Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1893-10-21
Coffee Tipping.

1t may surprise many readers to
know there is such 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-dinncr
coffces, in which they take so much
pride, revel in it. Our cafes and res
taurants supply it by so many gallons
per day. Most people think it but
slight stimulant considering it 'thc
cup that cheers but does not inebriatc,"
that it is a little alarming to find the
contrary true.
Not long since noted physician was
called on to attend fashionable So
Ccty woman. After Il few visits he
declared his belief she had been over
indulging in intoXicants. This she in
dignantly denied, saying coffee was
the only stimulant she ever INDUCED
in;'' and it was true, yet she was in
the condition of one verging on dclir-
ium 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
celebrated German physician, DIR. Men
del, of Berlin, it appears that there is
such a thing as coffee inebricty," Il
form of intoXication which very fire.
quently leads to the most alarming re-
suits. The term inebriety applied to
this form of drunkenness is no mis-
nomer. 1t is term that well fits it.
1t approaches in both kind and degree
to delirium tremens for the whole ncr-
vOus system is deranged if not utterly
ruined.
The muscles become weak and trem-
bling and the hands shake when ut
rest in a manner resembling the semi
paralysis of the confirmed drunkard
whose nervous system has been shat
tered to its centre. An increasing
aversion to labor and any steady work
is noticed; the hearts action becomes
irregular and more rapid, and palpita-
ton with heavy feeling in the peri
cardiac region makes its appearance.
Last of all comes dyspepsia of the
most persistent character and of an
extreme nervous type, rendering the
life of the coffee tipplcr a burden TO
himself and to all around him.
In the course of his investigation
Dr. Mendel found very few instances
in which the coffee drunkard is cured.
The symptoms gradually grow worse,
and are only to be relieved by large
quantities of the beverage, the abuse
of which caused them. After begin
ming with the agreeable infusion of the
roasted berries, they are driven, i'll the
search for something more powerful,
to swallow the tincture which, though
it operates for Il time in the direction
desired, soon loses its efficacy, and has
to be swallowed in increasingly great
er quantities. the evil influence of the
coffee, of course, being heightened by
the alcohol used to extract its essen
tial ingredients.
The last stage of this peculiar disease
shows itself in the sallow face and
chilly hands and feet of the victims,
coupled with an expression of dread
and agony which settles over the coun-
tenance-a form of melancholia, alter
mated by hysteria, only to be tempo
rarily relieved by repeated applica-
tons to the coffee pot or to a strong
tincture formed by sleeping the crush
ed berries in spirits of wine.
Coffee drunkards are more common
among people of a nervous tcmpcra-
ment than in the ranks of the Stolid,
phlcgmatic folks, not easily moved by
any stimulus, or who, like many Ger
mans. prefer eating to drinking. But
it is affirmed by DR.. Mendcl-And his
views are largely supported by the
medical profession in Germany-that
the trouble is much more widely spread
than has hitherto been supposed.
Brillat Savarin, the noted French
gaStrOnOme, once said that Il person of
good constitution can drink two bot
ties of wine day throughout Il long
lifetime, while with the same indul-
gcnce in coffee he would become an
idiot or die of consumption, and there
now appears TO be much reason To be-
lieve the truth of this assertion. Man,
undeniably, must have some StinnAnt;
if deprived of one he will drift on to
another In some of the large cities
of America opium smoking and NOR
phia choral and cocaine "habitS' are
alarmingly on the increase, while fac
tory workers are said to snatch Il fear
full joy by breathing the fumes from
camphine caskcts. In the same way
it has frequently been declared that in
Moslcm countries, where alcohol is in
terdicted, intempcrance in coffee, or,
as in Morocco in green tea, is Shattcr-
ing the nerves of the richer classes.
But it has been left for DR.. Mcndcl to
demonstrate the spread of a like mis-
chief in Europe pari passu with the
dimnution of the vice which WAS sup
posed to flee before the Mocha berry
and the Chinese herb.