260 MEDICINAL EFFECTS. 



effective remedies. In districts rife with malarial and 

 other low fevers the drinking of hot coffee before pass- 

 ing into the infected districts will enable persons living 

 in such regions to escape all contagion, the nervous sys- 

 tem being aroused and the fever germs thereby 

 rendered innocuous by the coffee. It is also almost a 

 specific for the disease after being contracted when used 

 with lemon juice, and is found to be of sovereign 

 efficacy in tiding over any attacks of the nervous 

 system in a number of emergencies from whatever cause ; 

 and in answer to the query so often put, " Does coffee 

 facilitate or retard digestion ?" it may be observed that it 

 contains several active principles, each of which exercises 

 a specific influence on the human system, the first and 

 most important of these being the caffeine, which raises 

 the activity of the heart, operating in small doses as a 

 wholesome stimulus. The second, the caffeone or vola- 

 tile substance, which operates chiefly on the nerves and 

 acting in moderate quantities as an agreeable exhilarant, 

 but to which is also attributable the fantasies and intoxi- 

 cant effects so frequently experienced as a result of exces- 

 sive coffee drinking. The third being the caffeic or 

 tannin, to which coffee owes its bitter taste when boiled 

 or over-infused and which, as is well known, enters into 

 combination with the albumen, thereby materially preju- 

 dicing its digestibility. These three principal properties 

 vary greatly in the quantities extracted according to the 

 methods of preparation, so much so that if the coffee be 

 simply infused in water at the boiling point and allowed 

 to cool rapidly we get but little of the caffeine in the 

 extract, a good deal of the aromatic principle and 

 scarcely a trace of the tannin, but by over-boiling 

 and prolonged infusion the aroma is dissipated by 

 passing off with the steam or vapor arising from it 



