Coffee removes the sensation of fatigue more quickly than any other stimulant. It allays hunger and strengthens the heart action to a marked degree; for this reason it must be used in moderation.

The aroma of coffee is due to caffeol, an oil liberated or created in the roasting. The stimulating effect is due to the caffein. Taken at night, even in a small quantity, it frequently produces insomnia. Persons in health may drink coffee in moderation, to their advantage, providing they do not take it with meals or with solid foods. Black coffee taken at the end of the meal is better than coffee with sugar and cream. To get the full effect of coffee, to have it do its work properly, one should take it alone, early in the morning, forty minutes before the regular breakfast. In tropical countries,coffee is brought to one's bedside at five o'clock in the morning; the general first meal of the day is not served until six-thirty, and coffee is not repeated at this meal.

Coffee is injurious when it is boiled for a long time and taken with sugar and cream; it always produces flatulency, and later on intestinal troubles. If taken at all, it must be freshly made, and taken with scalded, not boiled, milk, and sipped slowly. I observe throughout the country that most of the dyspeptics are found among people who take a mouthful of bread and butter and then a swallow of coffee, or who dip their bread in coffee to soften it. A diet of this kind is a sure road to destruction.

It makes very little difference how much you pay for coffee if the infusion is carelessly made. Do not buy coffee shoveled from an open bin, in which it has been kept, uncovered, for a week or two after roasting. It has not only lost its flavor, but is possibly covered with dust, and under no circumstances will make a good infusion.