By Daniel H. Kress, M. D.
begins to suffer from brain fatigue he involuntarily
reaches for a cigarette, and after taking two or three
deep inhalations he is able to complete his report.
The cocaine addict would have a similar experience.
Some time ago I had under my care a prominent
state official. The second day after his arrival at the
institution, he called me to his room and said, “ Doc-
tor, something is wrong; evidently the treatments
do not agree with me. I have a headache. In fact I
ache all over. I cannot apply my mind to work that
I must do.”
Knowing he was a user of coffee, I said to him,
“Governor , it is not the treatments that are
responsible for your condition, but the fact that
you have had no coffee since coming here.”
He ridiculed the idea and said, ‘‘No, that cannot
be it.”
“Well,” I replied, ‘‘let us have a demonstration.”
I ordered a cup of coffee prepared for him. A
half hour after drinking it, he came to my office all
smiles, and said, ‘‘ Doctor you were right. 1 feel
like a different man.”
Then 1 said to him, “This is the best evidence I
can present to you that coffee is harmful. A good
thing can be given up without suffering; but not so
with a drug, whether that drug be cocaine, morphine,
nicotine, or caffeine.”
Does NOT RECHARGE BATTERIES
ET us see what coffee actually does. Does it re-
lieve fatigue? In the human body we have cer-
tain cells that are capable of storing up energy some-
what as a storage battery is capable of being
charged with electricity. It is during the sleeping
hours and rest that these cells are charged with
energy granules. During the working period the
stored-up energy is liberated and utilized in doing
brain and muscular work. When the cells are
almost depleted, fatigue is felt. This is nature's
warning to stop and give nature a chance to rest and
replenish, or recharge, these cells. If, however, at
this point a cup of coffee or a cigarette should be
resorted to, the fatigue would disappear and mental
or muscular work could be again continued. Coffee
does not recharge these little batteries with a new
supply of energy. What does it do? It makes
the person unconscious of his real condition and
need, and thus makes it possible to squeeze out a
few of the extra energy granules that nature would
have held in reserve as a margin of safety, just as a
wise business man retains in the bank a certain sum
to be drawn upon in case of an emergency. The
man, therefore, who depends upon coffee to keep
fit is headed toward physical bankruptcy.
Nansen, the famous arctic explorer, made the
discovery that while coffee relieved fatigue and
exerted a stimulating effect upon his men, it was
JULY, 1929
unsafe for them to depend upon it when exposed
to cold and extreme exertion. He says in his book,
“Across Greenland’: “My experience leads me
to take a decided stand against the use of stimu-
lants and narcotics of all kinds, from tea and coffee
to tobacco and alcoholic drinks. The idea that one
gains by stimulating body ‘and mind by artificial
means, betrays, in my opinion, not onlv ignorance of
the simplest physiological laws, but also a want of
experience by observation.”
DonN’T TAMPER WITH SIGNALS
HIS statement was based upon a long period
of observation. He knew that when he was ex-
posed to extreme cold, nature's signals of danger
should not be tampered with. Caffeine is a poi-
sonous irritant. It does not impart energy, but
irritates the brain cells and nerve centers. This
temporarily imparts increased action to the heart
and muscular system, and strength seems to be
increased. Imagination becomes more vivid. This
seeming improvement is, in fact, merely nervous
excitement. It is the same feeling the fever patient
experiences when his temperature rises. He be-
comes talkative and feels quite fit. When the
irritation subsides, then there is felt a corresponding
degree of languor, and another cup of coffee is de-
manded. In the absence of the coffee, a cigarette
will answer the same purpose. Since coffee cannot
be carried about during the day and the cigarette
can, the cigarette is resorted to. It is not surpris-
ing that practically all cigarette addicts are found
to be coffee drinkers or tea topers. The use of one
naturally leads to the use of the other. Both are
habit-forming drugs.
Several years ago in Australia, I was driven to
the station in a taxi. The horse stumbled along in a
lifeless way, with head down. Fearing I would
be late to the train, I said to the driver, who was
doing his best to prod him along, “What is the mat-
ter with your horse?”
He replied: “I have been taken in on him. Three
days ago when I purchased him, he was a spirited
animal. He stepped along with his head up and
needed no urging. I later discovered he had been
drugged, and two days after my purchase he was
in the condition you see him in today.”
The drug given to the animal, whatever it was,
acted as a whip, just as coffee does to the worn-out
and exhausted society lady. The horse made an
energetic showing, and did better work while under
the influence of the drug, but when deprived of it
his true condition became apparent. It is not the
whip a tired, worn-out horse needs. He needs
building up, not whipping up. This is equally true of
the one who finds coffee a necessity to keeping fit.
Coffee acts as a mental and muscular stimulant,
just as the drug did to this horse, but coffee does
not impart strength to either mind or body. Stim-
ulation 1s not strength. Stimulation dissipates, it
does not impart anything. (Continued on page 30)
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