FIRST REPLY. 139 



from the milk of mares, all so far resemble our drinks, 

 that in all, the intoxicating principle is spirit produced by 

 the fermentation of sugar or starch. 1 * The action of the 

 Cocca, the leaf of an American tree (Erythroxylon coca) 

 is altogether unknown. The greatest enjoyment of the 

 Peruvian " muletero" consists in chewing these leaves and 

 thereby producing a dreamy stupor, in which, without 

 being drunk, but merely in a state of agreeable lassitude, 

 he passes the whole day in inaction. The use of the 

 Amanita muscaria by the inhabitants of northern Siberia, 

 the smoking of Opium by the southern Asiatics, of the 

 Hashish, or Hemp-extract, by the northern and southern 

 Africans, and lastly, the drink which the South Sea 

 Islanders prepare from a particular kind of Pepper (Piper 

 methysticum), are actual narcotic poisonings, which by 

 frequent repetition, very quickly cause the destruction of 

 the physical frame. With all these means of increasing 

 (and at first with agreeable results), the activity of the 

 mind, and especially of the imagination, by influence upon 

 the body, war was very recently declared by two individuals, 

 with, however, very different results. One fought with 

 material weapons and was vanquished, namely, the Em- 

 peror of China ; the other gained a victory every day by 

 the power of the mind ; I mean the dauntless Apostle of 

 Temperance, the pious Father Mathew. The latter has 

 allowed, in compensation for the renunciation he demands, 

 another drink, which we have borrowed from the Chinese. 

 Whether this beverage, Tea, is actually a harmless substi- 

 tute, it perhaps remains for more accurate investigations 

 than have hitherto been made to determine, and these 

 I cannot pause to consider here. But I cannot refrain 

 from calling attention in this place to a most interesting 

 and as yet unsolved physiological problem. 



Tre atise on the Adulteration of Food." 



