NOTE.——In the foregoing I have not considered the question of the influence of tea and coffee upon the “temperance movement.” One of the keenest observers of human nature, as well as one of our soundest _thinkers_, Dr. Oswald, from whose Physical Education I have freely drawn in the chapters on Consumption-- and his view in this matter is endorsed by many very able physiologists and sociologists——says (p. 64): “The road to the rum-cellar leads through the coffee-house. Abstinence from _all_ stimulants, only, is easier than temperance.” Everywhere do I find temperance reformers essaying to lead rum-drinkers back _by the road they came_, viz: back through the coffee-house——taking a drink _en route_. I think that, in the long run, they will do better to try to conduct them from the “gin-mill” squarely into the street, and thence home. While not desiring to furnish arguments for the opponents of temperance (I would that _all_ stimulants were done away with), I cannot forbear pointing out what seems to me a glaring inconsistency among my co-laborers in reform. Of course all must admit that, in many respects, there can be no comparison drawn between liquor-drinking and tea and coffee-drinking: Other things equal, the man who drinks “rum” to excess, works vastly more misery in the world than the coffee toper; though, individually, if the latter were to indulge as copiously as does his spirit-drinking contemporary, he would suffer as much, probably more, in his health——would die more speedily. Of course we know that few coffee and tea-drinkers indulge to this extreme; but when we consider the almost universal use of these beverages——by women and growing children, as well as by men, it is more than doubtful whether they do not, _per se_, from a health point of view (considering, moreover, the influence of disease upon morals) aggregate more harm than their _more_ “ardent” rivals. Added to this, the fact that the use of one stimulant often leads to the use of others and stronger (as we have always argued that beer and wine lead on to whisky and brandy), the friends of true reform may well ask themselves whether, in their own indulgence in tea and coffee, and in the effort to increase their use among the people, they are not hitting wide of the mark? I am well aware that wine-drinkers, and those who indulge moderately in stronger drink, often pertinently reply to temperance workers, “When all the temperance reformers leave off _their_ favorite stimulants we will leave off ours.” Says Dr. Dudley A. Sargent, Professor of Physical Culture at Harvard College, “I am convinced that coffee works more injury to mankind than beer.” CHAPTER XVIII. APPETITE——CONTINENCE.