Miss Beecher's Domestic Receipt Book. Catharine Esther Beecher
peculiar flavor of tea depends upon the volatile oil, which has the taste and smell of tea. Alone, it acts as a narcotic, but when combined (as in tea) with tannin, it acts as a diuretic and diaphoretic (i.e. to promote the flow of urine and perspiration). Its astringency, proved by its chemical properties, depends upon the presence of tannin. Of this quality we may beneficially avail ourselves in some cases of poisoning, as by poisonous mushrooms, by opium, or laudanum.”
“The peculiar influence of tea, especially the green variety, over the nervous system, depends upon the vegetable oil referred to. The influence is analogous to that of foxglove; for both green tea and foxglove occasion watchfulness, and act as sedatives on the heart and bloodvessels. Strong green tea produces, on some constitutions, usually those popularly known as nervous, very severe effects. It gives rise to tremor, anxiety, sleeplessness, and most distressing feelings.”
“As a diluent and sedative, tea is well adapted to febrile and inflammatory disorders. To its sedative influence should be ascribed the relief of headache sometimes experienced.”
On this subject, Dr. Lee remarks, “Green tea undoubtedly possesses very active medicinal properties; for a very strong decoction of it, or the extract, speedily destroys life in the inferior animals, even when given in very small doses. The strongly marked effects of tea upon persons of a highly nervous temperament, in causing wakefulness, tremors, palpitations, and other distressing feelings, prove, also, that it is an agent of considerable power. It not unfrequently occasions vertigo, and sick headache, together with a sinking sensation at the pit of the stomach, shortly after eating. It is also opposed to active nutrition, and should, therefore, be used with great moderation by those who are thin in flesh. From its astringent properties it often is useful in a relaxed state of bowels.”
“We are satisfied that green tea does not, in any case, form a salubrious beverage to people in health, and should give place to milk, milk and water, black tea, milk and sugar, which, when taken tepid, form very agreeable and healthy drinks.”
Coffee. “The infusion, or decoction of coffee, forms a well known favorite beverage. Like tea, it diminishes the disposition to sleep, and hence it is often resorted to by those who desire nocturnal study. It may also be used to counteract the stupor induced by opium, alcoholic drinks, and other narcotics. In some constitutions it acts as a mild laxative, yet it is usually described as producing constipation. The immoderate use of coffee produces various nervous diseases, such as anxiety, tremor, disordered vision, palpitation, and feverishness.”
Chicory, or Succory. This is the roasted root of the Wild Endive, or Wild Succory. It is prepared like coffee, and some prefer its flavor to that of coffee.
Chocolate. This is prepared by roasting the seeds of the Cacoa, or Cocoa, then grinding them and forming them into cakes. “Chocolate, though devoid of the disagreeable qualities of tea and coffee, which disturb the nervous functions, yet is difficult of digestion, on account of the large quantity of oil which it contains, and is, therefore, very apt to disturb the stomach of dyspeptics.”
Cocoa. This is made of the nuts and husks of the cocoa, roasted and ground, and is somewhat less oily than chocolate, and being rather astringent, is adapted to looseness of the bowels. The shells alone are often used to make a drink, which is less rich than the Cocoa, and especially adapted to weak digestive powers.
The seeds of the vegetable called Ochra, roasted and prepared like coffee, are said to equal it in flavor.
3. Acidulous Drinks.
“The employment of vegetable acid, as an aliment, is necessary to health. It seems pretty clearly established, that complete and prolonged abstinence from succulent vegetables, or fruits, or their preserved juices, as articles of food, is a cause of scurvy.”
“Water, sharpened with vegetable acids, oftentimes proves a most refreshing beverage, allaying thirst, and moderating excessive heat. Various acids form cooling, refreshing, and antiscorbutic drinks, and are well adapted for hot seasons, and for febrile and inflammatory cases.”
These drinks are prepared by dissolving vegetable acids or acidulous salts in water, sweetening and flavoring it. Also, by decoctions of acid fruits, which promote secretions in the alimentary canal, and act as laxatives.
The carbonated or effervescing drinks belong to this class. They owe their sparkling briskness to carbonic acid gas confined in the liquid.
4. Drinks containing Gelatine and Osmazome.
Gelatine is that part of animal and vegetable matter that forms jelly.
Osmazome is that principle in meats which impart their flavor.
Beef Tea, Mutton, Veal, and Chicken Broths are the principal drinks of this description, and usually are prepared for invalids.
5. Emulsive, or Milky Drinks.
Animal milk is the principal drink of this class, and as this is the aliment of a large portion of young children, the necessity of guarding against abuses connected with the supplies furnished should be generally known.
A great portion of the milk furnished in New York and other large cities, is obtained from cows fed on distillery slops, and crowded in filthy pens, without regard to ventilation or cleanliness. Thus deprived of pure air and exercise, and fed with unhealthy food, their milk becomes diseased, and is the cause of extensive mortality among young children. Many cows, also, are fed on decayed vegetables, and the sour and putrid offals of kitchens, and these, also, become thus diseased.
A work on this subject, by R. M. Hartly, Esq., of New York, has been published, which contains these facts. Of five hundred dairies near New York and Brooklyn, all, except five or six, feed their cows on distillery slops. And the reason is, that it yields more milk at a cheaper rate than any other food. But it soon destroys the health of the animals, and after most of their fluids are, by this process, changed to unhealthy milk, and the cows become diseased, they are sent to a cattle market and a new supply obtained.
The physicians in New York, in a body, have testified to the unhealthiness of this practice, but as yet no inspectors have been secured to preserve the public from this danger, while the great mass of the people are ignorant or negligent on the subject. Chemists have analyzed this unhealthful milk, and find that, while pure milk is alkaline, slop milk is acid, and also contains less than half the nourishment contained in pure milk. Scarcely any cream rises on slop milk, and what does collect can never be turned into butter; but, by churning, only changes to froth. We have inspectors of flour, meat, fish, and most other food, and every town and city supplied by milk carts ought to have inspectors of milk; and where this is not done, every mistress of a family should narrowly watch her supplies of milk, and ascertain the mode in which the cows are fed.
In cases where children, or adults, find that milk troubles the stomach, it is often owing to its richness, and water should then be mixed with it. Infants generally require diluted milk, a little sweetened, as cow’s milk is, when good, considerably richer than mother’s milk. The fact that oil is placed among the articles most difficult to digest, shows the mistake of many, who give diluted cream instead of milk, supposing it to be better for infants. In all ordinary cases, where an infant is deprived of the mother’s nourishment, the milk of a new milch cow, diluted with one-third, or one-fourth water, and sweetened a little with white sugar, is the safest substitute. Sometimes oat-meal gruel, or arrowroot, are found to agree better with the child’s peculiar constitution.
6. Alcoholic Drinks.
Beer, Wine, Cider, and Distilled Liquors, are the chief of the alcoholic drinks.
“To persons in health,” says Dr. Pereira, in his “Elements of Materia Medica,” “the dietical employment of wine is either useless or pernicious.“ Dr. Beaumont, in his celebrated experiments on St. Martin,1 found that wines, as well as distilled spirits, invariably interfered with the regularity and completeness of digestion, and always produced