Music Welcome to Snewscast, the podcast designed to help you fall asleep. Find us at snewscast.com and if you enjoy our show, please share us with a friend. This episode is brought to you by A Cup of Tea. Tonight we'll read an excerpt from 1892s The Chemistry of Cookery by W. Matthew Williams that we've titled Count Rumford Substitute for Tea and Coffee. Snuescast first read this excerpt back in 2020. Benjamin Thompson, also known as Count Rumford, was an interesting fellow. Born in Massachusetts in 1753, he charmed and married an hearis from Concord, New Hampshire, then called Rumpford, New Hampshire. He was a British loyalist when the American Revolutionary War began. When a rebel mob attacked his house, he abandoned his house and family to join the British side of the war and conducted experiments on gunpowder. Then he moved to Bavaria, and among other things applied his scientific skills to establishing workhouses for the poor and inventing the method of cooking called Suvid.

For his efforts in science and society, he was awarded the title of Count.

He chose the name Rumford. For the town he was married in some 20 years earlier. Let's get cozy. Close your eyes. your body into the softness of your bed. Now take a few deep breaths. Rumford Substitute for Tea and Coffee. Take eight parts by weight of meal. Rumpford says, Wheat or Rye Meal, and I add or oatmeal. And one part of butter. Melt the butter in a clean iron frying pan. And, when thus melted, sprinkle the meal into it. Stir the whole briskly with a broad wooden spoon or spatula till the butter has disappeared, and the meal is of a uniform brown color, like roasted coffee. Great care being taken to prevent burning on the bottom of the pan, about half an ounce of this roasted meal boiled in a pint of water, and seasoned with salt, rapper and vinegar forms burnt soup.

Much... in a pint of water and seasoned with salt, pepper, and vinegar, forms burnt soup, much used by the wood cutters of Bavaria, who work in the mountains far away from any habitations. Their provisions for a week, the time they commonly remain in the mountains, consists of a large loaf of rye bread, which, as it does not so soon grow dry and stale as wheat and bread, is always preferred to it. A linen bag containing a small quantity of roasted meal prepared as above,

another small bag of salt, and a small wooden box containing some pounded black pepper, And sometimes, but not often, a small bottle of vinegar.

But black pepper is an ingredient never omitted. The rye bread, which, eaten alone or with cold water, would be very hard fare. rendered palatable and satisfactory, rumford things also more wholesome and nutritious by the help of a bowl of hot soup. So easily prepared from the roasted meal. He tells us that this is not only used by the woodcutters, but that it is also the common breakfast of the Bavarian peasant. And adds that it is infinitely preferable in all respects to that most pernicious wash, tea, with which the lower classes of the inhabitants of this island drench their stomachs and ruin their constitutions. He adds that when tea is taken with a sufficient quantity of sugar and good cream and with a large quantity of bread and butter or with toast and boiled eggs legs above all when it is not drunk too hot. It is certainly less unwholesome but a simple infusion of this drug, drunk boiling hot, as the poor usually take it, is certainly a poison which, though it is sometimes slow in its operation, never fails to produce fatal effects, even in the strongest constitutions, where the free use of it is continued for considerable length of time. This may appear to make a very strong condemnation of their favorite beverage. Nevertheless, I am satisfied that it is sound, and my opinion is not hastily adopted, nor borrowed from rumford. But a conclusion based upon many observations, extending over a long period of years, and confirmed by experiments made upon myself. I therefore strongly recommend this substitute, especially as so many of us have to submit to the beneficent domestic despotism of the gentler and more persevering sex. One of the common forms of this despotism being

that of not permitting its male victim to drink cold water at breakfast. This burnt soup has the further advantage of rendering imperative the boiling of the water, the most important precaution against the perils of sewage contamination, not removable by mere filtration. The experience of every confirmed tea drinker, when assembly interpreted, supplies condemnation of his beverage. The plea commonly urged on its behalf being, when understood, an eloquent expression of such condemnation. It is so refreshing. I am fit for nothing when tea time comes round until I have had my tea, and then I am fit for anything. The fit for nothing state comes on at 5 p.m. when the drug is taken at the orthodox time, or even in the early morning, in the case of those who are accustomed to have a cup of tea brought to their bedside before rising. Some will even plead for tea by telling that by its aid, one can sit up all night long at brain work without feeling sleepy provided ample supplies of the infusion are taken from time to time. It is unquestionably true that such may be done that the The tea drinker is languid and weary at tea time, whatever be the hour, and that the refreshment produced by the cup that cheers and is said not to inebriate is almost instantaneous. What is the true significance of these facts? The refreshment is certainly not due to nutrition, not to the rebuilding of any worn out or exhausted organic tissue. The total quantity of material conveyed from the tea leaves into the water is ridiculously too small for the performance of any such nutritive function. And besides this, the action is far too rapid. There is not sufficient time for the conversion of even that minute quantity into organized working tissue. the action cannot be that of a food, but is purely and simply that of a stimulating or irritant drug acting directly and abnormally on the nervous system. The five o'clock lassitude and craving is neither more nor less than the reaction induced by the habitual abnormal stimulation, or otherwise, and quite fairly stated, it is the outward symptom of a diseased condition of the brain produced by the action of a drug. It may be but a mild form of disease, but it is truly a disease nevertheless. The active principle which produces this result is the crystalline alkaloid, the theine, a compound belonging to the same class as strict nine, and a number of similar vegetable poisons. These, when diluted, act medisneally. That is, produced disturbance of normal functions as the tea does, and, like theine, most of them act especially on the nervous system. When concentrated, they are dreadful poisons. very small doses causing death. The volatile oil of which tea contains about 1% probably contributes to this effect. Johnston attributes the headaches and giddiness to which tea tasters are subject to this oil, and also the attacks of paralysis to which, after a few years, those who are employed in packing and unpacking chests of tea are found to be liable. As both the alkaloid and the oil are volatile, I suspect that they jointly contribute to these disturbances. The narcotic business being done by the volatile oil, the paralysis supplied by the alkaloid. The non-T drinker does not suffer any of the five o'clock symptoms, and if otherwise in sound health remains in steady working condition until his day's work is ended and the time for rest and sleep arrives. But the habitual victim of any kind of drug or disturbor of normal functions acquires a diseased condition displayed by the loss of vitality or other deviation from normal function, which is temporarily relieved by the usual dose of the drug, but only in such wise as to generate a renewed craving. I include in this general statement all the vice-drugs to coin a general name such as alcohol, opium, tobacco, arsenic, hasiche, beetle nut, coca leaf, thorn apple, Siberian fungus, mate, etc. All of which are excessively refreshing to their victims,

and of which the use may be and has been defended by the same argument as those used by the advocates of habitual tea drinking. The reaction or residual effect of these on the system is nearly the opposite of that of their immediate effect, and thus larger and larger doses are demanded to bring the system to its normal condition. The non-T drinker or moderate drinker is kept awake by a cup of tea or coffee taken late at night while the hard drinker of these beverages scarcely feels any effect, especially if a custom to take it at that time. The practice of taking tea or coffee by students in order to work at night is downright madness, especially when preparing for an examination. More than half of the cases of breakdown, loss of memory, fainting, etc., which occur during severe examinations and far more frequently than is commonly known, are due to this. I continually hear of promising students who have thus failed, and on inquiry have learned in almost every instance, that the victim has previously drugged himself with coffee or tea. Sleep is the rest of the brain to rob the hard-worked brain of its necessary rest as cerebral suicide. My old friend, the late Thomas Wright, the archaeologist, was a victim of this terrible folly. He undertook the translation of The Life of Julius Caesar by Napoleon III and to do it in a cruelly short time. He fulfilled his contract by sitting up several nights successively by the aid of strong tea or coffee I forget which. I saw him shortly afterwards in a few weeks he had aged alarmingly. He had become quite bald. His brain gave way I never recovered. There was but little difference between his age and mine, and but for this dreadful cerebral strain rendered possible only by the stimulant. For otherwise, he would have fallen to sleep over his work, and thereby saved his life. He might still be amusing and instructing thousands of readers by fresh volumes of popularized archaeological research. I need scarcely add that all I have said above applies to coffee as to tea, though not so seriously in this country. The active alkaloid is the same in both, but tea contains weight for weight above twice as much as coffee. In this country we commonly use about 50% more coffee than tea to each given measure of water. On the continent they use about double our quantity. This is the true secret of coffee as in France, and thus produce as potent and infusion as our tea. I need to scarcely add that the above remarks are exclusively applied to the habitual use of these stimulants. As medicines used occasionally and judiciously, they are invaluable, provided always, that they are not used as ordinary beverages. In Italy, Greece, and some parts of the East, it is customary when anybody feels ill within definite symptoms, to send to the drugest for a dose of tea. From what I have seen of its action on non tea drinkers, it appears to be specially potent in arresting the promonatory symptoms of fever and the fever headache, etc Women watched for some weeks the effects of coffee upon two persons in good health. He found that it retarded the waste of the tissues of the body, that the proportion of phosphoric acid, excreted by the kidneys, was diminished by the action of the coffee, the diet being in all other respects the same. Pure caffeine produced a similar effect. The aromatic oil of the coffee, given separately, was found to exert a stimulating effect on the nervous system. All the popular stimulants, refreshing drugs, and pick me ups have two distinct and opposite actions, an immediate exaltation, which lasts for a certain period, varying with the drug and the constitution of its victim, and a subsequent depression, proportionate to the primary exultation, but as I believe, always exceeding at either or duration or intensity or both, thus giving as a net or mean result, a loss of vitality. We all know that the refreshing action of tea often extends over a considerable period. My own experiments on myself show that it continues about three or four hours and that of beer or wine less than an hour, moderate doses in each case. I have tested this by walking measured distances after taking the stimulant and comparing with my walking powers when taking no other beverage than cold water. The duration of the tea stimulation has been also measured painfully so by the duration of sleeplessness when female seduction has led me to drink tea late in the evening. The duration of coffee is about one third less than tea. I leave my readers to bestow on such a plea, the treatment they may think it deserves. Those who believe that a rational being should have rational grounds for his conduct will treat this customary refuge of blind conservatism as I do. I recommend tea drinkers who desire to practically investigate the subject for themselves to repeat the experiments that I have made after establishing the habit of taking tea at a particular hour. Suddenly, relinquish it altogether. The result will be more or less unpleasant. In some cases, seriously, so, So my symptoms were adol headache and intellectual sluggishness during the remainder of the day, and if compelled to do any brainwork, such as lecturing or writing, I did it badly. This, as I have already said, is the diseased condition induced by the habit. These symptoms vary with the amount of the customary indulgement and the temperament of the individual. A rough lumbering insensible laborer may drink a quart or two of tea, or a few gallons of beer, or several quart turns of gin with but small results of any kind. I know a bus driver who makes seven double journeys daily, and his regulars are half a quarter of a gin at each terminal. That means one in three quarters pints daily, exclusive of extras. This would render most men helplessly drunk, but he is never drunk and drives well and

safely. Assuming then that the experimenter has taken sufficient daily tea to have a sensible effect, he will suffer on leaving it off. impersevere in the discontinu. In spite of brain-langer and dull headache, he will find that day by day, the langer will diminish. And in the course of time, about a fortnight or three weeks in my case, he will be weaned. He will retain from morning to night the full, free and steady use of all his faculties. We'll get through his day's work without any fluctuation of working ability provided, of course, no other stimulant is used. Instead of his best faculties being dependent on a drug for their awakening, he will be in the condition of true manhood,

able to do his best in any direction of effort, simply in reply to moral demand, able to do whatever is right and advantageous because his reason shows that it is so. The sense of duty is to such a free man the only stimulus demanded for calling forth his uttermost energies. If he again returns to his habitual T, he will again be reduced to more or less of dependence upon it. dependence upon it. This condition of dependence is a state of disease precisely analogous to that which is induced by opium and other drugs that operate by temporary abnormal cerebral exaltation. I must not leave this subject without a word or two in reference to the widely prevailing and very mischievous fallacy. Many argue and actually believe that because a given drug has great efficiency in curing disease, it must do good if taken under ordinary conditions of health. No high authorities are demanded for the reputation of this. A little common sense properly used is quite sufficient. Cayenne pepper may be selected as a typical example of a condiment properly so-called. Mustard is a food and condiment combined. This is the case with some others. Curry powders are mixtures of very potent condiments, which, like the oil of mustard, may have a certain amount of special, nutritive value. The mere condiment is a stimulating drug that does its work directly upon the inner lining of the stomach by exciting it to increase and and abnormal activity, a dyspeptic may obtain immediate relief

by using cayenne pepper.

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