The Sun.
London, England, 1849-03-14 00:00:00

COFFEE v. CHICORY

To an impoverished and famishing people, the question
of the character of its food, whether solid or fluid, is no
unimportant consideration. It is one of vital moment, it
is paramount before all others; and this either as regards
the quantity or the quality; in fact, the latter is, under
ter taro circumstances, a more important consideration
than the former, inasmuch as the injury the system can
receive from insufficient amount of good food, must un-
doubtedly be less than that which arises from bad food.
Bad food is always, ipso facto, insufficient. No person
was ever known to die because he had only a quarter
pound of meat to dinner, but many die annually from
eating bad sausages ; at least this is notorious enough in
Germany ; and it was but the other day that a whole
family perished in London from the effects of eating
bad cheese.
Food, whether fluid or solid, and in particular
the latter, may be rendered unfit for nutrition,
either from certain organic changes occurring
throughout its whole mass, in obedience to the laws
of decomposition, to which all organic bodies are
naturally exposed, or it may equally be impaired in
its nutritious properties owing to admixture with other
ingredients, which may be either of an organic (eatable)
or inorganic nature. If the admixture be with
organic substances, the nutritive properties of the
whole mass will be impaired in proportion to the
scale which the sophistication holds in the rank of
nutritious bodies ; but if it be of an inorganic
character, that kind of matter being absolutely innutri-
tious, then the diminished nutritive property will be in
the ratio of the amount of that inorganic matter, pro-
bably somewhat augmented by portions of the organic
matter being entangled mechanically in the mass.
Coffee, which forms so extensive an article of consump-
tion among the people, yielding only to the beverage of
tea, is, it would appear, adulterated to an extent that we
had scarcely any idea of, until we perused the observations
in the Times of the 27th ult. That there was adulteration,
only however to a limited degree, had been long matter
of general observation ; and probably from the inno-
cuous nature of the herb, or rather root, (chicory,) used
in the adulteration, comparatively little interest was ex-
cited on the subject. The notoriety, however, given to the
subject by the observations just alluded to, renders it im-
perative that, in our capacity of public journalists, we
should notice, and brand with its proper mark, a
fraud almost universally and unblushingly practised,
and which, independent of the good coin in which the
lieges are mulcted for an inferior article, is further
to be condemned for the loose morality it indirectly
sanctions. The beneficial and cheering effects of
coffee are so well known as not to require, description,
though we fear, if the sophistication be carried on to
the extent alleged, nearly 50 per cent., (and from various
samples we have examined we do not believe that
statement overcharged,) we shall require a standard
description of what coffee was, in order to obtain some
approximation to the actual amount of adulteration.
The sophistication of coffee with chicory, pro-
vided the chicory be absolutely pure, (and it is not
always so, for it is often mixed up with roasted
beans, corn, &c.) is not attended with any bad
effects on the animal economy. We think that we
have found that hybrid coffee to have a tendency to
maintain a lax state of the bowels; but others remark,
that they have witnessed the same occasionally from the
pure coffee. However, the use of coffee is generally consi-
dered to have a constipating effect on the prime vice. But,
admitting the chicory to be devoid of all noxious agency,
it does not necessarily follow that it may not nega-
tively be injurious to the animal frame, especially when
taken in equal proportions with the pure berry of
the coffee, by withdrawing a proportionate amount
of the active principle of the coffee (caffein),
which otherwise would have been furnished to the
system. It has been satisfactorily proved, by
recent chemical analysis, that the three great vege-
table matters which are extensively used by mankind as
a beverage, either in the form of infusion or decoction,
contain severally a peculiar proximate element, on the
agency of which the virtues of these plants respectively de-
pend. The matter, or proximate element, contains a suitable
quantity of nitrogen, and it is in this manner supposed
to exert its peculiar action on the animal economy.
Liebig has been led, from theoretical considerations, to
infer that the caffein, or them, contributes to the gene-
ration of bile; but this is at present only matter of
hypothesis.
Resembling; tea in many points, the action of the pure
coffee is decisive and marked on the nervous system. It
excites the whole frame, and displays its power chiefly
on the brain. The senses feel more lively, and the action
of the brain is more vigorous and clear under its influence;
weariness subsides and watchfulness succeeds, which
is often protracted till dawn. It promotes digestion,
and seems to counteract the uneasiness experienced
from excess of wine. Nor is its agency less marked in
the powerful stimulus it supplies to the system when
under the influence of narcotic poisons, especially opium,
being not unfrequently the means through which valu-
able lives have been saved.
When taken in immoderate quantity, it is apt to in-
duce internal congestions, and not unfrequently various
nervous symptoms arise, such as tremors, a peculiar
feeling of anxiety in the region of the heart—some-
times with, sometimes without palpitation, dimness
and confusion of sight, and some fever. It is not, there-
fore, well adapted to the young, muscular, and Bangui-
neous, but rather suited to those of a cold, lax, phleg-
matic habit. It has been used for various indications in
medicine, and is proverbially beneficial in asthma.
The herb chicory has none of these specific and
well-marked effects on the animal body ; it may,
indeed, placed in contrast with the berry of the
coffee plant, be considered as nearly inert. The
root, when fresh, is tonic, and in large doses it acts
on the bowels. It is alleged to be useful in certain
visceral diseases of a chronic character, but in these we
think time is fully as efficient an agent. It has some
slight claims to the notion of a diuretic, and its action as
a tonic is but trivial.
We may further subjoin, that the presence of an nzo-
tised principle in its chemical constitution (which some
of the first authorities consider as a positive criterion of
the nutritious properties of vegetable matter), has not
been detected.
Hence, we should feel disposed to consider the action
of the chicorium intybus, mixed up, as it is, so exten-
sively with coffee, as almost nearly negative, inasmuch
as the root itself has little more medicinal virtues than
sawdust. •
We are indebted to Mr. Cook for a very clear state-
ment of this matter in a memorial, at this moment lying
before the Lords of the Treasury and the Board of Trade.
When the reduction in the price of sugar was made, equal
to 26 psr cent., an increase in the consumption followed
equivalent to 46 per cent. Coffee, however, which
suffered a reduction of price, in 1846. of 22 per cent.,
has remained almost stationary; while the increase in
the consumption of ten, even with stationary prices, has
been l per cent., within the last two years, over that of
1846 but obviously notso great as to affect the great fall-
ing off in the apparent consumption of coffee. The
history of coffee has always been appealed to, since
1784, as a striking instance of the increased con •
sumption that generally attends judicious reductions
in the import duty. This anomaly receives the
following correct explanation from Mr. Cook. The
root of the Chicorium Intybus, Nat. Fam. Composites, has
been long known as a substitute for coffee in Germany,
where it has been cultivated extensively for that purpose.
Imported to Great Britain, a duty was levied on it equal
to that paid on coffee. As the herb is indigenous to our
island, it was subsequently grown at home, so that the
consumer might have it duty free; and in 1840 a
Treasury order was obtained " authorizing the Excise
for the future not to object to grocers selling
chicory, or mixing it with coffee." The effect of
this was speedily felt, and induced the importers of
coffee, in 1842, to complain of it to the Chancellor of
the Exchequer, but without effect. Chicory rapidly was
in great demand, and the consumption of it, which was
estimated by Mr. M'Culloch at 6.72 million lbs. in 1842,
has at least doubled, and is, to that extent, now ,en-
croaching on the use of coffee.
And this is only what might have been expected,
for while home-grown, kiln-dried chicory can be
delivered at 2d. per lb. to the wholesale dealers
(retailed at Bd. per lb.), the average price of duty-
paid coffee is from 7d. to 9id. per lb. Accordingly,
even respectable grocers add, at least, two ounces
of chicory to 14 of coffee, while others make the mix-
ture half and half. The most experienced officers of
the Excise estimate the average proportion of chicory
to what is sold in the London shops for coffee at
one-third ; in the manufacturing towns in the
country, it is said to be fully one-half. What
further portion of pure chicory is elsee here added to
this mixture it is impossible to say; but it is a fact, that
those descriptions of coffee which will bear the greatest
admixture of chicory, such as Costa Rica and Java, en-
joy, on that account, a marked preference in the market.
greatly to the detriment of the more delicately flavoured
Ceylon coffee.
Besides the primary sophistications which the coffee
submits to from chicory, the chicory itself also is adul-
terated; and this was carried to such an extent, that the
wholesale houses were induced to take into their own
hands the manufacture of the chicory which they sell,
purchasing themselves the root, and kiln-drying it on
their own premises.
It is therefore urged, alike for the interest of the
colonists, the revenue, and the public, that the duty
charged on chicory should be renewed. It is,
indeed, but even-handed justice to our fellow-subjects
in the colonies, unless our home-growers of chicory
can establish that that substance has claims on
the public from properties totally dissimilar to those of
coffee; and we think that they might do so with some
appearance of plausibility. But then the chicory would
still be used a 3 an adulterator of coffee, on which ground
alone it is most exceptionable.
Estimating the proportion in which chicory at
present enters into what is sold as coffee at the low
3t1h260:28855a, 001
300
000:
fOO
00
cooh
c lbs.lobrsy. of coffee consumed last year,
rate of one. third, it follows that, along with the
osfhocuhmicoargyainh,have
eboenefonrinsiotlyd.witlhf
3 George IV., c. liii.,: be restricted to persons not
being vendors of coffee, and taking out an annual license
for that purpose, the consumers ould be again left to
make their own mixture of those two ingredients. In that
case, it is believed, they would, at most, mix only half as
much chicory with their coffee as the grocers de at present.
The effect would be, that about six million pounds less
of chicory, but this saine quantity more of coffee would
be consumed ; consequently, our coffee growers would
find a vent for six million pounds more of their produce
here, and that an additional annual revenue of, at least,
100,0004 would flow into the Exchequer.
Agreeing with the above statement, we are even
disposed to think that the anticipated consumption
of coffee is underrated ; for the inferior character
of the article vended under that name, at present,
prevents parties more extensively employing it, and
even many are forced to give up the use of coffee, as it
is so totally different from the article that was wont to ho
purchased in the market as such but a few years since.
In additional remarks on this highly interesting quesl

Price

45%
220

45-‘
41 10e.

13%
13%
Syu
2U