85 
or boiled. Guarana contains more caffeine than either tea or 
coffee (about five per cent.), more in fact than any other known 
substance. In Africa, the Cola seed, related to the choco- 
late, is generally used by chewing, though beverages are some- 
times made from it. It contains about as much caffeine as cof- 
fee (one to three per cent.). . Chocolate, though it does not 
actually contain caffeine, contains the closely related substance 
eae ne exerts a mild caffeine-like effect upon the 
em. ° g 
pie an one slope shrub, which was formerly largely used 
by the aborigines both of that region and of the interior, where 
it was carried in trade. Its percentage of caffeine is very small 
(about 0.5 per cent.), and it apparently contains other constitu- 
ents having a pronounced effect upon the system 
Both tea and coffee are represented by various vegetable 
products used as substitutes in other parts of the world, contain- 
ing no caffeine, but other substances having more or less active 
narcotic properties. Mogdad coffee is the small seeds of Cassia 
occidentalis. In the East the seeds of Croton cor iiaa are 
said to be used similarly, and the same is true of those of Gyz- 
nocladus and Triosteum. In Canada and elsewhere, a leaves of 
Ledum are used under the name Labrador tea; those of Ceano- 
thus have been known as New Jersey tea, and Sohdago odora, 
Trilisa, Comptonia and Gaultheria have all been used as tea sub- 
stitutes. 
Finally, we consider a class of so-called beverages, of local 
use, employed sts for the sake of the nervine effects of their 
constituents, some of them extremely powerful. Through- 
out the South Pacific islands the root of Piper suena 
related to the black pepper plant, is generally used under t 
name Kava. More than half of its weight is starch, hence it a 
large alcohol yielder when fermented. But it contains peculiar 
and little known constituents capable of dulling irritable nerves, 
and bringing about a most comfortable state of the system. 
Incidentally, it appears to slightly stimulate pleasant imaginings. 
‘ar more active in the latter direction, indeed, more active than 
any other known substance, is Cannabis Indica or Indian hemp 
