Chapter IX: Chemical, Medical and Dietical

In chemical composition the seeds or beans of coffee are complex, containing as they do variable proportions of proximate principles. The appended analysis represents the average constitution of raw coffee, according to M. Payen, and which is accepted as the standard:--

Constituents. Parts.

Fat, 10 to 13
Water, 12
Caffeine, 0.8
Cellulose, 34
Legumen and caseine, 10
Glucose, dextrine and organic acid, 15
Caffeone and aromatic oils, .002
Caffetannate and potassium, 3 to 5
Viscid essential oil (insoluble in water), .001
Ash and other mineral matter, 6
Other nitrogeneous substances, 3

In addition to the foregoing, Payen also describes some 0.8 per cent. of free Caffeine and very small quantities of essential and aromatic oils, amounting to about 0.003 per cent. of the coffee, in addition to other azotized and saline matter.

In the process of roasting, coffee undergoes certain chemical changes, as before roasting it contains from 5.7 to 7.8 per cent. of sugar, which is reduced to 1.1, and sometimes even to zero, after being roasted, and from which, it would appear, that the description of sugar contained in the raw coffee is destroyed by the roasting process to which it is subjected previous to using.

COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF RAW AND ROASTED COFFEES.

Constituents. Raw. Roasted.
Ash, 3.97 5.17
Fat, 11.42 8.30
Water, 8.26 0.36
Sugar, 8.18 1.84
Gluten, 10.68 12.03
Caffeine, 1.10 1.06
Cellulose, 42.36 44.96
Extractive matter, 14.03 26.28
----- -----
Total parts, 100 100

In the operation of roasting, the saccharine matter is converted into caramel, and a portion of the caffeine is liberated from its combination with the caffeic acid, the latter still retaining its astringent properties and developing into a bitter, soluble principle. A change in the fat of coffee is also undergone in the roasting, as ether will extract only from 4 to 5 per cent. of fat from the raw bean, while it readily extracts double that quantity from the roasted bean. So striking is this fact that Von Bibra goes so far as to claim that the roasting process produces fat, but most probably the process is only mechanical and not chemical in its action in bursting the “fat cells,” and thereby rendering the fat accessible to the solvent action of the ether. Roasted coffee is also tolerably rich in nitrogen, containing from 2.5 to 3 per cent., but is found to be quite devoid of starch. The operation of roasting, in addition, tends to make coffee soluble in boiling water, as, when raw coffee is perfectly exhausted in boiling water, it will yield only some 25 per cent. of soluble matter, while roasted coffee, on the other hand, when completely exhausted by means of boiling water, yields as high as 40 per cent. in some instances. A chemical analysis of the bean after being roasted also shows that it contains 20 per cent. of water and about 60 per cent. of cellulose, a substance resembling starch or grape sugar. But the agents that especially distinguish coffee from all other substances are the Caffeine, Caffeone and Caffeic, each of which constituents possess virtues and effects peculiar to itself, and produce, by acting in combination, the general effect of coffee.

=Caffeine=--Is the principle to which coffee owes its refreshing and agreeable properties. It is an inodorous agent, having a slightly bitter taste, and belonging to that group of chemical agents known as alkaloids. It is identical with the _theine_ of tea, and also forms the characteristic principle of cocoa, maté, the guarana and many other plants used by the inhabitants of widely-separated countries, on account of their yielding a slightly exciting and refreshing beverage and apparently forming a necessary diet for mankind in general. Its quantity varies from 0.8 to 1 per cent. in the different kinds of coffee, being greatest in Martinique and smallest in San Domingo. According to Chandler, pure Caffeine appears in white silky needles, having no odor, and containing about 8 per cent. of water of crystalization, which it parts with at 150° C., being apparently soluble in cold water, but much more so in hot, still less so in alcohol and still less in ether, acting as a weak base and dissolving in acids from which it may be crystalized by evaporation. When boiled with fixed caustic alkalies it decomposes and yields methlamine, while heating with basic-hydrates alters it to a stronger base, termed Caffeidine, but when boiled with an excess of nitric acid and evaporated at a gentle heat gives it a reddish color resembling that obtained from minoxide; the addition of a little ammonia making it again quite characteristic. Administered in strong doses it causes trembling and a kind of intoxication not unlike that resulting from alcoholic stimulants, but diminishes the work of organic tissue at the same time.

=Caffeone.=--Besides Caffeine coffee contains a volatile or essential oil chemically termed Caffeone which, according to some authorities, is not present in the raw bean, but is the result of an essential change produced in the coffee by the roasting process. It is to this subtle and fugitive principle, however, that roasted coffee owes its peculiar and fragrant aroma, an odor possessed by no other known substance. When chemically separated by ether from the coffee it presents the appearance and consistency of cocoa-butter, which in roasting permeates the entire bean, but if the heat be too intense or the roasting prolonged beyond the proper time, it is entirely dissipated and lost, the result being to seriously injure the coffee. And although coffee forms part of the daily food of more than half the nations of the world, we are still uncertain of the chemical nature, composition and effects of these products of roasted coffee, and particularly of this “oil of coffee,” one of the most important characteristic constituents of the bean. The existence of this coffee oil makes itself known in a striking manner by its roasting; being forced out of the bean by the intense heat, it is partially volatilized, and together with the other products of the roasting, produces the characteristic effects and aroma of roasted coffee. In very strong black coffee it is found in oil-like drops floating on the surface, the amount in the raw bean varying from 8 to 13 per cent., at least one-half of which is dissipated and lost in the roasting, so that it might prove a paying experiment to attempt to collect this oil, especially in large establishments where much coffee is roasted, several pounds of this oil being wasted daily which might find a ready market at a handsome profit in the manufacture of liqueurs. It is best obtained by crushing about 50 pounds of roasted coffee in a mortar and then extracting with the aid of ether and alcohol. The oil of coffee obtained in this manner is a thick, green, almost transparent substance, which deposits after a time a few long needles of caffeine, proving that since caffeine is not extracted from the exhausted beans by ether, and very little is taken up by the alcohol employed, the coffee from which the oil has been extracted may be again used for the manufacture of caffeine. The oil becomes turbid in about six months from the time of extraction, although preserved in hermetically-sealed bottles small groups of crystals forming in the middle of the liquid, but slowly settling in the bottom, forming a precipitate, which in time forms a cloudy mass of crystals, consisting of the solid fatty acids, but the upper layer remaining clear and transparent for years, and of a beautiful green color, proving that a portion of the coffee oil consists of liquid oleic acid. Taken alone, this “oil of coffee” is found to produce a gentle perspiration and exhilaration, as well as to stimulate the mental faculties, but is claimed to retard, in a marked degree, the process of food assimilation, and consequently the waste of tissue matter. It also produces an aperient effect on the bowels, while overdoses cause sleeplessness and symptoms of sthenic excitement, a condition clearly bordering on inflammation.

Experiments made with Caffeine and Caffeone prove that they produce different effects on the animal economy, the former exercising a sedative and tranquilizing action, being more prolonged in its effect than the latter, which acts strongly as a transient stimulant and exhilarant. But in the drinking of an ordinary cup of coffee both these actions are obtained, the stimulation and exhilaration preceding the state of sedation and repose. The essential principle of the coffee, however, is the alkaloid caffeine and not the volatile oil caffeone, the effects of both constituents being different in time and character. The former slows the heart’s action and expends its main force on the spinal cord, to which effect is due the shaking hand of the inveterate coffee-drinker and the marked tremor which sometimes follows a copious drink of coffee when taken on an empty stomach, while the latter reduces the arterial tension, thereby allowing a freer flow of blood and a more rapid action of the heart, at the same time stimulating the brain, rendering the mind clear and promoting wakefulness, being also speedier and more transient in effect.

=Caffeic.=--Caffetannate, or “tannic acid,” as it exists in the raw bean of coffee possesses an astringent action, which is greatly modified in the roasting and neutralized by the aperient properties of the Caffeone. A great deal of doubt still exists as to the exact agency of this property in coffee, many chemists contending that to it the flavor and other properties of the coffee as a beverage is due. It is a powerful astringent principle, puckering up the mouth when chewed, and is the property to which coffee owes its bitterness when boiled or over-infused, but whether it contributes in any degree to the exhilarating, satisfying or narcotic action of the coffee has not yet been definitely determined. But united, their specific properties modified by combination and acting and reacting upon each other, these three constituents give to coffee its peculiar properties and effects on the human system.

To the chemist, coffee and tea are much the same, their two alkaloids, _caffeine_ and _theine_, being to them undistinguishable one from the other, each also containing a volatile or essential oil, the difference in the taste of which is doubtless due to subtle properties which the chemist is so far unable to detect. For this reason the following comparative analysis of coffee and tea may be found interesting, as showing how closely they are chemically allied:--

Constituents. Coffee. Tea.
Water, 12.0 5.0
Theine, 0.75 0.5
Tannin, 5. 15.0
Gluten, 13.0 25.0
Wood fibre, 34.0 24.0
Volatile oil, 13.0 4.0
Gum and sugar, 15.0 21.0
Ash or residue, 7.0 5.0

From recent experiments it appears that the quantity of tannin in the coffee bean is not over about one-third of that contained in the tea leaf and frequently is considerably less, six samples of coffee being tested in the same manner as tea for the amount of soluble tannin, and steeped in fifty parts of water. Equal quantities of coffee and tea were also analyzed and the amount of tannin estimated with the result that, on an average, tea yielded nearly four times as much tannin than the coffee, which proves that in case of poisoning by alkaloids strong tea is better than coffee as an antidote. When used in equal quantities tea yields about twice the amount of theine that coffee does to the water in which it is infused, but as we use a greater weight of coffee than we do of tea in preparing the beverage, a cup of coffee of ordinary strength will contain as much theine as a cup of ordinary strong tea. While, however, coffee checks waste and is naturally a food, the same cannot be said of tea, the specific effect of which is to quicken respiration and the vital functions generally.

MEDICINAL EFFECTS.

Coffee belongs to the medicinal or auxiliary class of food substances, being solely valuable for its stimulating and exhilarating effect upon the nervous and vascular system. It produces a feeling of buoyancy and exhilaration comparable to a certain stage of alcoholic intoxication, but which does not end in the depression and collapse produced by the latter. It increases the frequency of the pulse, lightens the sensations of fatigue and sustains the strength under prolonged and severe muscular exertion. It also contains valuable medicinal properties, among which is that of being an anti-soporific, and hence most useful in narcotic poisoning. It has also been found to be the best stimulant for administration to persons rescued from starvation or perishing from intense cold, as ardent spirits when given under these conditions often prove fatal. It dispels languor, stupor and lethargy and as an antidote is a specific in cases of poisoning by opium and morphine.

The early history of coffee informs us of its use among the Arabians for its exhilarating as well as its curative powers, being used in Mecca and Medina originally for the purpose of overcoming torpor and drowsiness by the Mohamedan monks, its exciting and sleep-dispelling power tending much to bring it into popular favor in these cities as a medicine as well as a beverage. At this early period it was claimed that “this liquor purified the blood by gentle agitation, dissipated the ill-condition of the stomach and aroused the spirits.” In the treatment of spasmodic asthma its utility is well established as well as in the cure of whooping cough, cholera infantum and similar complaints, being also an excellent preventative against all infectious and epidemical diseases. While in hysterical attacks, for which, in many instances, the physician can find no diagnosis, coffee has proven to be one of the greatest helps.

Fresh-roasted coffee has proven to be an effective dispeller of foul gases as well as a valuable disinfectant in the sick-room, or any enclosed space where the fumes can penetrate. As an instantaneous deodorizer, particularly in the sick-room, where it has no equal, possessing wonderful, almost magical power, all foul and noxious exhalations being immediately neutralized or dispelled by simply passing a chafing-dish of fresh-roasted coffee through the room. As a disinfectant fresh-roasted coffee has been invaluable as an absorbing agent in purifying the atmosphere of all foul-smelling and offensive odors, especially when roasted in the vicinity of the room or place to be fumigated. When roasted, and while still hot, if placed on a tray or other open vessel in the centre of the apartment, by the time it has cooled the surrounding atmosphere will be rendered thoroughly pure and sweet. Or, better and more advantageous still, by heating an iron fire-shovel red hot and placing a handful of ground coffee on it and carrying it around the room or house to be disinfected in this condition until it cools. The vapor arising from the coffee so heated will meantime have destroyed all disagreeable and noxious odors.

Experiments recently made with roasted coffee in France prove it to be one of the most powerful deodorizers yet discovered for the dissipation of all noxious odors. As an instance of its great worth in this case, a quantity of decomposing meat was hung up in a tightly-closed room and a tin pan containing a few handfuls of fresh-roasted and ground coffee was placed over a spirit lamp, as the pan became hot and the vapor from the coffee filled the room, it was found that the foul smell of the decomposed meat was entirely removed, even when standing close up to it. While Professor Beer, an eminent Vienna oculist, maintains that the vapor arising from pure, hot and fresh-made coffee is very invigorating to the eyes, but at the same time attributing many frequent occurring cases of affections to the sight to the constant use of chicory, as well as to the habitual use of the decoctions prepared from the admixtures of chicory and coffee.

Coffee and pepper are highly recommended as a certain specific for rheumatism, as well as in many forms of gout. In such cases the proper proportions consist of a pint of hot, strong, black coffee, which must be perfectly pure, and seasoned with a teaspoonful of _pure_ black pepper, thoroughly mixed before drinking, and the preparation taken just before retiring. Quite a number of chronic cases of rheumatism are reputed on excellent authority to have been cured by a single dose of this simple remedy. The greatest care has to be exercised, however, that cold is not contracted through the free perspiration that follows its use, yet severe colds may also be broken up and cured by its administration. Such a simple and convenient remedy is certainly worth a trial, as it is, at least, perfectly harmless, and makes no demand on the doctor or druggist. Another use for coffee medicinally, is in nausea and violent retching, for which purpose a strong infusion is prepared and “sipped” slowly while very hot. This oftentimes acts effectively alone, but is much more so if a strong mustard plaster is applied to the pit of the stomach at the same time. Its beneficial effects in extreme alcoholism is already too well known for description, but is as yet not fully appreciated in such cases, nor as to what extent this otherwise exhilarating and potent beverage may be substituted in lieu of spirituous and malt liquors. It is positively asserted by men of high professional ability that when the system requires a good stimulant, nothing equals a cup of good, strong, fresh-made coffee for the purpose, so that those who may desire to rescue a drunkard from his bane will find no better substitute for alcoholic spirits or malt liquors than strong, fresh-made coffee, in the proportions of two ounces of good, pure coffee to one part of boiling water, making an excellent tonic beverage, but must be administered without the addition of either milk or sugar in these particular cases.

It is also positively asserted by those who have tried it that malarial and other miasmatic complaints are prevented by drinking a cup of hot coffee before venturing out into the morning air, and by many eminent physicians it is regarded as almost a specific in typhoid and other endemic fevers, so much so that in malarial and intermittent fevers it has been used by the best physicians with the happiest results, coffee being opposed to malarial and all noxious vapors, particularly in alienating and reducing the earlier attacks, and, when properly administered in such complaints, it is found superior to the sulphate of quinine in many extreme cases, while in that low state of intermittent fever as found on the Mississippi and the banks of all large rivers, accompanied with torpid liver and enlarged spleen, when judiciously prepared and administered it has been found one of the safest and most effective remedies. In districts rife with malarial and other low fevers the drinking of hot coffee before passing into the infected districts will enable persons living in such regions to escape all contagion, the nervous system being aroused and the fever germs thereby rendered innocuous by the coffee. It is also almost a specific for the disease after being contracted when used with lemon juice, and is found to be of sovereign efficacy in tiding over any attacks of the nervous system in a number of emergencies from whatever cause; and in answer to the query so often put, “Does coffee facilitate or retard digestion?” it may be observed that it contains several active principles, each of which exercises a specific influence on the human system, the first and most important of these being the caffeine, which raises the activity of the heart, operating in small doses as a wholesome stimulus. The second, the caffeone or volatile substance, which operates chiefly on the nerves and acting in moderate quantities as an agreeable exhilarant, but to which is also attributable the fantasies and intoxicant effects so frequently experienced as a result of excessive coffee drinking. The third being the caffeic or tannin, to which coffee owes its bitter taste when boiled or over-infused and which, as is well known, enters into combination with the albumen, thereby materially prejudicing its digestibility. These three principal properties vary greatly in the quantities extracted according to the methods of preparation, so much so that if the coffee be simply infused in water at the boiling point and allowed to cool rapidly we get but little of the caffeine in the extract, a good deal of the aromatic principle and scarcely a trace of the tannin, but by over-boiling and prolonged infusion the aroma is dissipated by passing off with the steam or vapor arising from it in the process of preparation, more caffeine being also extracted, and the longer it is infused or boiled the more tannin is dissolved in the liquid. These facts serve to confirm the views generally expressed by physicians, that coffee boiled or over-infused prejudices its digestibility, while simple infusions facilitate it, but its beneficial action in the latter case is now proved to be due not to any direct chemical action on the albumen present, but indirectly to its action on the nerve-centres of the stomach by promoting the secretion of the gastric juices, such action being, in other words, physiological and not chemical, as heretofore supposed.

With regard to the anti-bilious properties of coffee Dr. Elliott states that “We speedily found that patients in hospitals and all persons leading sedentary lives must avoid too concentrated food and drink abundantly of diluent fluids, that coffee acted on the liver and was altogether the best remedy for constipation and what is commonly termed a bilious condition, that tea acted in a precisely opposite direction, and that not poppies, mandragora nor all the drowsy syrups of the East could bring the peace to a sufferer from malarial chill that would come of strong coffee, with a little lemon juice added, and that strong tea was almost a specific for neuralgia in its simplest and most uncomplicated form.” Liebig also calls attention to the fact that coffee contains many of the elements which stimulate the flow of bile, being a decided laxative, as well as a pronounced diuretic, which is confirmed by the fact that the “coffee belt” of the world is also the “bilious belt” and the “malarial belt,” as well as the regions where noxious germs and suppurative processes most abound. Ample evidence of “the fitness of things” in nature, no people understanding better than the inhabitants of these tropical countries the value of coffee to open the secretions which have been checked by the heat or miasmatic influences of such climates. Knowing this, they take full advantage of the well-known antiseptic properties of coffee.

It is now more than thirty years since Landarabilco called attention to the great value of raw or unroasted coffee in hepatic and nephritic diseases; who, after having continued to use the remedy for over a third of a century in many hundreds of almost hopeless cases, still continues to use it with marked success in the treatment of liver and kidney troubles which have persistently resisted all other treatment. For such cases, 3 drams (¹⁄₄ oz.) of raw coffee beans are placed in a tumbler of cold water--the best results being obtained from a combination of Mocha, Bourbon and Martinique coffees in equal parts of 1 dram each. The infusion is allowed to stand over night, and after being properly strained or filtered must be taken on an empty stomach the first thing on rising in the morning. This simple remedy has been found a sovereign remedy in numerous cases of renal and hepatic colics, as well as in diabetes and migraine or nervous headache, which, while rebellious to all other treatment for years, readily yielded to the raw coffee infusion. It may be here remarked that Bourbon and Martinique coffees cannot be had in this country, going exclusively to France, but may be substituted by what is known in trade as Bourbon or Mocha-seed, Santos, Jamaica and Mocha or almost any other fine mild coffee.

Coffee, like tea, acts powerfully on the respiratory organs, but increases the rate of respiration more than tea and also the pulsation; while tea, on the other hand, increases the action of the skin, and, by lessening the force of the circulation, cools the body, and does not cause congestion of any of the mucous membranes, particularly that of the bowels. But coffee, by diminishing the action of the skin, lessens also the heat of the body, but increases the _vis-a-tergo_, and therefore the heart’s action and fulness of pulse, thus exciting the mucous membranes. The conditions, therefore, under which coffee may be used are different from those suited to the use of tea, and under these circumstances better adapted for use among the poor and feeble as a dietecal beverage. But, besides accelerating the action of the bowels, and, according to Liebig, aiding in the secretion of the bile, it also invigorates to a very high degree the ganglionic system of the brain, soothing the painful feeling of fatigue and exhaustion, stimulating to renewed mental exertion, for which reasons it always has been highly appreciated by students and literary people generally. The exhilarating and stimulating effect which coffee has on the human organization is due chiefly to the characteristic principles which it contains. It excites the heart’s action, and, as that organ is feeble in the morning and the skin is active, it is best adapted for use at the morning meal, its action upon the nervous system being less exciting than that of tea. Very strong coffee, however, produces sleeplessness in many persons when taken at night, owing to its effects on the heart’s action, by retarding that full action of this organ, which is natural at night, and so requisite to permit sound sleep, while if only a light infusion be prepared and taken at night, these effects are not likely to be experienced.

In typhoid and other fevers its action is frequently very prompt and efficacious, particularly in the early stages before local complications set in. Dr. Guillasse, of the French navy, in a recent paper on typhoid fever, states that “Coffee has given us unhoped-for satisfaction, for, after having dispensed it, we found, to our great surprise, that its action was as prompt as it was decisive. No sooner had our patients taken a few tablespoonfuls of it than their features became relaxed, and came immediately to their senses, while the next day the improvement was such that we are tempted to look upon it as a specific against typhoid fever. Under its influence the stupor is dispelled and the patient arises from the state of somnolency in which he has lain since the invasion of the disease; soon all the functions take their natural course, and he enters on convalescence.” His formula is to give to an adult two to three tablespoonfuls of strong, black coffee every two hours, alternately with one to two tablespoonfuls of claret or burgundy wine, a little lemonade or citrate of magnesia, to be taken daily, and after a few days quinine in small doses. From the fact that malaise or cerebral symptoms appear first, the doctor regards typhoid as a nervous disease, and the coffee, acting on the nerves, is peculiarly indicated in the early stages, before local complications arise. While in extreme cases of yellow fever it has been used effectively by many doctors as the main reliance after all the other well-known remedies had been administered and failed. In such cases it acts by retarding the tissue change, that becoming a conservator of force, especially in that state in which the nervous system tends to collapse, owing to the blood becoming impure. In such a condition it sustains the nervous power until the depuration and reorganization of the blood are accomplished, possessing the advantage over all other stimulants of inducing to no secondary ill-effects.

As early as 1835, during the cholera epidemic, the physicians of New York issued a public manifesto urging the people to abstain from beer and other liquors and confine themselves to the exclusive use of pure, strong coffee as a beverage, in order to keep the system healthy and render it less liable to an attack of the disease, with the most beneficial and gratifying results. That they “builded better than they knew” has since been conclusively proven by Sudentz, who in detailing a series of experiments in which he has determined the powerful influence of coffee infusions of varying strength upon the growth of the different forms of pathogenic and non-pathogenic micro-organisms. The variety of coffee used in these experiments was the finest Java--although good and bad coffee was afterwards found to effect precisely similar results--the infusions being made by adding from 10 to 30 parts of coffee to from 70 to 90 parts of boiling water. The coffee was first _freshly_ roasted, ground fine and then covered with the boiling water, the infusion thus prepared being placed in a closed flask, put in a hot water bath for about ten minutes and next filtered through a sterilized filter. The infusion thus produced is used in the making of a gelatinous compound, both directly and in part, until a nutrient gelatine was prepared from it. With this as a “menstruum” the various forms of _fungi_ and other forms of micro-organisms were inoculated with the object of determining the possibility of their growth or propagation in such a medium, but in other cases the organisms were added directly to the coffee alone in infusions of varying strength and after different periods of time inoculations were made from these infusions into other nutrient _media_. By this method he found that the forms of _fungi_ experimented with showed more or less growth in the coffee gelatine and that the abundance of the growth was in many cases distinctly less than in the former _media_. The other organisms which he used for his experiments were the _phyogenes aureus_, _prodigiosus_, _erisipelous_, the germ of _anthrax_ or splenic fever, the _bacilli_ of typhoid fever and the _spirulum_ of Asiatic cholera, all of which and many other forms of micro-organisms were greatly influenced in their life and growth by exposure to the coffee infusions, some being far more susceptible than others, however, the _bacillus prodigiosus_ and _proteus vulgaris_ being entirely destroyed only after an exposure of four days in a 10 per cent. infusion, while in a 30 per cent. infusion they were all destroyed in one day. The spore of erysipelas was totally destroyed after an exposure of one day in a 10 per cent. infusion, the germ of splenic fever dying in from one to three hours in a 20 to 30 per cent. infusion; while the typhoid _bacilli_ were completely destroyed in a 5 per cent. infusion after an exposure of three days and in a 30 per cent. infusion in from one to two days. While _the microbe of Asiatic cholera was easily destroyed in a 1 per cent. infusion after only seven hours’ exposure, in a 5 per cent. infusion after four hours and in a 30 per cent. infusion after two hours_; the cholera _spirulum_ being by far the most susceptible of the numerous organisms used in the experiments, next to which was the _anthrax bacilli_, except the young forms or spores of the latter germs, which perish only in from three to four weeks’ exposure. These latter results speak volumes for “coffee as a germicide” for anthrax or splenic fever, as the spores of this disease are by no means easy to scotch or kill, and after these revelations _coffee administered internally or hypodermically in some new form or combination of forms, may be eventually used as a remedy for all germ-produced diseases_. It must be borne in mind by the student or chemist, however, that the antiseptic effects of coffee do not depend on its _Caffeine_ so much as on its _Caffeone_ or essential oil developed in the roasting of the beans. But aside from these experiments, others were also made with decomposing meat soups, which were actually swarming with various forms of micro-organisms, the results obtained showing that the vitality of the spores contained in the fluid was greatly diminished after a short exposure, but was not completely destroyed until after an exposure of many days.

It may at first sight seem irrational that a substance which restricts tissue-waste should be used for the purpose of quickening certain other functions, more especially those of the brain, yet the physical activity, mental exhilaration and wakefulness it causes explains the liking for it shown by so many men of science, poets, scholars and others devoted to thinking. But all of these occupations involve increased waste of tissue in the brain as well as of the spinal marrow, the very action which coffee is said to restrain, so much so that to reconcile these apparent incongruities, it has been maintained that coffee does not act primarily as a cerebral stimulant, but only secondarily by removing the vascular plenitude occasioned by prolonged study, by a full meal, and especially by opium, alcohol, or other agents which directly tend to load the brain with blood, so that when taken on an empty stomach it does not quicken the functions of the brain, but on the contrary renders it dull and inapt for steady thought, creating nervousness and general debility and frequently causing hemicrania.

During digestion, however, the case is different, particularly if a full and stimulating meal has been taken, the mind grows dull and sluggish, a tendency to sleep arises, and everything indicates an increased amount of blood on the brain, it being in like manner that prolonged mental labor produces cerebral plenitude and drowsiness. It is this condition apparently which coffee corrects by contracting the blood-vessels and thereby relieving the brain of its oppressive load of blood. The habit of using coffee at breakfast and after dinner is thus explained by the stimulant action which it exerts, not only upon the nervous system generally, but more especially on the stomach and bowels, there being no doubt that it quickens gastric digestion and relieves the sense of plenitude in the stomach, stimulating the secretion of bile and augmenting the peristaltic action of the intestine, and thereby promoting defecation. While it is quite as certain that, used to excess, it paralyzes the digestive function in all its stages and leads to further disorders, of which the chief are constipation, hemorrhoids and congestion of the liver, but whether these effects are to be ascribed to a power in coffee to produce contraction of the capillary blood-vessels or not is uncertain, but their reality is beyond dispute.

With regard to the injurious effects charged to the abuse of coffee by some authorities, it may be said that the consequences of an abuse of tea were declared to be similar to that of coffee long before chemistry had demonstrated the identity of _theine_ with _caffeine_, when among their evil effects were enumerated acidity, heartburn, indigestion, tremors, wakefulness, irritability of disposition and depression of spirits. Most of these ill-effects are more likely to follow the abuse of tea than coffee, if at all, and the spinal symptoms, such as painful muscular tension, cramp and persistent wakefulness, are also more apt to be produced by tea. In experiments made with a number of selected healthy persons, the operation of caffeine has been found to vary exceedingly, some being scarcely affected at all, while others by the same dose suffered from a full, frequent or irregular pulse, headache, trembling limbs, palpitation of the heart, flashes before the eyes, roaring in the ears, sleeplessness, phantasms, a sort of intoxication, and a subsequent unfitness for all physical and mental labor when very large doses were taken. These effects illustrate the danger of exceeding due moderation in the use of coffee, showing that it may, if abused, tend to develop a morbid condition of the nervous system, rendering it peculiarly liable to disease, although in a much less degree than either opium or alcohol, its excessive use being much more injurious to the spinal than to the cerebral functions.

From these facts it may be advanced by some authorities that an article possessing such great powers and capacity for such energetic action must be injurious by habitual employment as an article of diet, or at least not without some injurious or deleterious properties. But no corresponding ill-results or nervous derangements are ever observed after its effects have disappeared as are noticed in other narcotics and stimulants, the action imparted to the nervous system by coffee being natural and healthy in the extreme, in proof of which it has been shown that habitual coffee-drinkers generally enjoy good health and spirits, some of the longest-lived people having used coffee continually from their earliest infancy without experiencing any inconvenience, depressing reaction, or other ill-effects such as is invariably produced by the use of alcoholic stimulants. There are, on the other hand, systems with which it does not agree, as, being a stimulant, it may be taken too freely; in such cases it undoubtedly produces irregularities in the action of the heart and nervous system. But generally it is an unmixed blessing, its beneficial influence becoming more apparent as its use penetrates into the lower strata of society, taking the place of the various debasing alcoholic beverages.

In addition to its many other virtues, coffee has been found to be an excellent barometer, from the fact of its being such a great absorbent. On the eve of a rain-storm grinding coffee will be found difficult, the bean becoming damp and tough, while when dry weather is indicated the process is quite easy. Another method of predicting the weather by it is to drop a lump of sugar into a cup of coffee without stirring. In a very short time the air contained in the sugar will rise to the surface in the shape of bubbles. If the bubbles collect in the middle of the cup a fair day will be sure to follow, but if they should adhere to the side of the cup, forming a ring of bubbles with a clear space in the centre, rain is certain to be near at hand, while if the bubbles be neither of these, but scatter irregularly over the surface of the liquid, variable weather is indicated by the movement. What the scientific explanation of the action of the atmosphere on the bubbles so found is not known, but that their indications curiously and correctly agree with those of a barometer has been tested and proved.

DIETETICAL PROPERTIES.

The human family have, from time immemorial, been addicted to the use of warm food and liquids in some form, infusions or decoctions of sage and the leaves of other plants being used extensively in Europe for the purpose prior to the introduction of tea and coffee. The human body demands food or liquid when in an exhausted state, and if they be not warm they make an immediate drain on the system for heat before it can supply material for combustion, so that the body is taxed for heat at a time when it is least fitted for the purpose. It is but natural therefore that there should be a craving for warm food and drink, and as liquid food, particularly in a cold state, is deficient in heat-giving matter, the use of cold liquids is more injurious than that of cold solids. The temperature of the human body being 98°, when food is taken into the stomach at a lower temperature than that of the body, it obstructs the heat from the stomach and surrounding tissues, so that when the practice of taking cold food into the body becomes habitual, depression occurs and the stomach is disordered. The system must therefore make good the heat lost in raising the temperature of the cold food--liquid or solid--or else suffer the consequences.

The action of coffee as a diet is directed chiefly to the nervous system, producing a warming cordial impression on the stomach, which is quickly followed by a diffused and agreeable nervous excitement which extends itself to the cerebral function, giving rise to increased vigor of the imagination and intellect, this too without any subsequent reaction or stupor such as are characteristic of liquor and other narcotics. It contains essential principles of nutrition far exceeding in importance its exhilarating properties, and is one of the most valuable articles of food for sustaining the system in certain protracted and wasting diseases, and as compared even with the best soups, coffee has a decided advantage and is to be preferred to them in many cases. But to rightly understand its function as a food it should be used chiefly as an accessory to food, as it aids in the digestion and assimilation of the other foods when it is properly prepared--that is, by protracted infusion--as when boiled too long the caffeic acid or tannin is extracted. The action of this acid in combination with the milk and cream being to harden the albumen into an indigestible compound, which has been found exceedingly irritating to the delicate membranes of the digestive organs and nervous system. Milk and coffee act similarly upon the skin and other organs, its use with coffee making it a more perfect food than when milk is used with tea. But while, like tea, it increases the respiration, yet again, unlike it, its effects are not lasting, as by the use of coffee the rate of the pulse is increased, and the action of the skin’s pores diminished, thereby lessening the quantity of the blood circulating in the organs of the body, it distends the veins, but contracts the capillaries, thus preventing a waste. According to Professor Johnstone, “Coffee arouses, exhilarates and keeps awake, counteracts the stupor occasioned by fatigue, disease or opium, allays hunger to a certain extent, gives to the wearied increased strength and vigor, and imparts a feeling of comfort and repose. Its physiological effects upon the human system appear to be, that while it makes the brain more active, it soothes the body generally, retards the change and waste of tissue, making the demand for food consequently less.

The Gallæ, a wandering nation of Africa, during their incursions, are obliged to travel over immense deserts, and being also desirous of falling upon the towns and villages of their victims without warning, carry nothing to eat with them but the roasted and pulverized beans of coffee, which they mix with grease to a certain consistency, that will permit of its being rolled into masses about the size of billiard-balls, which they keep in leather-bags until required for use. One of these balls so prepared supports them for an entire day when on a marauding excursion or in active war better than a loaf of bread or a meal of meat, claiming that they prefer it to grain or meat because it cheered their spirits as well as fed them. Eaten in this manner, coffee undoubtedly affords much nourishment, as, according to Payen, it contains more than twice the nutriment of soup and three times as much as tea. In the liquid state, however, the nitrogeneous or flesh-forming properties, being mostly insoluble, they remain in the grounds. For this reason coffees lightly roasted possesses the maximum of nutrition, strength and aroma.

The Belgian coal miners live and work effectively on a ration of solid food less than the French miners, yet perform more labor than the latter, the only difference in their food consisting in the Belgians receiving a ration of coffee instead of wine, to which is attributed their greater endurance. While Jomand states that eight pints of an infusion made with six ounces of different kinds of coffee enabled him to live for five consecutive days without lessening his ordinary occupations, as well as to use more and prolonged muscular exercise than he was accustomed to without any other physical injury than a slight degree of fatigue and a little loss of flesh. The value of hot infusions of coffee under the rigors of an Arctic cold has been demonstrated by the experience of all polar explorers, and it has been found scarcely less useful in tropical regions, where it beneficially stimulates the action of the skin. Captain Parry states that when on his Arctic expedition he placed his starboard watch on a diet of coffee and the port watch on that of rum, as an experiment, with the result that the coffee watch was found to possess a vigor of health and activity entirely wanting in that of the other. And many of our own troops during the late war declared that they could march longer and endure more hardship and exposure under the stimulus of a cup of warm coffee--and they got far from the best or purest--than they could under an equal quantity of liquor.

But there is still another effect of coffee--that of checking the too rapid consumption of nitrogeneous matter in the system--which, while not nutritious in itself, yet possesses an indirect nutritive value; this result, added to its stimulating character, have made it the chosen beverage for breakfast, and therefore the best staple supply for both our army and navy. By taking a cup of strong, black coffee, without milk or sugar, between two glasses of hot water before rising in the morning and at least an hour before breakfast, the various secretions are stimulated and the nervous force aroused, so that an hour later a hearty meal is enjoyed and the day’s labor begun favorably, no matter how the duties of the day and night preceding may have drawn upon the system. While another cup at four in the afternoon is sufficient to sustain the flagging energies for many hours thereafter. In this manner its full effect is best secured, but if along with this the proper diet is taken at the proper time, the capacity for work will be almost unlimited. Its physiological effects upon the human system, so far as they have been investigated, appear to be that while it makes the brain more active it soothes the body generally, making the waste and loss of tissue slower and the demand for food less. It is a mental stimulus of a high order, and therefore is as a beverage liable to be abused for that reason. Through its influence the student burns the midnight oil to excess, and consequently reduces his store of physical force.

The German naturalist Martin relates a case he met with of a horse which owed its life to the use of coffee after being in a condition considered as incurable. The animal was reduced to a mere skeleton and so weak that it could scarcely walk, when infusions of coffee were first given it as an experiment, and then some ground coffee mixed with honey. In a short time the animal began to improve rapidly, eventually becoming better than ever. The same treatment was afterwards tried with like success in many similar cases where the horses had been over-worked or lost their strength and appetite.

It has been affirmed that coffee and other substances containing the alkaloid Caffeine have a direct influence in retarding the waste of tissue matter in the human frame, a single cup of the liquid prepared from a quarter ounce of coffee, containing from 1.5 to 1.9 grains of Caffeine in the infused state. The moderation of tissue waste attributed to coffee in common with other articles having the same general action and in use among different nations, is proven by various well-established facts. In its primary operation it agrees with those stimulants in exciting mental and muscular activity as well as cheerfulness, while in its after effects it does not tend to produce narcotism or stupor, only that unsteadiness of mind and of the spinal functions which denotes exhaustion.

MORAL INFLUENCE.

It has been the custom at frequently-recurring periods for moralists and scientists to claim that coffee is injurious to the health of its votaries, and many coffee drinkers believing such statements give up its use regretfully. That its use or rather its abuse may be injurious in some instances cannot be denied, but of all beverages now in use the facts and effects prove it to be the least injurious of any and all when not indulged in immoderately. Taken in moderation it is both a mental and physical stimulant of the most agreeable and pleasant nature, being followed by no harmful reaction. It produces contentment of mind, allays hunger and bodily weakness, increases the incentive and capacity for work, enabling those who use it in bounds to remain long without food or sleep, endure unusual fatigue, and preserve their cheerfulness and composure, coffee-drinkers as a rule being generally cheerful, active and persevering. The truth is that coffee, if of a pure kind and properly prepared, is about the pleasantest and most innocuous stimulant that can be resorted to, particularly after a long worry or severe drain on the emotional or intellectual forces. So that if it could be but made to take the place of absinthe, champagne and other such beverages the coming race would be all the better intellectually and physically for it. Habitual coffee-drinkers generally enjoy good health, some of the longest-lived people have used it from their earliest infancy without apparent injury or depressing reaction, such as is invariably produced by alcoholic stimulants. The physiological action of coffee is directed chiefly to the nervous system, producing a warm, cordial feeling in the stomach, which is quickly followed by a well-diffused and agreeable nervous excitement extending itself to the cerebral functions, giving rise to increased vigor to the imagination and intellect without causing any subsequent stupor or confusion of ideas, such as are so characteristic of all other narcotics. It produces contentment of mind, allays hunger, mental and bodily weariness, increases the capacity for work, makes man forget his troubles and anxieties, enabling those who use it judiciously to endure unusual fatigue and remain a long time without food or sleep, as well as to preserve their temper and cheerfulness.

The influence which the introduction of coffee has exercised on modern morals is on account of its peculiar character, much easier to understand than to prove. We know that the discovery of gunpowder changed the entire art of war from the equipment of the individual soldier to the alignment of an entire army, and thus its influence became a palpable fact. But the changes in modern life effected by the introduction of coffee belong to the general and concealed springs of life; to its motives, rather than to any circumscribed set of utterances regarding its facts, and an influence of this nature requires the application of a peculiar instrument in order to in a measure calculate or even demonstrate it. A doctor may be perfectly correct in ascribing a fever to certain atmospheric conditions, but without thermometer, barometer or microscope, he can prove absolutely nothing. We may be perfectly certain then that the introduction of coffee has altered the whole moral atmosphere in which we move, but without statistics we are unable to demonstrate the legitimacy or correctness of the assumption, and statistics is a scientific instrument of much later date than the introduction of coffee.

Observations, however, which in some degree may be of some service in arriving at exact figures, are not altogether wanting. It cannot be contended that life has become more just and honest, which would be the legitimate result of a better education, but it is certain that it has become gentler, more uniform and pacific, two results which essentially depend on food and occupation. Nor can it be denied that it is the increasing demands of reason which awe, superstition, bigotry and narrow fanaticism out of our educational system, and not this system which spontaneously has endeavored to make everything else subservient to reason, and what thus is dimly or vaguely indicated by a general view of life, often becomes more striking in many individual instances. It is a hazardous, but nevertheless felicitous expression, that “if Queen Elizabeth had breakfasted upon coffee and hot rolls, instead of beer and bacon, Queen Mary would never had been beheaded.” We find in bygone ages a perversity of temper, an impetuosity of will, a violence of the passions which has led some moralists to consider the later generations of the human race as decreasing in vital force, while indeed the phenomenon might be explained as the single result of an over-stimulating and too exciting a diet and a lack of temperance. Let the people begin to indulge once again in drinking wine, ale or other intoxicating beverages at the morning meal instead of tea or coffee, and we will soon have the same amount of vital force back again. It is not the power of passion which has decreased, but the power of restriction which has increased, and a comprehensive consideration of historical facts seem to justify the conclusion that this increased power of the reason is due as much to a more proper feeding of the body as to a better system of education.

The mental exhilaration and physical activity and buoyancy which coffee causes explains the fondness which has been shown for it by so many men of science, poets, scholars and others devoted to writing or thinking at all times, and for which reason it has been styled the “intellectual beverage.” Preachers, orators, editors and lawyers finding a cup of good coffee the gentlest, most harmless and effective of brain-bracers, but it does not appear to be generally known that nearly all men of literary habits who exhaust much nerve force use it constantly. It supported Voltaire in his old age and enabled Fontenelle to pass his hundred years. It was Voltaire who replied, on being informed by his physician “that coffee was a _slow poison_,” “Yes, I know it is a _very slow poison_; it has been poisoning me for over seventy years;” and Sydney Smith who said, “If you want to improve your understanding drink coffee; it is the intellectual beverage.” Brady terming it “The sovereign drink of pleasure and of health,” and Pope eulogizing it in the following lines:--

“From silver spouts the grateful liquors slide
While China’s earth receives the smoking tide,
At once they gratify their sense and taste,
And frequent cups prolong the rich repast;
Coffee!----which makes the politician wise
And see through all things with half-shut eyes.”

Howells paying his tribute to it when he says, “This coffee intoxicates without exciting, soothes you softly out of dull sobriety, making you think and talk of all the pleasant things that ever happened to you.” But times have changed since Voltaire, Diderot, Pope and others wrote and sang of coffee, jested, reasoned and made themselves immortal under its influence; alimentary and not literary is the modern _café_, though some can still boast of a _clientèle_ artistic, journalistic, or scientific, the commercial element preponderating, but the old historic _café_, the _café_ of tradition, where one was sure to find some celebrity on exhibition--a poet or a philosopher--may be said to be defunct.

From its cordial and gently stimulating effects we may well join in the enthusiastic panegyric pronounced on it by an Arabian of old, of which the following is a free, but condensed, translation: “O, coffee, thou dispellest the cares of the great and bringest back those who wander from the paths of knowledge! Coffee is our gold, and in the place of its illusions we are in the enjoyment of the best and noblest society. Every care vanishes when the cup-bearer presents the delicious chalice to our lips. It circulates freely through our veins and will not rankle there. Grief cannot exist where it grows and sorrow humbles itself before its powers.”

_Vive la café!_