On means for the prolongation of life.

  • Hermann David Weber
Date:
1908
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: On means for the prolongation of life. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    take tea four or five times a day, and certainly are not as much injured by this habit as many Europeans are by alcohol. Finally, we must not forget that the abuse of alcohol deranges the moral condition of the mind and is the most frequent cause of crime, which no one can say of tea drinking, by which at all events only the tea-drinker himself is injured and not others. Coffee contains, in addition to caffein, which has the same properties of thein, a volatile oil developed by the process of roasting, some cellu- lose and extractive material (Parkes [96], Koenig [67] and Hutchison [59]). The infusion acts on most people in the same way as tea, but in some cases it causes indigestion and tendency to piles when they take it habitually, while they can take tea without harm. Many, on the other hand, of those in whom tea produces flatu- lence and faintness, bear coffee quite well. Coffee likewise has an inhibitory effect on stomach digestion, and strong black coffee after meals ought therefore to be avoided by dyspep- tics with slow digestion. Parkes had a high opinion of the value of coffee for soldiers under- going fatigue, and in severe Alpine climbing I have found coffee, on others as well as myself, rather more effective than tea, although the 9