é 
190 MEALS MEDICINAL. 
be forbidden. Johnson (Chemistry of Common Life) teaches 
that “when taken in moderate quantities the ingredients of 
Chicory are probably not injurious to health, but by prolonged 
and frequent use they produce heartburn, cramp in the stomach, 
loss of appetite, acidity, constipation, with intermittent 
diarrhcea, weakness of the limbs, tremblings, sleeplessness, and 
a drunken cloudiness of the senses’; ‘a most formidable list 
of accusations! At the best, therefore, Chicory as an addition 
to, or substitute for, Coffee should only be used on infrequent 
occasions when the price is an object. The late Prince Bismarck 
stopped one day at an Inn on the borders of the Black Forest, 
and called for a cup of Chicory. The astonished landlord 
brought him presently about a gill. ‘‘ This is all I have in the 
house,” said he. ‘“ Are you sure?” asked Bismarck. “ Yes, 
mein herr.” “ Very well,” said the Prince, throwing the stuff 
away; ‘now make me some Coffee.” After the Hssex 
Rebellion (in English History) Queen Elizabeth was much 
troubled in mind; every new message from the city disturbed 
her ; she frowned on her ladies, and kept a sword always beside 
her; she touched nothing for two days but a cake, and: then 
disregarded every delicacy of food for a manchet (a roll), and 
plain Suecory, or Chicory, pottage. 
A well-made infusion of freshly-roasted and ground Coffee is 
often better as a restorative in fever than alcohol. Again, strong 
Coffee will frequently prove successful for allaying paroxysms of 
asthma. Some doctors forbid Coffee in gout, but without any 
special reason except as regards the cream and sugar served 
therewith ; though Dr. Haig (who evidently has a personal 
prejudice against each theobromic beverage) declares that Coffee 
berries contain 70 per cent of uric acid, or xanthins. In 
Johnson’s Chemistry of Common Lije (1856) the case is told of. 
a gentleman who was attacked by gout at twenty-five years of 
age, and had it severely at times till he was upwards of fifty, 
with chalk-stones in the joints of his hands and feet; then the 
use of Coffee was advised him, and completely prevented any 
further attacks. The French attribute to free Coffee-drinking 
their freedom from the gout due to uric acid deposits, with 
gravel, and derangement of the kidneys. It has not been 
determined to which of the Coffee constituents this preventive, 
or curative action is due, but the belief in its efficacy is 
confirmed by the fact that in a great Coffee-consuming country 
