The Lambertville record., 1888-11-07
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DEFECTIVE VISION.
A WRITER WHO THINKS THAT
COFFEE IS TO BLAME.

Experience Of a Patron Of the Fragrant
Narcotic-Some of tho Results of Tnor-
dinate coffee Drinking EE-
fects Upon Children.
/ am satisfied that detective vision and
blindness viii pretty soon be prominent
characteristic among the American people,
the same as rotten teeth have been during
the last 200 years / make this assertion
without having seen any statistics whatever
on the subject Of blindness found out long
ago that cup OF coffee leaves a night shade
on the brain which continues longer than an
eclipse of the sun. had long noticed that
the eyes of old coffee drinkers had dry and
shriveled appearance.
Having discovered, some years ago, that
my own eyesight was surely weakening, !
then ceased to drink coffee as freely as had
used It, and became moderate and more OBJ
servant patron OF the fragrant narcotic.
But I have learned that moderate coffee
drinking is hard thing to manage. being
pretty sure to develop into the regular habit
again with insidious ease, especially ut those
times when the physical system feels to be in
need of some elixir. Besides, it is quito dis
tressing for person to be fighting off a
powerful habit at each meal. now feel
free of the coffee drinking vice, and will
have no more trouble with it unless shall
again fall victim to some church supper or
to the magnetic Establishments Of some buoy
ant hostess.
Having long worked at a trade which re-
quires almost as exact a use of the eye as the
occupation of jeweler, made the discov-
cry that single cup of coffee would have
perceptible effect on my eyes. This fact was
the more apparent because my eyesight was
originally very good--in fact, about the best.
After having used coffee with indifferent
frequency and copiousness for many years
my sight became abnormally weak, and
began to feel a horror Of darkness, wishing
that the sun would never set, and desiring
instinctively to 60 to some place where the
nights would be short during the entire year.
But now have quite little of this feeling
left My eyes have regained, to curious
extent. their former range and spontaneity.
again enjoy the long panoramic views OF
nature which are afforded from the baby
mountains that skirt Council Bluffs on the
east like an encampment. can take these
long telescope sweeps Of vision again with
out blinking or feeling the weakening relax
/ have no doubt but what this weakness of
the eyes which results from coffee drinking
is due to the sympathy which the optic nerve
has for the nasal cavity tthe latter being
continuous with the membrane Of the mouth.
The nasal cavity, with its first pair of brain
nerves, is naturally principal place to be
affected by any drinking habit For In
stance, to partake of O dish Of soup will
come thick and decidedly labored All Of
the sensory nerves are much affected by cof-
fee drinking gentle and highly refined
threads of sympathetic force which enter
largely into the sense Of smell, taste, sight
and hearing. The entire sympathetic sys-
tenn is likewise involved Immediately In the
coffee drinking habit. The brain, again, Is
intensely affected thereby, because the prin-
cipal nerves of the brain branch off from the
nasal cavity.
Coffee drinking is especially injurious
when 1t Is resorted to as backing for strong
food. There are plenty Of robust persons
among US who have drank coffee pretty
freely for lifetime, but who are seemingly
uninjured by 1t. To this fact / reply that
appearances are sometimes deceiving to un-
practiced eyes, and that vice does not in
all cases show its effects plainly in the FIRST
generation. The free use OF coffee dates
back only one generation In this country.
But this viii say, that no person is rs stout
for three hours after he has drank coffee as
he was before
{ As long as person remains endowed with
latent constitutional strength he can partici-
pate in different vices with seeming impunity
-~but he Is gradually using up his capital and
will reach his limit ere his life Is fully pro-
longed. His children and grandchildren will
show n degeneration of the family stock.
though they doubtless exhibit ct present a
premature brightness of mind. Children that
are allowed to partake freely of coffee viii
become restless, fussy and noisy, half wild
with mischief. They probably advance in
their school studies with abnormal rapidity
But they hate work. At times they are in
different about education. Their strength
goes to the brain. They grow rapidly, but
not alright. They develop into mon and
women three years too soon. Yet their eyes
dance with angelic splendor, and their cheeks
glow with ycrmilion, providing that they
started in life with robust constitutions If
they began life with puny physiques, how
ever, coffee will make them slim and ghostly,
and their eyes and features fat. Coffee will
seem to improve those persons only who have
O surplus of constitutional vigor. These in
dividuals will seem possessed with forms and
faces of marvellous grace and finish, yet they
will fade all too soon, and fall into the hands
Of tho doctor. Coffee has q magical effect on
the heart and circulatory system, and for
while produces the intoxication which APP
proaches that Of opium or cocaine. 1t causes
swift growth and swift decay. 1t pro-
duces beauty and exhilaration, but not en-
durance. North American Review.