SECTION XV.
It is said that in Japan and China the stone is a very unusual distemper, and the natives suppose that Tea has the quality to prevent it[97]. So far as it softens and meliorates the water, which is very bad, it may certainly be of use[98]. We may also observe here, that every solvent is capable of taking up a limited quantity only of the solvend, and, when fully saturated with it, is incapable of suspending it long; hence it is plain, that the quantity of the stony matter carried off must be greater when the urine is increased in quantity, and has not been too long retained in the bladder: and therefore, as Tea is a diuretic, it may in this view prove lithonthriptic.
Tea, we have already observed, contains an astringent antiseptic quality (Sect. I. Exp. I, II.) It likewise possesses no inconsiderable degree of bitterness; and, as the uvæ ursi, and other bitters, have mitigated severe paroxysms of the stone, may not Tea prove serviceable also by its antacid quality?
It is an observation I have often had occasion to make, that people, after violent exercise, or coming off a journey much fatigued, and affected with a sense of general uneasiness, attended with thirst and great heat, by drinking a few cups of warm Tea, have generally experienced immediate refreshment. It also proves a grateful diluent, and agreeable sedative, after a full meal, when the stomach is oppressed, the head pained, and the pulse beats high[99]; hence the Poet says,