172 COFFEE. 



feone. Some uncertainty seems to prevail, as yet, as to tlie full 

 agency of this acid, some chemists ascribing to it the flavor and 

 chief properties of coffee as a beverage. 



United, acting and reacting upon each other, modified in their 

 specific properties by their combination, these three elements give 

 rise to the general properties of coffee, which are summed up as 

 follows by Professor Johnstone: "It exhilarates, arouses, and 

 keeps awake. It counteracts the stupor occasioned by fatigue, 

 by disease, or by opium ; it allays hunger to a certain extent, gives 

 to the weary increased strength and vigor, and ijjiparts a f eeUng 

 of comfort and repose. Its physiological effects upon the system, 

 so far as they have been investigated, appear to be that, while it 

 makes the brain more active, it soothes the body generally, makes 

 the change and waste of tissue slower, and the demand for food 

 in consequence less. All these effects it owes to the conjoint 

 action of three ingredients very similar to those contained in tea." 



It is quite plain that this beneficent chemical trinity is entitled 

 to the deepest reverence of the true lover of coffee, and deserves 

 a high niche in the pantheon of gastronomic deities. 



The identical principle of caffeine and elements analogous to 

 caffeone and caffeic acid occur in tea, and closely allied principles 

 in cocoa, as well as in the leaves and seeds of the South Amer- 

 ican plants which furnish the Yerba Mate, or Paraguay tea, and 

 the Guarana bread of Brazil — thus seemingly forming a requi- 

 site in the diet of nearly the whole of mankind. 



Neither these principles, nor analogous constituents, is found 

 in any of the adulterants of coffee ; the latter can have, therefore, 

 none of the peculiar properties of coffee. They are purely and 

 simply trash, and a fraud both upon the purse and the stomach 

 of the consumer. 



Dr. Hassall contrasts chicory and coffee in the following words : 



" They differ from each other in their botanical nature, in 

 chemical composition, and in physiological action and properties. 



" Coffee is the fruit or seed of a tree, while chicoiy is the 

 succulent root of a herbaceous plant. Now, it is a well-ascer- 

 tained fact that, of all parts of vegetables, the fruit and seeds 

 usually possess the most active properties ; this is no doubt due 

 to the circumstance of their being freely exposed to the influence 



