MEDICINAL EFFECTS. 261 



in the process of preparation, more caffeine being 

 also extracted, and the longer it is infused or boiled the 

 more tannin is dissolved in the liquid. These facts serve 

 to confirm the views generally expressed by physicians, 

 that coffee boiled or over-infused prejudices its digesti- 

 bility, while simple infusions facilitate it, but its bene- 

 ficial action in the latter case is now proved to be due 

 not to any direct chemical action on the albumen present, 

 but indirectly to its action on the nerve-centres of the 

 stomach by promoting the secretion of the gastric juices, 

 such action being, in other words, physiological and not 

 chemical, as heretofore supposed. 



With regard to the anti-bilious properties of coffee Dr. 

 Elliott states that " We speedily found that patients in 

 hospitals and all persons leading sedentary lives must 

 avoid too concentrated food and drink abundantly of 

 diluent fluids, that coffee acted on the liver and was 

 altogether the best remedy for constipation and what is 

 commonly termed a bilious condition, that tea acted in a 

 precisely opposite direction, and that not poppies, man- 

 dragora nor all the drowsy syrups of the East could 

 bring the peace to a sufferer from malarial chill that 

 would come of strong coffee, with a little lemon juice 

 added, and that strong tea was almost a specific for 

 neuralgia in its simplest and most uncomplicated form." 

 Liebig also calls attention to the fact that coffee con- 

 tains many of the elements which stimulate the flow of 

 bile, being a decided laxative, as well as a pronounced 

 diuretic, which is confirmed by the fact that the " coffee 

 belt " of the world is also the " bilious belt " and the 

 " malarial belt," as well as the regions where noxious 

 germs and suppurative processes most abound. Ample 

 evidence of "the fitness of things" in nature, no people 

 understanding better than the inhabitants of these tropical 



