Page:Alcohol, a Dangerous and Unnecessary Medicine.djvu/437

Rh few people know of what they are made. So it frequently happens that children whose parents do not permit them to drink tea and coffee are taking caffeine in a much more injurious form at the drug stores.

Dr. Harvey W. Wiley, Chief of the Bureau of Chemistry, says: "When caffeine is separated from tea and coffee, and used as a separate drug, it exerts a much more specific action upon the system than when in natural combination. Its general effect is to induce that unhappy state described as nervousness, with deranged digestion and impaired health." Dr. H. H. Rusby, Dean of the College of Pharmacy, of Columbia University, New York City, a high authority, says: "Caffeine is a genuine poison, both acute and chronic. Taken in the form of a beverage it tends to the formation of a drug habit, quite as characteristic, though not so effective, as ordinary narcotics. Permanent disorders of the cardiac function, and of the cerebral circulation, result from its continued use."

The Druggists Circular, for May, 1908, contained a query from a druggist as to a good formula for a kola nut soda syrup. The answer was in part as follows: "There are two; kinds of druggists. One kind puts any and every kind of stuff into stock, and passes it out to his customers, young and old, ignorant or learned, foolish or wise, his only desire-being to get a profit. The other kind of druggist refuses to-stock some things at all. Kola drinks owe their vogue to the caffeine which they contain. Caffeine is a poison which is cumulative in its effects, and an excess of which has not infrequently caused death. We believe you would better be on record as discouraging rather than encouraging the growth of . the caffeine habit, especially among young people, who constitute a large part of the soda-water trade."

The London Lancet of January 25, 1908, reports the results of experiments made in Paris with kola given to horses to determine its action in relieving fatigue. It apparently diminished fatigue, but the horses receiving it lost more weight than those to whom it was not given. The