Tea & 19th Century English Health

Quoted in "The Shorter Mrs. Beeton- New concise Edition"

Our great nurse Miss Nightingale remarks that “a great deal too much against tea is said by wise people, and a great deal too much of tea is given to the sick by foolish people. When you see the natural and almost universal craving in English sick for their ‘tea,’ you cannot but feel that Nature knows what she is about. But a little tea or coffee restores them quite as much as a great deal; and especially of coffee, impairs the little power of digestion they have. There is nothing yet discovered which is a substitute to the English patient for his cup of tea; he can take it when he can take nothing else, and he often can’t take anything else if he has it not.”