DIETETICAL PROPERTIES. 273 



nourishment, as, according to Payen, it contains more 

 than twice the nutriment of soup and three times as 

 much as tea. In the liquid state, however, the nitroge- 

 neous or flesh-forming properties, being mostly insoluble, 

 they remain in the grounds. For this reason coffees 

 lightly roasted possesses the maximum of nutrition, 

 strength and aroma. 



The Belgian coal miners live and work effectively on a 

 ration of solid food less than the French miners, yet per- 

 form more labor than the latter, the only difference in their 

 food consisting in the Belgians receiving a ration of coffee 

 instead of wine, to which is attributed their greater endur- 

 ance. While Jomand states that eight pints of an infusion 

 made with six ounces of different kinds of coffee 

 enabled him to live for five consecutive days without 

 lessening his ordinary occupations, as well as to use 

 more and prolonged muscular exercise than he was 

 accustomed to without any other physical injury than 

 a slight degree of fatigue and a little loss of flesh. 

 The value of hot infusions of coffee under the rigors 

 of an Arctic cold has been demonstrated by the 

 experience of all polar explorers, and it has been 

 found scarcely less useful in tropical regions, where 

 it beneficially stimulates the action of the skin. Cap- 

 tain Parry states that when on his Arctic expedition he 

 placed his starboard watch on a diet of coffee and the 

 port watch on that of rum, as an experiment, with the 

 result that the coffee watch was found to possess a vigor of 

 health and activity entirely wanting in that of the other. 

 And many of our own troops during the late war 

 declared that they could march longer and endure more 

 hardship and exposure under the stimulus of a cup of 

 warm coffee and they got far from the best or purest 

 than they could under an equal quantity of liquor. 



