264 MEDICINAL EFFECTS. 



to our great surprise, that its action was as prompt 

 as it was decisive. No sooner had our patients taken a 

 few tablespoonfuls of it than their features became 

 relaxed, and came immediately to their senses, while the 

 next day the improvement was such that we are tempted 

 to look upon it as a specific against typhoid fever. Under 

 its influence the stupor is dispelled and the patient arises 

 from the state of somnolency in which he has lain since 

 the invasion of the disease ; soon all the functions take 

 their natural course, and he enters on convalescence." 

 His formula is to give to an adult two to three table- 

 spoonfuls of strong, black coffee every two hours, alter- 

 nately with one to two tablespoonfuls of claret or bur- 

 gundy wine, a little lemonade or citrate of magnesia, to be 

 taken daily, and after a few days quinine in small doses. 

 From the fact that malaise or cerebral symptoms appear 

 first, the doctor regards typhoid as a nervous disease, 

 and the coffee, acting on the nerves, is peculiarly indi- 

 cated in the early stages, before local complications arise. 

 While in extreme cases of yellow fever it has been 

 used effectively by many doctors as the main reliance 

 after all the other well-known remedies had been admin- 

 istered and failed. In such cases it acts by retarding the 

 tissue change, that becoming a conservator of force, 

 especially in that state in which the nervous system tends 

 to collapse, owing to the blood becoming impure. In 

 such a condition it sustains the nervous power until the 

 depuration and reorganization of the blood are accom- 

 plished, possessing the advantage over all other stimu- 

 lants of inducing to no secondary ill-effects. 



As early as 1835, during the cholera epidemic, the 

 physicians of New York issued a public manifesto urging 

 the people to abstain from beer and other liquors and 

 confine themselves to the exclusive use of pure, strong 



