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SUMMARY:Is it one's cup of tea? Early-modern experimentation on tea as mat
 eria medica - G.A. Cook (University of Hong Kong)
DTSTART:20151012T120000Z
DTEND:20151012T131500Z
UID:TALK60876@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:39097
DESCRIPTION:From Antiquity onwards Europeans incorporated exotic\, plant-d
 erived materia medica into their pharmacopeia. The so-called era of explor
 ation gave this process an enormous boost\, making available a variety of 
 new plants from the New World and Asia. Some of these enjoyed parallel exi
 stences both as medicines and as foods or beverages. They included not onl
 y spices\, but also most prominently\, plants with stimulant properties su
 ch as tea\, coffee\, chocolate\, tobacco and ginseng. These novelties lent
  themselves to investigation using the experimental methods being propound
 ed by the Royal Society and like-minded Continental savants.\n\nThe popula
 rity of this approach was such that by the late 17th century\, it was no l
 onger sufficient for novel plants simply to be acclaimed by experts as mat
 eria medica based on traditions from the place of origin\, travellers' acc
 ounts or other untested testimonials. The experts themselves – usually p
 hysicians – demanded proofs of efficacy using the experimental method an
 d their writings primed an ever-larger and more well-informed reading publ
 ic to follow suit. In 1730\, for example\, the physician Thomas Short adve
 rtised his tea experiments to readers as 'easy\, and practicable by every 
 curious Person on any Plant\, without Experience\, much Apparatus\, Loss o
 f Time\, Danger to any Animal\, or Acquaintance with the chymical Jargon o
 f Words...'. In my talk I survey the surprisingly varied experimental hist
 ory of tea over approximately one hundred years\, from the late 17th centu
 ry to the third quarter of the 18th century.
LOCATION:Seminar Room 1\, Department of History and Philosophy of Science
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