214 SUBSTITUTES AND ADULTERANTS. 



present time. It is extensively cultivated in Belgium, 

 Holland, France, Germany and other European countries, 

 being principally prepared from the old, stout and white 

 roots of the plant, which after washing are sliced into 

 small pieces, and kiln-dried, in which condition it is 

 usually sold to the chicory roasters, by whom it is 

 parched or burned, until it assumes a deep-brown color, 

 after which it is ground, the fine dust being separated 

 from the coarse and granulated parts. In its external 

 characteristics it closely resembles ground coffee, but is 

 entirely destitute of its pleasing and aromatic odor, 

 neither does it possess any trace of the alkaloid — caffe- 

 ine — which give their peculiar virtues to coffee, tea and 

 other diet drinks. It occupies a peculiar position, how- 

 ever, since very many coffee consumers deliberately 

 prefer an admixture of chicory with coffee to the pure 

 article alone, notwithstanding that it is entirely devoid of 

 the essential oil for which coffee is so valued. Differing 

 diametrically in their botanical nature and chemical 

 composition as well as in their physiological properties 

 and action. Again, coffee is the fruit of a tree, while 

 chicory is the root of a herbaceous plant, and it is a 

 well-established fact that of all parts of either vegetables 

 or plants the fruit and seeds possess the most active and 

 nutritious properties. This is no doubt due to their being 

 freely exposed to the influence of light and air — agencies 

 which invariably promote chemical changes in the plant 

 itself and so effect the elaboration of those complex 

 organic substances on which the activity of all plants 

 depends. While on the other hand it is manifest that, as 

 roots are concealed from these powerful agencies, they 

 cannot be richly endowed with active properties, there 

 being but few roots containing either alkaloid or volatile 

 oil — the properties which give to coffee its unique virtues. 



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