STIMULANTS AND NARCOTICS.
The mere gratification of their physical wants by food and drink has never satisfied the appetites of men. They have unceasingly sought some substance which would act more directly on the nervous system, exciting its sensory powers or modifying the brain action ; and in spite of the many and grievous injuries which this yearning has entailed upon mankind at various times, it has also been a most potent incentive to productive exertion.
Both the animal and vegetable worlds supply such nervines. From the milk of his mares the Tartar prepares his mildly intoxicating koumiss, and from the honey of his bees the Teuton warrior obtained the foaming mead wherewith to fill his horn ; the " barley brew " was famous in ancient Egypt ; the pulque, from the fermented juice of the aloe, was only too popular among the Mexicans long before Columbus ; palm wine is the beverage of Central Africa ; beers from millet, rye, rice, and other grains where these are raised ; and cider and perry from apples and pears.
The fruit of the vine has yielded its ruddy liquor to man in Eastern Asia from ages long before the beginning of history. Those nations who had discovered no alcoholic beverage sought nervines from other chemical series. The Kamchatkan steeps a poisonous fungus in water, a draught which drives him into frenzy and unconsciousness ; the Creek Indians collected the emetic and drastic roots of the cassine or blue flag and by violent vomiting and purging produced a hebetude of the intellect ; the California tribes had discovered how to disorder their brains with the chucuaco ; while tea from China, coffee from Arabia, coca from Brazil, opium from India, and tobacco from America have made the conquest of the world. The distillation of alcohol merely flavored with the organic elements of plants led to the wholesale introduction of the numerous "spirits" which now exert such a disastrous effect on the lives of millions of the highest races.
Apart from such examples of notorious abuse of these accessories to food, physicians are not of one mind as to their effect on the race at large, although it is one of the most vital questions of modern life. The absolute prohibition of alcoholic drinks by the great religious Brahmanism, Buddhism, and Mohammedanism has driven their votaries to indulgence in hasheesh, opium, and tea, nor has it elevated them to an equality with the adherents of Christianity, which teaches temperance ill all things, but not abstinence from anything. The theory that wine, tea, or coffee by stimulating the brain-power has assisted the forces of modern civilization has no serious arguments in its favor ; indeed, more can be said for the reverse opinion, that the extended introduction of tobacco during the last three centuries has deteriorated the nervous systems, aggressive powers, and vital energy of the nations most addicted to it, as the Spanish Amer icans and the Hollanders.
So strong, however, has been the attraction of these articles to the race that their cultivation, preparation, and sale have been among the most urgent motives of agriculture, arts, and traffic. Tobacco was known among the American Indians from Chili to Canada. It was a favorite object of barter. The pipes in which to smoke it were elaborately carved, and evidently prized as treasured possessions, among the mysterious Mound builders of the Ohio Valley. The history of wine, its manufacture and sale, the planting of vineyards, the introduction of the grape in other lands,—all this, if fully set forth, would be a picture in little of the course of Aryan civilization. The culture of coffee has led to the reclaiming of millions of acres that would otherwise still be covered with tropical forests.