WHAT, THEN, ARE THE CORRECT CONDITIONS TO BE OBSERVED? 



(1.) Tea should be infused not more than five minutes in freshly boiling water: 

 then the liquid should be poured off into another hot vessel. Coffee should be 

 similarly prepared in a jug or percolator, so that the water does not remain in 

 contact with the " grounds." 



(2.) The addition of milk or cream is recommended, for the albuminous matter 

 in milk throws down the taunic acid present in an insoluble form. For this reason, 

 if tea has stood too long and become " strong," it is made more wholesome by the 

 addition of milk rather than of water. Three parts of hot milk to one part of coffee 

 is the breakfast beverage common to the greater part of Europe. It is to be com- 

 mended as both useful and nutritive, adapted to morning requirements. 



(3.) Sugar adds to the nutritive value of these beverages, but probably detracts 

 from their healthfulness. 



(4.) Both tea and coffee should be avoided at meat meals, especially lea. 

 Members of the Women's Institutes will be doing a valuable bit of work if they 

 unite in a determination to banish tea from their tables at dinner and supper. In 

 the first place, 



TEA AND COFFEE ARE CERTAINLY HINDRANCES TO DIGESTION 



when drunk at these meals. In the second place, a small cup of cither beverage is 

 an insufficient amount of fluid for adults. At least three-quarters of a pint of water 

 is necessary; a pint will, in most cases, be still more beneficial. In the third place. 

 tea and coffee are not substitutes for water in their effect on the body. 



(5.) When the breakfast is a light one, either tea or coffee may be drunk ly 

 adults with advantage, and again midway between meals in the afternoon; a Ilritish 

 custom which is worthy of adoption on this continent. 



(6.) THESE BEVERAGES SHOULD BE USED SPARINGLY 



by " nervous " people, and not at all by children, whose nervous systems are peculiarly 

 susceptible to their possibly unsatisfactory effects on nerves and digestion. Personal 

 peculiarities play a great part in the effect of either drink on adults even in health 

 and can never be neglected. 



COCOA OCCUPIES A PLACE 



not really very different from tea and coffee. Its action as a stimulant is less, but 

 the popular idea of its nutritive value has small foundation, because so little of 

 it can be taken at a time. It is the milk and sugar mixed with it, not the cocoa, 

 which constitute it a "food." To supply the energy for an ordinary day's work it 

 would be necessary to consume 15 oz. of cocoa, made into seventy-five cnpfnls. an 

 impossible undertaking. Cocoa must therefore be looked upon more as a flavouring 

 matter than as a food. Like toast, apple, lemon, etc., it 



SERVES TO MAKE A PLEASANT VARIETY IN OUR BEVERAGES, 



and often enables a faddist to be induced to drink a desirable amount of milk which 

 would be refused as indigestible if unflavoured with cocoa. 



ALCOHOL IN ANY FORM SHOULD BE BANISHED FROM THE TABLE, 



no matter how "festive" the occasion, for the following among many more sub- 

 stantial reasons : 



(1.) The results of carefully conducted and unprejudiced investigations show 

 that it is unfavourable to muscular work and is a direct hindrance to mental 

 exertion. 



(2.) The medical profession is now convinced that alcohol is unnecessary to 

 any person in ordinary health ; though some form of spirit is advisedly kept in the 

 house, under lock and key, for use in emergency, such as acute illness or profound 

 exhaustion. 



24 



