The Cincinnati daily star. [volume] ([Cincinnati, Ohio]) 1875-1880, 1875-12-10
Tea and Coffee.


dred years without tea and coffee.
Moreover, they had neither whisky nor
tobacco. 1t is true that Noah, who was
quite celebrated in his day as cold
water man, planted vine and made
himself tipsy on the juice OF the grape;
nm act which did not meet with public
approval among the Crusaders of that
date. But, of the virtues of tea and
coffee, the unfortunate old Admiral in
command OF the Ark knew nothing.
In recent days we have had hygienic
schools Of high sounding names whose
great speciality consisted in condemning
tea and coffee with counterblast as
stern and as stunning as that of King
James against tobacco. But, as the
royal manifesto only made the nicotian
weed more fashionable and more popu-
lar, so when these crusading counter
blasts against tea and coffee were most
In vogue those beverages were most in
use.
1t matters not now how nor why these
vegetable products, the leaf of one plant
and the berry of another, ever came to
be the constituents for fiavoring the bey-
erages Of two thirds of the human race.
The fact of itself is SO strange as to in
dicate beyond all peradventure that
there is something in the needs of the
physical economy of the human
system demanding for its proper
pabulum that which these beyer-
ages supply. Their use, SO permanent
and SO universal among mankind, can
not depend upon mere whim of fancy
or the caprice of fashion. If it had so
depended, their use would long since
have been discarded by reason of the
changes Of fashion and the fickleness of
fancies. Certainly, men can live with
out them, and very comfortably no doubt;
30 they can without potatoes. But all
thai is nothing to the purpose. The tea
and coffee of the people have come to be
ranked among the common necessities
of all sorts and conditions OF men; and
for that reason these articles have late
ly been placed on the free list of i'm
ports from abroad by the tariff law OF
this country.
In the Physiological Memoirs of DR..
VIM. A. Hammond, Surgeon General of
the U. 5. Army, some very interesting
personal experiments are detailed and
the conclusions deduced therefrom that
go far towards setting this matter upon
such scientific basis that mere clamor
can not prevail against it. DR.. Ham,
mond practiced these experiments on
himself in a manner the most exact,
weighing carefully the food taken and
the excrement yoided each day for
ten days in each case OF experiment.
He records of these that he found
conclusively that tea and coffee are
excitants of the brain and nervous
system, and at the same time consid-
erably retarded the emetamorphosis of the
tissues, i. e. the decay and waste of the
bodily elements ;-and that, of the two,
tea possesses more powerful influence
in restraining the destruction of the tis-
sues, or substances of the body, than
coffee; while the latter is the greater
stimulant of the faculties Of the brain
and nervous system.
DR.. Hammonts practical application
Of these facts are to recommend the use
Of tea in exhausting diseases and when
ever it becomes needful to supply the
natural waste of the body in lack of suf-
fcient food; while for the student, the
literary man, the man of complex BUSH
ness,-in all, indeed, in whom it is i'm
portant to sustain q certain degree OF
either cerebral activity OF physical ener-
gy, coffee is to be preferred.
It is determined fact that the brain
follows the same general law which
governs ether organic structures of the
body. e., that increased use promotes
increased decay of its substance, and
that the products Of this decay are, as
with other. organs, removed from the
system by elimination to make way for
newer deposits of brain material. In
tense mental labor, by fastening the
metamorphosis, or waste, of the tissue
of the brain, necessarily demands q
more rapid renewal of that. tissue. To
those engaged in constant mental effort,
the use OF tea and coffee, as articles OF
''accessory food" as DIR. Chalmers calls
them, becomes exceedingly useful, by
diminishing the waste of the substance OF
The brain, at the same time that they give
Increased activity to the action OF the
brain itself. In this combined action
coffee is superior to tea.
After summing up all the tests Of his
experiments in this regard, DR.. Ham
mond remarks-'.That tea and coffee are
beneficial to mankind when used in mod
GRAFTON, must be apparent to all who are
acquainted with the recent investiga-
tions on the subject. Aside from their
physical effects, the feeling Of content
ment they engender within US, and the
disposition to reflection they encourage,
are not to be disregarded in the sum total
Of their good works.n ~. ~
That witty philosopher, Sidney Smith
whose intellect was equally brilliant and
profound, made this deyout exclauna.