704 PLAIN FACTS FOR OLD AND YOUNG 



template. Extinction would come at last as a benefi- 

 cent act of nature, who desires only the survival of 

 the fittest. 



TEA AND INDIGESTION 



The popular idea that tea, coffee, cocoa, wine, and 

 other beverages commonly used at meals, promote 

 digestion, has been clearly proved by reliable physio- 

 logical experiments to be an error. According to 

 J. W. Frazer and W. Eoberts, all these substances 

 interfere with digestion. Tea, coffee, and cocoa re- 

 tard the digestion of proteids, although the action of 

 coffee is somewhat less intense than that of tea. The 

 volatile oil, as well as the tannic acid of tea, was found 

 to have a retarding effect upon peptic digestion. It 

 is well that this fact be known, as the idea has become 

 prevalent that tea is harmless if the infusion is quickly 

 made, so as to obtain the volatile oil without so great 

 a quantity of tannic acid as is dissolved by longer 

 infusion. Wine also retards peptic digestion, as was 

 clearly shown by W. Roberts. This effect of wine and 

 other alcoholic liquors was so marked that Sir Wil- 

 liam Roberts concluded, as the result of his experi- 

 ments, that wine and other alcoholic liquors are chiefly 

 useful as a means of slowing down the too active diges- 

 tion of the modern civilized man, thus acting as a safe- 

 guard against what he terms "a dangerous accelera- 

 tion of nutrition." However much the digestion of 

 the average Englishman may require slowing down, 

 the average American certainly does not need to put 

 brakes upon his digestive apparatus. 



Both Roberts and Frazer also showed that the 

 effect of wines and tea is inimical to salivary digestion. 



