194 MEALS MEDICINAL. 
without being prevented thereby from sleeping, seem to need 
it also during the day for keeping them awake, and are 
pretty sure to doze during the evening if they fail to take 
Coffee after dinner. A still larger number of persons are 
sleepy all the day when they have not had their Coffee in 
the morning. Coffee is a much more energetic beverage than 
is usually believed. A man with a good constitution can live 
a long time, and drink two bottles of wine every day ; but the 
same man could not take an equal allowance of Coffee for the 
same length of time: he would become imbecile, or would die 
of consumption. It is a duty for all the papas and mammas 
of the world to severely interdict Coffee to their children, if they 
do not wish them to be old at twenty years; this advice is 
specially offered to the Parisians ” (Brillat Savarin). 
For persons liable to sluggishness of the liver, and of the biliary 
functions, Dandelion Coffee is prepared, and kept in stock by 
all the leading grocers. It is made from the dried root of the 
Dandelion plant (Taraxacum) of our fields and hedgerows, being 
used as a capital substitute for ordinary Coffee. This root is 
at its best in November. Its active constituents are taraxacin, 
and taraxacerin, with inulin (a sort of sugar), gluten, gum, 
potash, and an odorous resin which is commonly supposed to 
stimulate the liver. Dandelion leaves, when young and tender 
in springtime, are eaten on the Continent in salads, or, when 
blanched, with bread and butter. Again, a Dandelion wine is 
made for the use of persons with an indolent liver, because of 
the principle tararacin, and the resinoid bodies contained in the 
herb. Potassium and calcium salts are also present, which were 
formerly thought to make the Dandelion diuretic, and hence was 
derived its old English title—coarse, but significant—Piss-a-bed 
“ When Willie was a little boy 
Not more than five or six, 
Right constantly did he annoy 
His mother with his tricks. 
Yet not a pin, or groat cared I 
For what he did, or said, 
Unless, as happened frequently, 
The rascal wet the bed. 
*Tis many times that Willie has 
all the bedclothes through, 
Whereat I'd rise, and light the gas, 
And wonder what to do. 
Yet there he lay, so peaceful-like : 
God bless his curly head ! 
I ene forgave the little tyke 
_ For wetting of the bed. 
