, at which time they perished and rotted."-Speaking of the modes of cooking this exotic, he fays, "they were roafted in the afhes; and that fome when they be fo roasted, infuse them, and fop them in wine; and others, to give them the greater grace in eating, do boil them with prunes, and fo eat them. And likewife others dreffe them (being firft roafted) with oile, vinegar, and falt, every man according to his own tafte and liking.'

Confidering the long intercourfe which has fubfifted between us and the Chinese, and the extenfive commerce which we have carried on with them for this particular article, it appears aftonishing that it fhould not yet have been thoroughly decided, by obfervations made upon the fpot, whether the green and bohea teas are the produce of one or of different plants. This

engraving of the tea plant in the garden of the late Princess Dowager; but having received notice of Mr. Miller's intentions, he agreed with him to unite in one defcription, and to publish the fame plate both which accordingly accompany this publication.

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among many other matters is a proof how little we know concerning that country and people. Our Author, in his botanical defcription of the tea-plant, affirms that there is only one fpecies, and that the difference between the green and bohea teas depends on the nature of the foil, culture, age, and the manner of drying the leaves. He adds further, that it has even been obferved that a green tea-tree, planted in the bohea country, will produce bohea, and fo the contrary;' and that on his examining feveral hundred flowers, brought both from the bohea and green tea countries, their botanical characters have always appeared uniform. This question however does not appear to be put out of all doubt; for we find the Author afterwards treating this only as the moft probable opinion.

As to the differences in colour and flavour peculiar to these two kinds, and to their varieties, there is reason to suspect that they are, in fome measure, adventitious, or produced by art. The Author has been informed, by intelligent perfons, who bave refided fome time at Canton, that the tea about that city affords very little fmell while growing. The fame is observed of the tea-plants now in England, and alfo of the dried fpecimens from China.' We are not however, as he obferves, to conclude from hence that art alone conveys to teas, when cured, the smell peculiar to each kind; for our vegetables, graffes for inftance, have little or no fmell till dried and made into hay As to the opinion that the green tea owes its ver dure to an effiorefcence acquired from the plates of copper on which it is fuppofed to be cured or dried, he fhews that there is ho foundation for this fufpicion. The infufions of the finest imperial and bloom teas undergo no change on the affufion of a volatile alcali; which would detect the minuteft portion of copper contained in them, by turning the liquors blue. The fine green colour of thefe teas has, with as little reafon, been attributed to green copperas: as this metallic falt would, on its being diffolved in water, immediately act on the aftringent mat ter of the leaves, and convert the infufion into ink; as happens when a chalybeate water has been employed in the making of tea. On the whole, the Author thinks it not improbable that fome green dye, prepared from vegetable fubftances, is em ployed in the colouring of the leaves of the green teas.

With regard to the commercial hiftory of this fragrant exotic, we fhall only obferve, that it was first introduced into Europe by the Dutch East India Company, very early in the last century; and that a quantity of it was brought over from Holland by Lord Arlington and Lord Offory, about the year 1666, at which time it was fold for fixty fhillings a pound. But it appears that, before this time, drinking of tea, even in public coffeehouses in this country, was not uncommon; for in 1660

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a duty of eight-pence per gallon was laid on the liquor made and fold in all coffeehoufes. The prefent confumption of it is immenfe. The Author has been told that at least three millions of pounds are allowed for the annual home confumption, not including the incredible quantity fmuggled into the kingdom; and that the Eaft India Company have generally in their warehoufes a fupply for three years.

Had we not too many proofs of the notable uncertainty and diverfity of medical pofitions and opinions-recently exemplified in a very ftriking inftance given in a late publication, where the whole fomeneis even of bread has been denied; we should express our astonishment that the virtues or the ill effects of a plant, which has fo long conftituted a very confiderable article of our diet, fhould not long ago have been compleatly afcertained; and that the faculty should maintain opinions manifeftly contradictory concerning it: fome of them attributing to it the most extenfive virtues, and others the moft pernicious effects. The natural inference, in our opinion, to be drawn from this contrariety is, that it neither poffeffes noxious or beneficial powers in any very diftinguishable degree. Its extenfive ufe among all ranks of people-among the rational and the whimfical-muft naturally furnish many occafional inftances of its difagreeing, or being thought to difagree, with particular confiitutions though as many might poffibly occur from the use of baum tea, warm water, milk, or any other fingle beverage, if any one of thefe articles conftituted, like tea, the daily break faft and evening's entertainment of almost a whole kingdom.

An enquiry into the medical qualities or effects of this plant is the fubject of the fecond part of this performance; from which we shall extract the fubftance of fome of the Author's experiments and obfervations, made with a view to throw fome light on this part of his fubject.

From the effects of an infufion of bohea and of green tea, in preferving fweet fome fmall pieces of beef immerfed in them, the Author thews that they poffefs an antifeptic power, when applied to the dead animal fibre; and from their ftriking a purple colour with falt of iron he infers their aftringent quality. Thele, it is to be obferved, are the properties of the more fixed parts of this plant, and which are not at all impaired by long continued infufion, or even decoction.

On fubjecting a large quantity of the best and most highly flavoured green tea to diftillation with fimple water, an ounce of a very odorous and pellucid water, free from oil, was obtained; three drachms of which, being injected into the cavity of the abdomen and cellular membrane of a frog, produced, in twenty minutes, a general lofs of motion and fenfibility in one of the hind legs of the animal, which continued four hours,

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