p. 166 | IS COFFEE NOTHING BUT LEATHER SOUP?

Seventh-Day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · March 11, 1880

FromThe Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, Vol. 55, No. 11

IS COFFEE NOTHING BUT LEATHER SOUP?

The following I copy from the annual report of agriculture for 1869: “Milk and coffee taken separately, not to interfere with each other in the stomach, are excellent; but, what is remarkable, when mixed and taken together they constitute a new composition which is absolutely indigestible.” From the explanation that follows the above I copy the following: “Now, the infusion of coffee is rich in tannin, hence its mixture with milk has the immediate result of transforming the gaseous part and the albumen that it contains into a kind of leather, indecomposable and indigestible, like that made in a tan-pit. The composition thus produced remains in the stomach until new aliments come to displace and force it through the lower orifice of the stomach into the intestines.” “Women especially, from their delicate organization, suffer in the consumption of coffee with milk. To dissuade them from its use it would be well to make them understand that café au lait is nothing in reality but leather soup.” The above is a startling revelation. Have I all these years been running a little “tan-pit,” or drinking “leather soup?” What think you? Also, what is the opinion of the scientific mind generally? OLD FARMER.

Answer.—You doubtless observed that the statement in question was credited to the report of the French Agricultural Society, and did not originate in our own Agricultural Bureau at Washington, though of late “startling” statements have become quite common from that Department. Possibly there may be some truth to the statement, though scientists differ. We shall be glad to get the opinion of any scientific mind on this question.—Inter-Ocean.