326 
WISCONSIN STATE AORICULTUMAL SOCIETY. 
said to be a nutritive principle, for it is known that no animal can 
be well nourished without it, and it exists naturally in many edible 
meats and vegetables. 
OF DOMESTIC BEVERAGES. 
Under this head we will consider coffee, tea, and chocolate. 
Water, which may be considered a principle of nutrition, is taken 
into the system not only as a drink, but exists largely as a constant 
constituent part of every alimentary substance, at least when pre¬ 
pared as food. Pure water does not exist in nature. Even rain 
water contains certain substances in solution. The Croton water 
supplied to the city of New York, contains 4.16 grains of solid 
matters to the gallon. 
Coffee is an article daily consumed by many millions of people 
in all parts of the world. In armies, it enables men on scanty ra¬ 
tions to perform an amount of labor that would be impossible under 
other circumstances. After exhausting efforts of any kind, no food 
or drink relieves the overpowering sense of fatigue so completely 
as coffee. If my reader has been an army surgeon he will remem¬ 
ber some instance where men were marched until when halted they 
laid themselves down in the mud or on the frozen ground until cof¬ 
fee was made, when every man received his pint, drank it, and per¬ 
haps marched ten miles further. At night, after severe duty, the 
first desire of the soldier is for coffee, hot or cold, with or without 
sugar, the only essential being a sufficient quantity and a pure ar¬ 
ticle. Except in persons who, from some constitutional peculiarity 
are unpleasantly affected by it, the importance of coffee as an ali¬ 
ment or as a substitute for scarcity of food is apparent. Almost 
every one can testify to the effect of coffee in increasing his capa¬ 
city for labor, especially mental, by producing wakefulness and 
clearness of intellectual perception. Habitual use makes coffee al¬ 
most a necessity even to those who are otherwise well nourished 
and subject to no excessive labor. It is said that when taken in 
large quantities it produces persistent wakefulness, and that it is 
often taken to prevent the desire to sleep. It has been shown by 
experiment that the use of coffee permits the reduction of food 
much below the standard which would otherwise be required to 
maintain the organism in a proper condition. Dr. Hayes, the Arc¬ 
tic explorer, bears testimony to the beneficial effect of coffee on ex- 
