MEDICINAL EFFECTS, 259 



a strong infusion is prepared and *' sipped " slowly while 

 very hot. This oftentimes acts effectively alone, but is 

 much more so if a strong mustard plaster is applied to the 

 pit of the stomach at the same time. Its beneficial effects 

 in extreme alcoholism is already too well known for 

 description, but is as yet not fully appreciated in such 

 cases, nor as to what extent this otherwise exhilarating and 

 potent beverage may be substituted in lieu of spirituous 

 and malt liquors. It is positively asserted by men of high 

 professional ability that when the system requires a good 

 stimulant, nothing equals a cup of good, strong, fresh-made 

 coffee for the purpose, so that those who may desire to 

 rescue a drunkard from his bane will find no better substi- 

 tute for alcoholic spirits or malt liquors than strong, fresh- 

 made coffee, in the proportions of two ounces of good, 

 pure coffee to one part of boiling water, making an excel- 

 lent tonic beverage, but must be administered without the 

 addition of either milk or sugar in these particular cases. 

 It is also positively asserted by those who have tried it 

 that malarial and other miasmatic complaints are prevented 

 by drinking a cup of hot coffee before venturing out into 

 the morning air, and by many eminent physicians it is 

 regarded as almost a specific in typhoid and other ende- 

 mic fevers, so much so that in malarial and intermittent 

 fevers it has been used by the best physicians with the 

 happiest results, coffee being opposed to malarial and all 

 noxious vapors, particularly in alienating and reducing 

 the earlier attacks, and, when properly administered in 

 such complaints, it is found superior to the sulphate of 

 quinine in many extreme cases, while in that low state of 

 intermittent fever as found on the Mississippi and the 

 banks of all large rivers, accompanied with torpid liver 

 and enlarged spleen, when judiciously prepared and ad- 

 ministered it has been found one of the safest and most 



