ON  THE  USE  OF  COFFEE  AS  A  BEVERAGE,  ETC. 
255 
eral  law,  that  increased  bodily  and  mental  activity  involves 
increased  consumption  of  plastic  material. 
He  considers  that  these  substances  have  the  capability  of  ren- 
dering the  individual  insensible  of  a  certain  deficiency  of  food  in 
virtue  of  their  retardation  of  the  assimilative  process. 
He  thinks  it  probable,  likewise,  that  these  substances  have  a 
direct  nutritive  value,  especially  coffee  as  drank  by  the  Turks  and 
Arabs  with  the  grounds. 
He  attributes  the  rapid  increase  in  the  consumption  of  coffee 
to  an  instinctive  tendency  to  provide  some  remedy  for  the  com- 
pulsory use  of  the  potato  as  food  among  the  lower  classes;  and 
in  confirmation  of  this,  points  to  the  facts,  that  the  introduction 
of  the  potato  from  the  west,  and  that  of  coffee  (as  an  article  of 
food)  from  the  east,  were  simultaneous,  and  that  the  increase  in 
their  consumption  has  progressed  equally,  both  as  regards  amount 
and  locality. 
Professor  Lehmann  considers  that  the  singular  preference  of 
one  or  other  of  these  beverages  by  particular  nations,  as  well  as 
the  eastern  custom  of  drinking  coffee  with  the  grounds,  are  not 
accidental,  but  have  some  deeper  reason.  This  reason  he  thinks 
is  to  be  found  in  the  different  effects  of  the  coffee,  tea,  &c,  and 
the  various  requirements  of  the  nations  by  whom  they  are  used, 
and  instances  the  use  of  tea  by  the  English,  and  of  coffee  by  the 
Germans  and  French,  as  in  accordance  with  this  view.  The  diet 
of  the  former  affords  a  larger  supply  of  plastie  material  than  that 
of  the  latter  people,  and  while,  consequently,  the  retardation  of 
the  assimilative  process  is  an  important  influence  for  the  German, 
the  proportionately  greater  nervous  stimulus  caused  by  tea  is 
more  desirable  for  the  former. 
The  use  of  coffee  with  its  grounds,  has  its  analogue  in  the  use 
of  tea  mixed  with  meal,  milk,  and  butter  among  the  Mongols, 
and  other  inhabitants  of  the  central  Asiatic  steppes. — London 
Pharm.  Jour.,  Feb.  1854,  from  Annalen  der  Chemie  und  Pliar- 
macie,  September,  1853. 
