Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-04-01
COFFEE AND TEA.

Many receipts and methods for making
coffee and tea have been given in the
Household column without there having
been presented, as yet, the characteristics
of these well known beverages. In Study
ing the ultimate or particular crystallizable
substance derived from each OF them, we
find in tea theme and in coffee caffeine.
Very strangely in their analysis precisely
the same quantity of carbon, hydrogen,
oxygen and nitrogen are discovered. The
chemical formula being identical, it seems
as if both the leaf of one plant and the
fruit of another were intended by nature
to have the same action ON the human sys-
TEN. Still, in examining this subject,
chemists seem to have overlooked the fact
that in the final preparation of the leaf or
the bean, the methods were entirely differ
ent II theme exists in tea, it can be
brought out, as crystallizable substance,
by the application of certain fluids, and the
same may be done as to the caffeine, deriv-
able from the raw coffee, but in tea solu-
ton is made, which ig never over 2l2',
while with coffee, before it is adaptable to
our use, as it is roasted, the combination
of carbon. hydrogen, etc., are certainly
destroyed, and are burned, and are there
AptC 4t 10 Vel 49, e-4-'
that there are no nutritiye elements IN
either tea or coffee; they neither make
blood or Drawn, but their usefulness-a
very great one-lies in the fact that they
are both stimulants. Some want which
nature has, and which she calls for, tinds
response in tea and coffee. Both are es-
pecially useful to men and women engaged
in mental, quite as muh as physical, ell
forts. Even under the severest strains
man goes through, as In Arctic explora-
tons, the use off tea and coffee has been
asserted to have been found superior to al
cohol. Careful researches, made as to the
action of tea and coffee on the human sys-
TEN, seem to prove that both are fairly
powerful respiratory excitants, but as TO
the effects on the skin there IS this differ
ence, while tea promotes persplratlon COT
fee decreases it. Now, all that has been
heretofore stated in regard to coffee and tea
may be found in any of the class-books ON
food and drink, but what is not so generally
known is the use and abuse OF both these
beverages. Tea guzzling with women, if
it has not its immediate bad effects, Is GER
tain in time to injure those who use it.
certain modicum of tea, at time other
than at breakfast, may be useful, but the
habit some women have of taking at mid
day the smallest possible quantity of solid
food and overdoses of tea should be in
Weighed against. Save the extra quantity
of sugar and the small modicum of milk
used III tea as can be shown by analysis,
there is no particle of nutriment in it.
Over-use Of tea invariably results, not so
much in nervous complications as is gen.
orally believed, but in the loss of digestive
powers. The constancy of dyspeptic symp-
toms among women may often be traced
to the over-swallowing of tea. The use
of coffee in excess, accompanied by bad
results, strangely enough, does not seem
very prevalent. Europeans drink coffee in
much larger proportion than we do.
Though we may apparently consume a
larger quantity in our decoctions as to
bulk of fluid, the strength of European
coffee may be generally stated to be two
or three times greater than that OF ours,
and the particular stimulant more con-
centrated. There seems to be a corrective
quality in coffee which warns us at once
not to abuse it. The over-stimulating
effects of it are Immediately perceptible.
The deprivation of sleep shows that for
certain individuals coffee cannot be used.
It is not the same with tea, as nervous
ness and wakefulness afterit are of rarer
occurrence. In the long run, though not
at once appreciable, the results from too
constant dosage OF tea appear to have
more permanent effect on the system than
coffee A good deal has been written
about the Embellishments of using milk
in coffee or tea, as the tanninin the one or
the pyroligneous substances in the other
render the albumen in the milk insoluble.
Such chemical transformation does GER
tainly take place, but cannot affect health
There are innumerable other cases where
the albumiuods in food are rendered in
soluble by chemical or physical action,
and these pass without comment.