Cancer has been repeatedly spoken of as a disease of civilization, and there are many other elements besides meat to be considered in connection with its etiology. Coffee and tea are so widely and almost universally used in civilized countries, and their apparently pleasant effect is so great that few realize the harm that may result therefrom; although from time to time their injurious effects, especially along the line of digestive and nervous troubles, are dwelt on by medical writers. Of late years, however, more attention has been paid to their influence on metabolism and also to the relation of their consumption to the increase of cancer. From a report to the House of Commons in England, Holland is shown to be the largest per capita consumer of coffee of any country in Europe, and the cancer death rate there in 1905 was among the highest, while Hungary was the smallest consumer of coffee, and the cancer mortality in 1903 was only 39 per 100,000, or a little over one-third that in Holland. It may be interesting to know that Thompson states that “the people of the United States consume one-third of the total coffee produced, or more than Germany, Austria, Hungary, France and the United Kingdom combined. On the other hand England and her colonies consume one-half of the world’s output of tea, and the United States but one-fifth of it.” The scientific basis of a possible relationship of the consumption of coffee and tea to the prevalence of cancer may be better understood when we remember that caffeine and theine belong to the xanthin group, and contain exactly the same equivalent of nitrogen as uric acid. A single cup of coffee of fair strength, it is stated by Hutchinson, contains from one to three grains of caffeine, and a cup of fairly strong tea 1.21 grains, or more than the average medicinal dose of this drug; and all know how great may be the consumption of coffee and tea by some individuals, and that many of the working class, especially, consume enormous amounts of tea, which is kept brewing all day. Roberts has very clearly demonstrated, by clever experiments, that tea interferes very greatly with both the salivary and gastric digestion.