COFFEE 153 



physical hardship, continued and exhausting labor, or exposure to severe 

 cold can not be too strongly deprecated, and that when used as a mental 

 stimulus or as a physical luxury they should be taken in moderation. 

 When habit or inclination induces the use of alcohol in the field, under 

 conditions noted above, it should be taken only after the day's work is 

 done, as a momentary stimulus while waiting for the preferable hot tea 

 and food ; or better, after the food, when going to bed, for then it may 

 quickly induce sleep and its reaction pass unfelt" 



It is not demonstrated that alcohol increases the capacity to endure 

 severe and protracted bodily exertion. Its influence as a therapeutic 

 agent, in promoting assimilation in certain conditions of defective nutri- 

 tion, in relieving shock and nervous exhaustion, in sustaining the powers 

 of life in acute diseases attended with rapid emaciation and abnormally 

 active disassimilation, etc., can hardly be doubted ; but the considera- 

 tion of these questions does not belong to physiology. 1 



Coffee. Coffee is an article consumed daily by many millions of 

 human beings in all quarters of the globe. In armies it has been found 

 almost indispensable, enabling men on moderate rations to perform an 

 amount of labor which would otherwise be impossible. After exhaust- 

 ing efforts of any kind, there is no article that relieves the overpowering 

 sense of fatigue so completely as coffee. Army-surgeons say that at 

 night, after a severe march, the first desire of the soldier is for coffee, 

 hot or cold, with or without sugar, the only essential being a sufficient 

 quantity of the pure article. Almost every one can bear testimony 

 from personal experience to the effects of coffee in relieving the sense 

 of fatigue after mental or bodily exertion and in increasing the capacity 

 for labor, especially mental work, by producing wakefulness and clear- 

 ness of intellect. From these facts, the importance of coffee, either as 

 an alimentary substance or as taking the place, to a certain extent, of 

 aliment, is apparent. 



Except in persons who, from idiosyncrasies, are unpleasantly 

 affected by it, coffee, taken in moderate quantity and at proper times, 

 produces an agreeable sense of tranquillity and comfort, with, however, 

 no disinclination to exertion, either mental or physical. Its immediate 

 influence on the system, which undoubtedly is stimulant, is peculiar 



1 Inasmuch as my views in regard to the physiological effects of alcohol have undergone no 

 material change, I repeat here what has appeared in my "Text-book of Human Physiology" 

 (1888). Recent observations have shown that when alcohol is taken in moderate quantity, 

 about ninety per cent is consumed in the organism (Strassmann). The observations of Rose- 

 mann have shown that alcohol may be substituted isodynamically for fats and carbohydrates, 

 when it acts as an alimentary substance. These observations, however, are not opposed to 

 the fact that alcohol in large doses acts as a poison and that its use, in perfect health, is 

 unnecessary and likely to be deleterious. 



