Coffee has been called in France " an intellectual drink," owing to the fact that it has a decided stimulating influence on the nervous centres, lessening the need for sleep, and increasing the capacity for mental work. It also seems to have, like coca erythroxylon, the power of augmenting the functional activity of the muscles, even while it diminishes tissue waste. Like tea, coffee lessens the sense of hunger, and will banish fatigue. To the soldier on the march it has proved the most valuable restorative, and for the explorer in the Arctic regions a cup of warm coffee has been declared to be a far better nightcap than rum and water.

As to the power of coffee to sustain under fatigue, cold, and exposure, I may, perhaps, be allowed to give a personal illustration. Some years ago a party of travellers, including myself, started from Leukabad with the intention of climbing the Gemmi and crossing a pass involving a toilsome mountain walk of not less than thirty miles. The Gemmi is a solid wall of granite, which rises steeply to the height of 5000 feet. So precipitous is this immense cliff that travellers are only allowed to mount it on foot by means of the narrow paths which are cut in zig-zags along its bare surface. We had not proceeded far on our journey when we were overtaken by a severe snowstorm. Unwilling to turn back, and enjoying the beauty of the storm, we steadily climbed to the summit of the Gemmi. Here, however, we met the full force of the storm, which was sweeping unchecked over the glacier-worn surface of the snow-covered plain. In the teeth of the wind and the blinding snow we pressed forward mile after mile, while the icicles hung from the beards of the gentlemen and the hats of the ladies. Presently we came in sight of the lonely hospice which stands beside the black waters of a tarn. Glad of shelter we turned into the little inn and shook the snow and icicles from our clothes, and changed wet stockings and boots for dry ones, always carried with us as a precaution. "What shall we take? " was then the question, and various stimulants and hot drinks were suggested; but my husband, knowing that we did not wish to stay the afternoon and evening at the dreary inn, advised us not to touch alcohol, but to take only hot coffee if we wished to continue our journey. To the disappointment of the innkeeper, we therefore ordered nothing more than a large pot of smoking hot coffee, with which we refreshed ourselves. After a short rest, stimulated and warmed by the coffee, we again started gaily on our journey, and walked another sixteen miles through the snow-covered forests to the nearest green valley, which we reached late. We were all convinced that it was owing to the coffee that we accomplished this toilsome journey in the snowstorm on foot, and that if we had taken alcohol as a restorative we should have spent the afternoon tired and chilly by the inn fire. This view is strongly expressed by Germain See, the French physician. In comparing alcohol and coffee, he says: "The muscular system and muscular energy are marvellously roused by coffee, and a man fatigued or overworked can find no more wholesome support; whereas alcohol produces in the muscles a dubious passing excitement, and in the end a degeneration of all the organs of human activity." Sir William Roberts says that coffee inhibits or slows stomach digestion, which action is very marked in strong black coffee, hence it is unadvisable for those who have weak digestions to take strong coffee after dinner.