as used at least by Western communities. For
one thing, it yields a copious amount of soluble matter in infusion with
hot water, and thus gives a specious appearance of strength and
substance to what may be really only a very weak preparation of coffee.
The mixture of chicory with coffee is easily detected by the microscope,
the structure of both, which they retain after torrefaction, being very
characteristic and distinct. The granules of coffee, moreover, remain
hard and angular when mixed with water, to which they communicate but
little colour; chicory, on the other hand, swelling up and softening,
yields a deep brown colour to water in which it is thrown. The specific
gravity of an infusion of chicory is also much higher than that of
coffee. Among the numerous other substances used to adulterate coffee
are roasted and ground roots of the dandelion, carrot, parsnip and beet;
beans, lupins and other leguminous seeds; wheat, rice and various cereal
grains; the seeds of the broom, fenugreek and iris; acorns; "negro
coffee," the seeds of _Cassia occidentalis_, the seeds of the ochro
(_Hibiscus esculentus_), and also the soja or soy bean (_Glycine Soya_).
Not only have these with many more similar substances been used as
adulterants, but under various high-sounding names several of them have
been introduced as substitutes for coffee; but they have neither merited
nor obtained any success, and their sole effect has been to bring coffee
into undeserved disrepute with the public.

Not only is ground coffee adulterated, but such mixtures as flour,
chicory and coffee, or even bran and molasses, have been made up to
simulate coffee beans and sold as such.

The leaves of the coffee tree contain caffeine in larger proportion than
the seeds themselves, and their use as a substitute for tea has
frequently been suggested. The leaves are actually so used in Sumatra,
but being destitute of any attractive aroma such as is possessed by both
tea and coffee, the infusion is not palatable. It is, moreover, not
practicable to obtain both seeds and leaves from the same plant, and as
the commercial demand is for the seed alone, no consideration either of
profit or of any dietetic or economic advantage is likely to lead to the
growth of coffee trees on account of their leaves.
(A. B. R.; W. G. F.)

COFFER (Fr. _coffre_, O. Fr. _cofre_ or _cofne_, Lat. _cophinus_, cf.
"coffin"), in architecture, a sunk panel in a ceiling or vault;