INSANE FROM COFFEE

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Sep 12, 1895

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 21, No. 36.

INSANE FROM COFFEE.

THE Saint Paul Pioneer Press gave a column article some time ago on the case of a woman in that city made insane by excessive coffee drinking. A physician of that city, Dr. Lee, tells the truth of the matter in thus speaking of both coffee and tea:—

Caffeine [the active principle of coffee] is a poison which acts on the nervous center and finally destroys the mind, but when the poison is taken away the person afflicted will recover. It will be a hard fight, no doubt, for the passion for this form of poison is as strong as the craving, will-destroying passion for opium. If she recovers she will always be in danger of falling back into the habit, just as a reformed opium eater or drinker of alcoholic beverages is always liable to become again addicted to the use of his favorite poison. The demand for the poison is always in the system, and if it is quickened by any indulgence, no matter how small, the person afflicted stands in immediate danger of being overcome with the burning desire to satisfy the cravings for the poison with which his system is filled. Mrs. Lindberg will have to abstain entirely from the use of coffee when she comes from the hospital.

Tea has the same action upon the human body, when taken in excess. This we find to be true with the tea tasters, who break down physically from introducing too great quantities of the tea poison into their bodies. It would be just as natural for a person to become a “tea drunkard” as a “coffee drunkard.” I do not think there is any danger in cutting off a person thus addicted from the poison under the influence of which they are living. Mrs. Lindberg will no doubt be deprived of her coffee at the asylum; but, if she is watched, she will not be in any danger. It is certainly a very interesting and extraordinary case, and I am going to watch it as closely as I can.

The better way to do, and, it seems to us, the Christian way, is to entirely abstain from these beverages. They do no good, and are feeders to other forms of intemperance. Why should a Christian use them? 1 Cor. 10:31.