EUCOFFEA HOOK. F. 41 



Coffee in Medicine and its Effect on the Human System: — His- 

 torical: — Many virtues have been attributed to coffee. Bradley ' 

 mentions it as advantageous in cases of headache, vertigo, lethargy, 

 coughs, and even tuberculosis. Arabian and Egyptian women drank 

 coffee during their period of menses with good effect, and also dur- 

 ing pregnancy in the belief that the infant would not be troubled 

 with worms during its youth. It was considered helpful to persons 

 afflicted with rheumatism or gout; and it was thought that coffee 

 defended the body from pestilential infection. Ellis ^ stated that 

 coffee was used for its antisoporific effect. One learns from Roques ® 

 that coffee was beneficial in cases of spasmodic asthma, fevers, and was 

 very efficacious in cases of chlorosis in young women. Coffee was 

 much used, in Turkey and Arabia,^° as an antidote for the narcotic 

 effects of opium. The habitual use of the beverage was considered 

 to act as a preventive against gout and gravel. It is of interest to 

 note that in France and especially in Turkey and Arabia where 

 coffee is used by all the inhabitants, these diseases are practically 

 unknown. Dewces recommended the use of coffee in cases of cholera 

 infantum and even in cholera. ^^ Dr. Guillasse ^^ of the French 

 Navy reported that in the early stages of typhoid fever, he prescribed 

 coffee as almost a specific. In India,^^ unroasted coffee-infusions 

 were used as a substitute for quinine in cases of intermittent fever 

 and roasted coffee was used as a fragrant and effective deodorizer and 

 minor antiseptic in the hospital wards. Coffee has been used ^^ in 

 chronic diarrhoea and, being less astringent than tea, does not cause 

 constipation as readily. 



Present Knowledge: — The effects of an infusion of coffee and 

 the physiological action which results from hypodermic injections 

 or other experimental methods with caffeine are not comparable as 

 certain volatile constituents (caffeone) are developed during torre- 

 fication. The facts stated below have reference only to the use of 

 the coffee-beverage. 



Hot coffee, when prepared from the freshly roasted and ground 

 seeds, is deodorant, antiseptic, and germicidal. An infusion of one- 



^ Bradley Virtue and Use of Coffee etc. (1721) 2a-2'^ 

 « Ellis Hist. Acc't. Coffee (1774) 39. ^ ^ ^ o- 



•Roques Phytographie Med. 2 (1821) 52. 

 "Heraud Nouv. Diet. PI. Med. ed. 2 (1884) 148. 

 ^^Watt Diet. Econ. Prod. Ind. 2 (1889) 488-489. 



