uld be
considerably moderated or wholly discontinued. No criterion can be given
by which the amount the system will tolerate can be regulated. What one
person may take with impunity, may be deleterious to an other.
Individuals differ greatly in this respect. There are some who cannot
tolerate them at all, either because of some peculiarity of
constitution, or on account of disease. And sometimes when tea is
agreeable and beneficial, coffee disagrees with the individual and _vice
versa._ Persons of nervous habits whether natural or acquired, are apt
to find their wakefulness and irritability increased by the use of tea,
particularly if strong, while coffee will have a tranquilizing effect.
Persons of a lymphatic or bilious temperament often find that coffee
disagrees with them, aggravating their troubles and causing biliousness,
constipation, and headache, while tea proves agreeable and beneficial.
Whenever they disagree with the system, the best rule is to abandon
their use. We find many persons who do not use either, and yet enjoy
health, a fact which proves that they are not by any means
indispensable, and, no doubt, were it customary to go without them,
their absence would be but slightly missed.

Tea and coffee are adulterated to a very great extent, and persons using
them will be greatly imposed upon. This is an evil we cannot remedy. If
people make use of them, their experience in selecting them must be
their guide; however, it is believed that the Black and Japan varieties
of tea are the least apt to be adulterated, and coffee, to insure
purity, should be purchased in the berry, and ground by the purchaser.

In preparing tea an infusion should be made by adding boiling water to
the leaves, and permitting them to steep for a few minutes only, for a
concentrated decoction, made by boiling for a long time, liberates the
astringent and bitter principles and drives off the agreeable aroma
which resides in a volatile oil.

Coffee should be prepared by adding cold water to the ground berry, and
raising it slowly to the boiling point. Long-continued boiling liberates
the astringent and bitter principles upon which its stimulant effects to
a great extent depend, and drives off with the steam the aromatic oil
from which the agreeable taste is derived.

ALCOHOLIC LIQUORS.

These are divided into three classes: malted, fermented, and distilled.
They all contain more or less alcohol, and their effects are, therefore,