Thursday, September 29, 2022

Excerpts from Shadrach Ricketson, Means of Preserving Health and Preventing Diseases (1806)

I have been reading some works on 19th-century views of tobacco, alcohol, tea, and coffee. Here are some notes from:

Shadrach Ricketson, Means of Preserving Health and Preventing Diseases (New York: Shadrach Ricketson, 1806):

 

Wine.

 

Wine is to most people an agreeable, and a cordial drink; and, hence, much used; and when occasionally, or in small quantity, mixed with water, may be very innocent; but when drunk frequently and copiously, it generally, sooner or later, injures the constitution, or renders it subject to inflammatory diseases. It is a powerful stimulant, the long continued use of which, rarely fails to induce debility. Hence, great wine-drinkers, somewhat advanced in life, are generally low-spirited, and often afflicted with a long train of hypochondrical symptoms and incurable diseases, particularly, the gout, which is a strange complication of stimulating and debilitating powers: in short, wine is more properly a medicine, than an article of common drink; and, as such, may be applied with salutary effects in various cases. Those who indulge in wine and strong liquors, are, also, often afflicted with that painful and excruciating disorder, the gravel, which rarely yields to the power of any medicine hitherto discovered.

 

Although I condemn the frequent and habitual use of wine, I, by no means, think it wholly unnecessary for persons of certain constitutions occasionally; and especially at meal times, when it sometimes has a good effect in promoting and assisting digestion.

 

There is a great variety of wines; some of which are better for certain medicinal purposes than others; but which it is not by province, at present, to point out: the choice must, therefore, be left, in great measure, to the physician, and every person’s own observation and experience. Some wines are doubtless adulterated with ingredients highly injurious to health; which is an additional inducement to use them as little as is really necessary.

 

Carious pleasant and wholesome wines may be made in this country from the juices of cherries, currants, raspberries, blackberries, and strawberries, little inferior to some of the imported wines; and, unquestionably, more innocent.

 

Cider may be made into a liquor, which, with sufficient age, becomes a tolerable wine, not unlike Rhenish or Malaga; and which may be used as a substitute for them.

 

“The more water wine contains, it is the more suitable a beverage at table; and, when weak, it is, in some degree, calculated to quench thirst. Strong wines, on the contrary, excite thirst; as they are drying and affect the organs of secretions. It is only a stimulant, and not a permanently strengthening cordial; for, most wine-drinkers, who indulge in excess, die of relaxation and debility.

 

“The copious use of wine, though not to the degree of inebriation, is yet exceedingly debilitating to the stomach; as it checks digestion, and excites diarrhoea, if white sine, and obstructions, if port-wine be the favourite liquor: it makes the fibres dry and rigid, and the cheeks, and the whole surface of the body, turn sallow-a symptom of bad digestion: the powers of the body and mind are enfeebled, and dropsy or gout, and, sometimes, sudden death, are the consequences. Plethoric young men, and such as have weak stomachs and lungs, should not accustom themselves to the use of wine. The give it to infants or youth, is a practice highly pernicious, except in very small quantities indeed. In short, wine should be used as a medicine only, if intended to produce salutary effects. To the phlegmatic, to the aged, and to those who are disposed to flatulency, and after fat meat, it is highly beneficial, if used with prudence and moderation.

 

“As wine encourages perspiration, it dries the body, makes it lean, and may, therefore, be of service to cold and phlegmatic constitutions. It stimulates the bile, and excites the appetite to a repetition of excess, so that persons once habituated to drinking, can but gradually relinquish this seductive practice. To drink wine copiously every day, is as improper and pernicious as to take medicines by way of diet; nothing is so much calculated to occasion habitual indigestion.” Willich. (pp. 31-33)

 

“But, are there no conditions of the human body in which ardent spirits may be given? I answer, there are. 1st. When the body has been suddenly exhausted of its strength, and a disposition to faintness has been induced. Here, a few spoonfuls, or a wine-glassful of spirits, with, or without water, may be administered with safety and advantage. In this case, we comply strictly with this advice of Solomon, who restricts the use of strong drink only to him who is ready to perish. 2dly.When the body has been exposed for a long time to wet weather, more especially, if it be combined with cold. Here, a moderate quantity of spirits is not only a safe, but highly proper to obviate debility, and to prevent a fever. They will more certainly have those salutary effects, if the feet are at the same time bathed with them, or a half pint of them poured into the shoes of boots. These, I believe, are the only two cases in which distilled spirits are useful or necessary to persons in health. (pp. 41-42)

 

“But it may be said, I we reject spirits from being a part of our drinks, what liquors shall we substitute in their room? I answer in the first place,

“1. Simple water. . . . “Persons who are unable to relish this simple beverage of nature, may drink some one, or of all the following liquors in preference to ardent spirits.

 

“2. Cider. This excellent liquor contains a small quantity of spirit, but so diluted, and blunted by being combined with a large quantity of saccharine matter and water, as to be perfectly wholesome. It sometimes disagrees with persons subject to the rheumatism; but it may be made inoffensive to such people, by extinguishing a red-hot iron in it, or by mixing it with water.

 

“3. Malt liquors. They contain a good deal of nourishment; hence, we find, that many of the poor people in Great Britain endure hard labour with no other food than a quart of three pints of beer, with a few pounds of bread in a day. As it will be difficult to prevent small beer from becoming sour in warm weather, an excellent substitute may be made for it by mixing bottled porter, ale, or strong beer, with an equal quantity of water; or a pleasant beer may be made by adding to a bottle of porter, ten quarts of water, and a pound of brown sugar, or a point of molasses. After they have been well mixed, pour the liquor into bottles, and lace them, loosely corked, in a cool cellar. In two or three days, it will be fit for use. A spoonful of ginger added to the mixture, renders it more lively and agreeable to the taste.

 

“4. Wines. These fermented liquors are composed of the same ingredients as cider, and are both cordial and nourishing. The peasants of France who drink them in large quantities, are a sober and healthy body of people. Unlike ardent spirits, which render the temper irritable, wines generally inspire cheerfulness and good humour. It is to be lamented, that the grape has not as yet been sufficiently cultivated in our country, to afford wine for our citizens; but many excellent substitutes may be made for it, from the native fruits of all the States. If two barrels of cider fresh from the press, are boiled into one, and afterwards fermented, and kept for two or three years in a dry cellar, it affords a liquor, which; according to the quality of the apple from which the cider is made, has the taste of Malaga, or Rhenish wine. It affords, when mixed with water, a most agreeable drink in summer. I have taken the liberty of calling it Pomona wine. There is another method of making a pleasant wine from the apple, by adding twenty-four gallons of new cider, to three gallons of syrup, made form the expressed juice of sweet apples. When thoroughly fermented, and kept for a few years, it becomes fit for use. The black-berry of our fields, and the rasp-berry, and current of our gardens, afford, likewise, an agreeable and wholesome wine, when pressed, and mixed with certain proportions of sugar and water, and a little spirit to counteract their disposition to an excessive fermentation. (pp. 45-46)

 

“the relaxation which tea occasions in the first passages, renders it peculiarly hurtful to females of lax fibres, a thin blood, and irritable habits. To enumerate the great diversity of nervous symptoms, attending its abuse, in such constitutions would lead me too far from the prescribed limits; but so much is certain, that the vapours arising from liquors, drunk very hot, like tea, weaken the lungs, and dispose their votaries to frequent colds and catarrhs, which readily make a transition into consumptions.

 

“A moderate use of tea may, sometimes, be of service to persons in a perfect state of health: yet, for daily use, it cannot be recommended.

 

“Hypochondriac and hysteric people, however, are much deceived in the efficacy of tea, as aa diluent drink; for all the evils arising from relaxation, a weak stomach, and flatulency, under which such persons usually labor, are, by the habit of drinking tea, increased to the most alarming degree. The cold stomach which they propose to warm by it, is a mere phantom of the brain for this sensation of cold is nothing but relaxation, which, instead of being removed by hot liquors, is increased by every repetition of them.

 

“It would be a great proof of patriotic spirit in this country, if the use of this exotic drug were either altogether abandoned, or, at least, supplied by some indigenous plants of equal flavour, and superior salubrity. The Chinese have good reason to smile at our degenerate taste, when they are informed, that we actually possess an immense variety of the most valuable aromatic plants, much better calculated by nature to invigorate our stomachs, and to revive our spirits, than tea, which we purchase from them at a great expense. These sentiments may be ungrateful to tea-dealers, or East India merchants, but every honest truth should be candidly told to an unbiassed public.

 

“It would, undoubtedly, be more conducive to our health, if we would altogether dispense with the use of warm liquors, at least, when in an healthy state. But, if this practice must be indulged in, we ought to choose the herbs growing in our own meadows and gardens, instead of making ourselves tributary to distant nations. . . . “All nervous disorders are certainly aggravated by the use of tea . . . “When it is drunk in moderation, and not too warm, with a large addition of milk, and little sugar, I believe, it will seldom prove hurtful, but on the contrary, salutary.” Leake. (pp. 95-96, 97)

 

Eggs may constitute a part of dinner; but at whatever meal they are eaten, they should always are rare boiled or fried; or, which is better, gradually coagulated in hot water from five to ten minutes; for, if they are cooked hard, they become indigestible on many people’s stomachs. A portion of salt is thought to promote their solution in the stomach. (p. 110)

 

Tea and coffee, particularly the latter, are drunk by some, immediately, after dinner; though not commonly in this country. Either tea or coffee is, however, more innocent, and far preferable to the practice of drinking copiously of wine or spirits after dinner; which, if long continued, generally proves, sooner or later, injurious. (p. 111)

 

Before I proceed to supper, it may be expected, that I should say something on the intermediate repast of tea, which has become almost as common in the afternoon, as any other meal; particularly in cities and towns, and increasingly so, of late, in the country. Coffee is used by some, instead of tea, though rarely, at this time.

 

My opinion of the nature and effects of both tea and coffee, will be understood from what I have already said, when treating of those articles under the head of breakfast.

 

It is thought, by some, that tea assists and promotes digestion; and it is, therefore, sometimes used immediately or soon after dinner; but this is to be doubted more than can be imputed to any other diluent liquid or drink; a certain proportion of which is necessary to be added to our food, or rather intermixed with it, during mastication; but too much drink, immediately after eating, rather retards than promotes digestion. . . . “It is thought, by many, that tea assists digestion, by the additional stimulus of its quantity: it may excite the stomach and duodenum to pass the digesting food sooner than they otherwise would have done, and sooner than the chyle is properly elaborated it may, perhaps, assist in carrying off flatulency and the food together. This, at least, is my opinion of it; and I therefore think, the subjects of whom I have been speaking, ought to drink either tea or coffee with great moderation; never to make it sweet, coffee especially; and to eat with it as seldom as possible. For, either sweet-cakes, cakes of any kind, or butter in any proportion, rather retard digestion, than promote it. The only proper time to drink either tea or coffee, or any such beverage, with safety or advantage, is, to take it as soon after dinner as possible, and instead of sitting down to the bottle. . . . “Tea will induce a total change of constitution in the people of this country. Indeed, it has gone a great way towards that effecting that evil already. A debility, and consequent irritability of fibre, are become so common, that not only women, but even men are affected with them. That class of diseases, which, for want of a better name, we call nervous, has made almost a complete conquest of the one sex, and is making hasty strides towards vanquishing the other. (pp. 125-26, 127, 128)

 

“De. Lettsome, who seems to be thoroughly persuaded of the occasional noxious effects of this volatile principle, in the finer teas, especially, recommends this last mentioned mode of making tea, or the substitution of the extract, instead of the leaves; but the use of which, the nervous relaxing effects, which follow the drinking of tea in the usual manner, would be, in great measure, avoided. This extract has been imported hither from China, in the form of small cakes, not exceeding a quarter of an ounce each in weight; ten grains of which might suffice one person for breakfast: but it might easily be made here by simple decoration and evaporation, by those who experience the noxious qualities of the volatile principles of this plant.

 

“Tea is perhaps, less injurious than many other infusion of herbs, which; besides a very slight aromatic flavour, have very little if any, stypticity to prevent their relaxing, debilitating effects. So far, therefore, tea, if not too fine, is not drunk too hot, nor in too great quantities, is, perhaps, preferable to any other known vegetable infusion. And, if we take into consideration, likewise, its known enlivening energy, our attachment to it will appear to be owing to its superiority in taste and effects to most other vegetables. See Dr. Lettsome’s Natural History of the Tea-tree, with observation on the Medical qualities of Tea, and effects of Tea-drinking. 4to. 1772.”

Hall’s Encylop.(pp. 131-32)

 

Tea and coffee makes light and easy supper; and this is their most proper use in the afternoon. Some think that they cause watchfulness; others, however, that they dispose to sleep; but I have not been able to observe any certain or general effect either way; unless drunk every strong, when the former sometimes takes place. (p. 137)

 

“We have been told, that tobacco, when chewed, is a preservative against hunger; but this is a vulgar error; for, in reality, it may more properly be said to destroy appetite by the profuse discharge of saliva, which has already been considered as a powerful dissolving fluid, essential both to appetite and digestion.

 

“In smoking, the fumes of tobacco induce a kind of pleasing insensibility, not easily described. Its narcotic odour, thus administered, equally infatuates the ignorant savage, and the intelligent philosopher; but, by the large expense of saliva thereby occasioned, it is productive of many disorders of the head and stomach, particularly the last.

Leake.

 

“In no one view, is it possible ton contemplate the creature man in a more absurd and ridiculous light, than in his attachment of tobacco. This weed is of a stimulating nature, whether it be used in smoking, chewing, or in snuff. Like opium and spirituous liquors, it is sought for all in those cases where the body is debilitated indirectly by intemperance in eating, or by excessive application to study, or business, or directly by sedative passions of the mind, particularly grief and fear.

 

“The progress of habit in the use of tobacco is exactly the same as in the use of spirituous liquors. The slaves of it begin by using it only after dinner; then during the whole afternoon and evening; afterwards, before dinner; then before breakfast; and, finally, during the whole night. I knew a lady who had passed through all these states, who used to wake regularly two or three times every night to compose her system with fresh does of snuff. Again, the progress in the decay of the sensibility of the nose to the stimulus of snuff, is analogous to the decay of the sensibility of the stomach to the stimulus of spirituous liquors. It feels, for a while, the action of rappee; next, it requires Scotch snuff; afterwards, Irish blackguard; and, finally, it is affected only by a composition of tobacco and ground glass. This mixture is to the nose, what Cayenne pepper and Jamaica spirits are to the stomachs of habitual dram-drinkers.

 

“The appetite for tobacco is wholly artificial. No person was ever born with a relish for it. Even in those persons who are much attached to it, nature frequently recovers her disrelish to it. It ceases to be agreeable in every febrile indisposition. This is so invariably true, that a disrelish to it if often a sign of an approaching, and the return of the appetite for it, a sign of a departing fever.

 

“1. It impairs the appetite. Where it does not product this effect, 2. It prevents the early and complete digestion of the food; and, thereby, induces distressing and incurable diseases, not only of the stomach, but of the whole body. This effect of tobacco is the result of the waste of the saliva in chewing, and smoking, or of the tobacco insinuating itself into the stomach, when used in chewing or snuffing. I once lost a young man of seventeen years of age, of a pulmonary consumption, whose disorder was brought on by the intemperate use of segars.

 

“3. It produces many of those diseases which are supposed to be seated in the nerves. The late Sir John Pringle was subject, in the evening of his life, to tremors in his hands. In his last visit to France, a few years before he did, in company with Dr. Franklin, he was requested by the Doctor to observe, that the same disorder was very common among those people of fashion who were great snuffers. Sir John was led by this remark, to suspect that his tremors were occasioned by snuff, which he took in large quantities. He immediately left off taking it, on soon afterwards recovered the perfect use of his hands. I have seen head-ach, vertigo, and epilepsy produced by the use of tobacco.

 

“4. A citizen of Philadelphia lost all his teeth by drawing the hot smoke of tobacco into his mouth, by means of a short pipe.

 

“5. Tobacco, when used in the form of snuff, seldom fails of impairing the voice of obstructing the nose. It, moreover, imparts of the complexion a disagreeable dusky colour.

 

“But the use of tobacco has been known to produce a more serious effect upon the mind, than the distress than has been mentioned. Sir John Pringle’s memory was impaired by snuff. This was proved by his recovering the perfect exercise of it after he left off taking snuff, agreeably to the advice of his friend Fr. Franklin.

 

“In answer to these observations upon the morbid effects of tobacco, it has been said,

 

“1. That it possesses many medical virtues. I grant it, and the facts which establish its utility in medicine, furnish us with additional arguments against the habitual use of it. How feeble would be the effects of opium and bark upon the body, if they constituted a part of the condiments of our daily food. While I admit the efficacy of tobacco as a medicine, I cannot help adding, that some of the diseases, or symptoms of diseases which it relives, are evidently induced by the habit of using it. Thus, a dram of ardent spirits suspends, for a while a vomiting, and tremors of the hands: but, who does not know, that those complaints are the effects of the intemperate and habitual use of spirituous liquors?

 

“2. The advocates for tobacco tell us, that smoking and snuff relieve that uneasiness which succeeds a plentiful meal. I admit that the stimulus of tobacco restores the system from the indirect weakness which is induced by intemperance in eating; but the relief which is thus obtained, illy compensates for the waste of the saliva in smoking, at a time when it is most wanted; or for the mixture of a portion of the tobacco with the aliment in the stomach by means of snuffing. But why should we cure one evil by producing another? Would it not be much better to obviate the necessity of using tobacco by always eating a moderate meal? The recollection of the remedy probably disposes to what intemperance in eating which produces the uneasiness that has been mentioned.

 

“3. We are sometimes told, that tobacco is a preservative from contagious diseases. Btu many facts contradict this assertion. Mr. Howard informs us, that it had no efficacy in checking the contagion of the plague; and repeated experience in Philadelphia has proved, that it is equally ineffectual in preserving those who use it, from the influenza and fellow Fever.

 

“One of the usual effects of smoking and chewing, is thirst. This thirst cannot be allayed by water; for no sedative, or even insipid liquor, will be relished after the mouth and throat have been exposed to the stimulus of the smoke or juice of tobacco. A desire, of course, is excited for strong drinks; and these, when taken between meals, soon lead to intemperance and drunkenness. One of the greatest sots I ever knew, acquired a love for ardent spirits by swallowing cuds of tobacco, which he did to escape detection in the use of it; for he had contracted the habit of chewing contrary to the advice and commands of his father. He died of a dropsy under my care in the year 1780.

 

“In reviewing the account that has been given of the disagreeable and mischievous effects of tobacco, we are led to inquire, what are its uses upon our globe; for we are assured, that nothing exists in vain. Poison is a relative term, and the most noxious plants have been discovered to afford sustenance to certain animals. But what animal, besides man, will take tobacco into his mouth? Horses, cows, sheep, cats, dogs, and even hogs refuse to taste it. Flies, moschetoes, and the moth, are chased from our clothes by the smell of it. But let us arraign the wisdom and economy of nature in the production of this plant. Modern travellers have at length discovered, that it constitutes the food of a solitary and filthy wild beast, well known in the deserts of Africa, by the name of the Rock-Goat.” Rush. (pp. 226-30)

 

Coffee has been found to counteract the morbid effects of opium and cicuta on the constitution; and may, therefore, be used liberally by those who take much of these medicines. This may be one reason, why the Turks, who are excessively fond of coffee, bear such a large quantities of opium. (p. 279)

 

 

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