The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-01-31
COZ FEE DRUNKARDS.
An Account of Some Other Kinds OF
Drunkards.
tCopurfohf 1892. bn The Lrnited prc,s


Copyright. 1892. by the United Pressl
NEW YORK, Jan. S0.-It may surprise
many OF our readers to know there is such q
thing as coffee tippling, yet it exists to a
| great extent. Few people realize the extent
to which coffee is used in these days. The
ladies' with their dainty after-dinner ooffees
in which they take so much pride, revel In
it. Our cafes aud restaurants supply 1t by
50 many gallons per day. Most people
think it but a slight stimuant, considering
it the cup that cheers. but does not inebri-
| ate, that 1t Is little alarming TO find the
contrary true.
Not long since a noted physician was
called on to attend a fashionable society
| woman. After few visits he declared his
| belief that she had been over-indulging in
intoxlcants. This she Indignantly denied
saying, coffee was the only stimulaut that
she ever INDUCED in :" and it was true vet
she was in the condition of one verging on
delirium tremens. On investigation it was
found she had become addicted to the habit
as one does to liquor or opium.
From studies recently made by cele-
DRAFTED German physician, DR.. Mendel of
Berlin, it appears that there is such a thing
as coffee inebriety." n form of MODIFICATION
which very frequently leads to the most
alarming results.
The term inebrety applied to this form of
drunkenness is 10 misnomer. 1t Id a term
that we'll fits it. 1t approaches in both
kind and degree to delirium tremens for
the whole nervous system is derauged if not
utterly ruined.
The muscles become weak and trembling
aud the hands shake when at rest IN a man
ner resembling the semi-paraysis OF the
confirmed drunkard whose nervous system
mas been shattered to its center An in-
creasing aversion TO labor and any steady
work is noticed; the hearts action becomes
irregular aud moro rapid, and palpitation
with heavy feeling in the perIcardiac re-
gion makes its appearance. Last Of all comes
dyspepsia of the most persistent character
and OF on extreme nervous type, renderin 2
the life Of the coffee tippler burden to
himself and to all around him.
In the course of the Investigations DR.
Mendel found very few instances in which
the coffee drunkard is cured The symp-
toms gradually grow worse, and are only to
be relieved by large quantities of the bever-
age, the abuse of which caused them.
After beginning with the agreeable in
fusion of the roasted berries they are driven
III the search for something more powerful
% swallow the tincture which, though 1t
operates for time in the direction desired,
soon loses its efficacy and has to be swal-
lowed in increasingly grenter guam tiles,
the evil influence OF the coffee. OF course,
being heightened by the alcohol used TO OK
tract its essential ingredients
The last stage of this peculiar disease
shows itself in the saliOw face and chilly
hands and feet of the victims, coupled with
an expression OF dread aud agony which
settles over the coun enance-a form OF
nelancholia, slternated by hysterin only to
be temporarily relieved by repeated applica a.
ions to the c7ifee pot or TO a strong tIncture
formed by stepping the crushed berries in
spirits Of wine.
Coffee drunkards are more common
among people OF a nervous temperament
than in the ranks Of the stolid, phlegmatic
folks, not easily moved by any stimulus, or
who, like many Germans, prefer eating TO
drinking. But it is affirmed By DR.. Mem
dell--and his views are largely supported
by the medical profes ion in Germany-that
the trouble is much moro widely spread
than has hitherto been supposed.
Briilat SavariD, the noted French CASTRO.
nome, once snid that a person of good con-
stituuon can drink two bottles of wine n
day throughout a loEg Lifetime, while with
the same indulgence in coffee ha wonld be-
come an idiot or die Of consumption. and
there now appears to be much reason to be-
love the truth Of this assertion. Man, IN
deniably. must have soue stimulus: il de-
prived of one he will drift on to another In
some of the large cities Of America, opium
smoking and m1rphia, choral and
cocaine "babits" are alarmingly on
the Increase, while factory workers
are said to snatch fearful joy by breath
ing the fumes from camphine caskets. In
the same wa it has frequently been de
clared that in Moslem countries. where
alcohol 10 interdicted, intemperence in cof-
fee, or, as in Morocco, in green tea, is s1at-
tering the nerves of the richer classes But
it has been left for DIR. Mendel to demon
strate the spread of like mischief in
Europe pdrt pdSsu with the diminution of
theivice which was supposed to fee before the
Mocha berry and the Chinese herb.
HOLLAND.