Tea Injurious.- As commonly prepared tea is often the cause of much Dyspepsia, particularly when drunk in excessive quantities, or too frequently-that is, as a rule, more than once a day. When tea causes loss of appetite, palpitation of the heart, mental excitement, or sleeplessness, obviously its use should be relinquished. Tea should never be given to children, even although largely diluted. The common practice of adding a small quantity of milk and water begets a relish for it, leading to its use at an age when the nervous and muscular systems require no such aid.
Tea taken with animal food tea-dinners, or meat-teas, as they are called is more liable to produce indigestion than when the meal consists chiefly of bread and butter. Two or three hours after dinner. when digestion has proceeded too far to be much interfered with, the habit of taking one or two small cups of tea is usually unobjectionable; but tea is always better avoided at bedtime.
Green Tea.-Pure green tea is the same leaf as the black, but more quickly dried and in good qualities is not injurious. But inferior sorts, faced with a preparation of Prussian blue, gypsum, and indigo are decidedly so.
Flavoured teas have been exposed during manufacture to the aromatic essences of plants, but though rendered somewhat more agreeable, are not of higher or lower chemical or dietetic value.
Preparation.-To make tea, especially for the dyspeptic, it should only be infused in boiling water three minutes, and then poured off into a heated teapot, so as to separate it from the leaves. Thus prepared, tea is not so likely to cause flatulence; but it is less economic than the ordinary method, much more tea being required. Soft water makes the best tea, but soda should not be used, for it only extracts the astringent tannin, while at the same time it spoils the tea, both in flavour and beneficial effect. The water should only boil once, immediately before using it, and not for hours, as is sometimes the case; the teapot should be quite dry, as well as hot, when the leaves are put into it, and the infusion, as before stated, not allowed to exceed three minutes.
Teapots that retain the heat are better than those that allow it to pass off readily; hence black earthenware teapots should not be used; white, glazed earthenware, or porcelain, are suitable; but brightly polished silver teapots are the best, for they radiate much less heat than any other material. A cosy retains the heat.
Additions of Lemon.- The use of sugar in tea, except in small quantity, should be given up by persons who have a tendency to become corpulent. According to our taste, the flavour of tea is improved by substituting lemon for cream or milk; pouring the hot tea over a slice of lemon cut with the rind upon it. Besides being more palatable, the lemon-juice more effectually allays thirst, and is especially valuable at those seasons of the year when fruits and fresh vegetables are not generally to be obtained.
COFFEE.- Use of Coffee- Coffee is a valuable beverage, especially for soldiers; it is invigorating without producing subsequent collapse, and the hot infusion is almost equally useful as an antidote to heat and cold in the one case by the warmth of the infusion, in the other by its action on the skin, while in both cases it acts beneficially by stimulating the nervous system. (See Parkes on Practical Hygiene.) It increases the action of the heart and the fulness of the pulse, and stimulates the mucous membranes. In fatigue, privation, and indeed under ordinary circumstances, coffee is preferable to alcoholic beverages. It is useful when weary from travel in the heat, with deprivation of food. It economizes other nourishment by lessening waste. It is often serviceable in the headache of nervousness and exhaustion, or in cases of diarrhoea caused by overwork, with too much care. A strong infusion helps to keep awake persons poisoned by opium and to allay the effects of the immoderate use of wine and spirits.
Coffee Injurious.-In some persons coffee produces headache, sleeplessness, deranged vision, mental excitement, palpitation, and indigestion, and by such should not, therefore be taken as a beverage. It is also somewhat laxative to some persons, whilst, it constipates others. It is more heating and stimulating than tea, and raises the pulse, but it is heavier and more oppressive to the stomach.
Preparation. -A most important point in making good coffee is to use a sufficient quantity of the powder. The minimum that should be allowed is I4 oz. to a pint of water. The cafe noir of the French contains a larger proportion than this. Cafe au lait consists of a decoction of strong coffee, to which an equal quantity of hot milk is added. It is especially necessary to remember that the full qualities of coffee are not obtained if water is used at a temperature lower than that of the boiling point. It even bears boiling, which tea does not. The particles of ground coffee are often found suspended in the liquid, and isinglass or white-of-egg is sometimes used to refine it. Nothing however, is required beyond pouring a cupful out and returning it to the pot to effect the necessary clearing.
Or, a coffee-pot may be obtained larger in circumference, but not so high as they are usually made; a flannel bag three inches deep should be sewn on to a wire running round the rim; and the bag should be kept from the spout by means of two straight pieces of wire soldered inside, from the rim to the bottom, in front of the spout. The coffee is placed in this bag, the required quantity of boiling water is poured gradually upon it, and allowed to run through, after which it can be boiled to extract the remaining strength of the powder.
The addition of boiling milk, in the proportion of one fourth part adds greatly to the flavour and virtue of the coffee. Lastly, when coffee is taken daily an enamelled saucepan should be used exclusively for this purpose.
After being roasted, coffee should not to be kept long before it is ground. This is usually done in a coffee mill. The mill should be used for no other purpose, as coffee has a marked tendency to absorb other odours, and thus to acquire a flavour not its own.
Lastly, when ground it should be used as soon as possible, for in this state it rapidly gives off its volatile oil. The best method for keeping it for a short time is in a clean, accurately stoppered bottle. Lead or tinfoil covering does not so effectually retain the virtues of the ground coffee.
CHICORY.-With this coffee is generally mixed to which it gives colour and body. Its properties are similar, but inferior to those of coffee; so that it rather lessens its value, while it modifies its flavour.
COCA.-USES of Cocoa.- The large amount of fat and albuminoid substances gives it some value as an article of diet, alike for strengthening the frame in conditions of debility, and sustaining it under prolonged or excessive exertion. During nursing it is most useful, tending probably more than any other beverage, to maintain an excellent supply of maternal milk.
The combination of nourishing properties which cocoa contains has led to its being compared to milk. Humboldt states that cocoa and maize cakes are used by travellers in South Africa, and that the large amount of agreeable nourishment in small bulk enables them to carry easily several days’ supplies. At the same time cocoa and chocolate contain stimulating ingredients which affect the nervous system and it is a mistake to think that these beverages cannot ever be harmful. As a rule, however, they are less deleterious than tea or coffee.
Preparation.-To produce from cocoa-nibs one of the most wholesome and nutritious of beverages, the following method is recommended-For two persons, take of recent nibs a small teacupful, and soak in one quart of water overnight; next morning boil briskly for two hours, then strain off, and use directly, with boiling milk. It should not be re-warmed, as it then loses its flavour, just as tea does when warmed up again. The cocoa is best boiled in a block-tin three-pint wine-muller, over a small gas-stove; or, better still, in a new French milk- saucepan which consists of white ware, fitted into an outside tin casing. The cocoa-nibs already soaked, as previously directed, should be put with a proper quantity of water into the white ware, the outside vessel being also filled with water, and boiled for two hours. Cocoa thus prepared, the author believes, from personal use, to be incomparably the best; but when, from various reasons, the above method cannot be adopted, the preparation of well-known manufactures may be substituted, and as breakfast beverages are often superior to tea or coffee.
Cocoa-shells or husks, the part of the plant, that is, which contains the nibs, also make an excellent beverage. The direction are as follows-Take six tablespoonfuls of the shells and boil gently in a quart of water for six hours adding water from time to time to keep the quantity to a quart. Once made, the cocoa will keep and can be made hot any time when required. It may be taken with hot milk like coffee, or with cold milk like tea. Cream and sugar may be added according to taste.
LICENTIATE OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS; MEMBER OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS; LICENTIATE IN MIDWIFERY, LONDON AND EDINBURGH, ETC. PHYSICIAN TO THE READING AND BERKSHIRE HOMOEOPATHIC DISPENSARY.
Author of "The Stepping Stone to Homeopathy and Health,"
"Manual of Homoeopathic Treatment". Editor of "The Homoeopathic World."