owsiness after a full meal is a natural
condition incidental to the proper conduct of digestion, and that to
drive away this natural feeling with coffee must be an interference with
the normal condition. However, if by so doing, we can increase our
over-all efficiency without material harm to our digestive organs (and
we can and do), the procedure has much in its favor both psychologically
and dietetically.

The fact that coffee favors digestion without eventual disarrangement
has been demonstrated above. On the subject of the relative agreement
with the constitution of foods of daily consumption, Dr. English[229]
said:

It is well known that there is no species of diet which invariably
suits all constitutions, nor will that which is palatable and
salutary at one time be equally palatable and salutary at another
time to the same individual. I think the most natural food provided
for us is milk; yet I will engage to show twenty instances where
milk disagrees more than coffee.

Further in this regard, Hutchinson[230] considers that ninety percent of
the "dyspepsias" attributed to coffee are due to malnutrition, or to
food simultaneously ingested, no disease known to the medical profession
being directly attributable to it.

No one cognizant of the facts will contend that a cup of black coffee
has any direct food value; but not so with the roasted bean. This has
quite an appreciable content of protein and fat, both substances of high
calorific value. The inhabitants of the Island of Groix eat the whole
roasted coffee bean in considerable quantity, and seem to obtain
considerable nourishment therefrom. Also, the Galla, a wandering tribe
of Africa, make large use of food balls, about the size of billiard
balls, consisting of pulverized coffee held in shape with fat. One ball
is said to contain a day's ration; and, because of its food content and
stimulating power, serves to sustain them on long marches of days'
duration.

When an infusion, or decoction, of roasted coffee is made, about 1.25
percent of the extracted matter is protein, it being accompanied by
traces of dextrin and sugar. The same dearth of extraction of food
materials occurs upon infusing coffee substitutes. This small amount can
have but little dietetic significance. However, upon addition of sugar
and of milk or cream, with their content of protein, fat, and lactose,
the calorific value of the cup of coffee rises. Lusk and