MEDICINAL EFFECTS. 269 



the eyes, roaring in the ears, sleeplessness, phantasms, a 

 sort of intoxication, and a subsequent unfitness for all 

 physical and mental labor when very large doses were 

 taken. These effects illustrate the danger of exceeding 

 due moderation in the use of coffee, showing that it may, 

 if abused, tend to develop a morbid condition of the ner- 

 vous system, rendering it peculiarly liable to disease, 

 although in a much less degree than either opium or 

 alcohol, its excessive use being much more injurious to 

 the spinal than to the cerebral functions. 



From these facts it may be advanced by some authori- 

 ties that an article possessing such great powers and 

 capacity for such energetic action must be injurious by 

 habitual employment as an article of diet, or at least not 

 without some injurious or deleterious properties. But 

 no corresponding ill-results or nervous derangements 

 are ever observed after its effects have disappeared as are 

 noticed in other narcotics and stimulants, the action im- 

 parted to the nervous system by coffee being natural and 

 healthy in the extreme, in proof of which it has been 

 shown that habitual coffee-drinkers generally enjoy 

 good health and spirits, some of the longest-lived 

 people having used coffee continually from their earliest 

 infancy without experiencing any inconvenience, depres- 

 sing reaction, or other ill-effects such as is invariably 

 produced by the use of alcoholic stimulants. There 

 are, on the other hand, systems with which it does not 

 agree, as, being a stimulant, it may be taken too freely; 

 in such cases it undoubtedly produces irregularities 

 in the action of the heart and nervous system. But 

 generally it is an unmixed blessing, its beneficial influence 

 becoming more apparent as its use penetrates into the 

 lower strata of society, taking the place of the various 

 debasing alcoholic beverages. 



