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Title: A treatise concerning the properties and effects of coffee
Author: Benjamin Moseley
Release date: January 19, 2026 [eBook #77741]
Language: English
Original publication: London: J. Sewell, 1792
Credits: Tim Lindell, Thiers Halliwell and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A TREATISE CONCERNING THE PROPERTIES AND EFFECTS OF COFFEE ***
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A
TREATISE
CONCERNING THE
PROPERTIES AND EFFECTS
OF
COFFEE.
A
TREATISE
CONCERNING THE
PROPERTIES AND EFFECTS
OF
COFFEE.
THE FIFTH EDITION,
WITH CONSIDERABLE ADDITIONS.
By BENJAMIN MOSELEY M. D.
Physician to Chelsea Hospital, Member of the College
of Physicians of London, of the University of Leyden,
of the American Philosophical Society, &c. &c.;
Author of a Treatise on Tropical Diseases, Military
Operations, and the Climate of the West-Indies.
LONDON:
PRINTED FOR J. SEWELL, NO. 32, CORNHILL.
M.DCC.XCII.
PREFACE.
THE reception which four editions of this Treatise have met with,
has made it necessary to publish a fifth; which I now present to the
reader, with such additions, as I hope will be acceptable and useful[1].
[1] The first Edition was published in the beginning of 1785.
I HAVE collected many authorities, to corroborate what I have advanced;
that, as my opinions have prejudices to contend with, they may not,
however, be objectionable on the ground of singularity, and be
considered as supported by no other testimony than my own.
IN treating of the salutary advantages, which the public will derive,
individually, from the general use of Coffee, it is impossible not to
reflect also on the political benefits which will accrue to the Parent
State, by increasing its cultivation in her Colonies.
TO the Colonists themselves the object is very extensive; and surely
the prosperity of so important a part of the empire, as our West Indian
Islands, demands the most liberal attention on the part of the nation.
FROM the produce of our Plantations, that “magnificent property,” as
Mons. NECKER terms the French Colonies, “which only the superficial
and ignorant affect to undervalue,” this country receives great
additions to her revenue, and a total supply of one of the most useful
articles (perhaps now a necessary) of life. Yet, from the calamities
lately inflicted on some of them by the hand of Providence, and the
accumulated burthens which the public necessities have laid on them
all, many of the Planters are involved in ruin; and those who escape
must owe their deliverance to the bravest struggles of industrious
virtue.
THE population of White Inhabitants, which is the great security of
the Islands, consists chiefly of those who cultivate the inferior
Staple Commodities, among which, Coffee is now the principal; and this
population has always been proportionable to the increase or decrease
of those Staples. Indigo may be instanced as an example: When Indigo
was encouraged in Jamaica, before that impolitic duty was laid on it,
which exterminated the cultivation of it in our Colonies, and gave it
to the French, there were considerably more White Inhabitants in that
Island than there are at present, though the Island now produces five
times the quantity of Sugar and Rum it did at that time.
THE cultivation of Coffee requiring but little capital, is an
inducement for people of small fortunes to settle in the Islands. It is
a creditable refuge for the industrious man, who has been unfortunate
in Trade, and to those whose larger schemes in life have failed.--It is
an easy employment; the labour light, and many parts of it performed
by children. The situations and soil where it is carried on must be
dry, and of course healthy, to be advantageous. Coffee Plantations, in
particular, may be considered as a Nursery of useful Inhabitants for
the Colonies.
THE soil best suited for Coffee is happily such as can be spared from
every other purpose. Large tracts of poor land, which would otherwise
lie waste and useless, may be rendered as profitable as the best,
without the mortality and casualties attendant on severe labour in hot
climates.
THE numerous little families which live on Coffee Plantations, and are
dispersed in small settlements, in the interior parts of the Islands,
occasion the mountainous and woody lands to be cleared and opened; and
to be intersected with roads and easy communications.
THUS the residents live in safety, and all sorts of property acquire
a proportionate value and security. The retreats of fugitive negroes
are laid open; plunder and depredation prevented; and conspiracies
for rebellion are deprived of their hiding-places.--And thus the
credit of the planter, and security of the merchant, stand on a
firm basis:--those commotions being prevented, which have so often
disturbed the tranquillity of the Islands, and occasioned the ruin of
many individuals abroad and at home, to the great defalcation of that
immense revenue, which these Islands pay to the Mother-Country[2].
[2] The duties and excises, upon a computation for the year 1781,
amount to about £. 1,344,312 sterling, annually, on the produce of
_Jamaica_ only.
BESIDES, the importance of a numerous body of men, to form an
occasional militia, is evident, to any person acquainted with the
Colonies, who must know how little fatigue and exposure to the sun is
sufficient to destroy an unseasoned stranger.
INHABITANTS are always ready in case of sudden emergency; and being
acquainted with local circumstances, and inured to the climate, can
perform services, which uninformed, raw, European troops cannot do;
and, were interest and attachment less operative considerations,
Colonial Inhabitants may be depended on;--many instances of which were
exhibited in the events of last war.
THE firmness displayed by the militia of Jamaica, during the different
periods of Martial Law at that time, when left almost to defend
themselves, ought ever to be remembered to their honour. While many
of the troops that were raised here with so much difficulty, and sent
thither and maintained at so much cost, were perishing in hospitals,
the Island militia underwent the severest fatigues, with the greatest
alacrity; chiefly at their own, and, let me add, very heavy expence,
I was then Surgeon-General of the Island, and had the care of the
militia, and likewise the camps of the regulars, and witnessed the
facts I relate.
THE truth is, that Sugar Plantations, though they are great sources of
wealth to their proprietors, as well as to government, do not employ a
sufficient number of white people for their internal security, against
the insurrections of the negroes. The manufacture is simple, and the
labour wholly carried on by slaves; and though the Deficiency Law of
Jamaica directs, that one white person shall be employed for every
thirty slaves, under a penalty of thirty pounds per annum for every
deficiency,--yet, this law is often defeated, or the fine submitted
to; as white servants are expensive, and a less number than that
proportion is sufficient for the purpose of making Sugar.
THE cultivation of inferior Staple Commodities is therefore necessary
to the very existence of the Sugar Colonies; and I am persuaded will
prove to them more beneficial in many respects, than at present is
generally imagined.--Here, then, is an open and grateful field for
Colonial Patriotism; in which the _Amor Patriæ_ will neither find
opposition from envy, nor disappointment from ingratitude.--Here is
the occasion to demonstrate the love of country, and to perpetuate a
benefit to mankind, which will never be forgotten; and if those who,
from character and situation are entitled to attention, will come
forward, and point out to the Public the impositions it has suffered
from misrepresentations, and that the interests of the Sugar Colonies
are no other than the best interests of this Country, there will
never be wanting sufficient good sense in the Nation, to understand,
that a subject of the realm, exerting his industry at four thousand
miles distance, may be employed as beneficially to the State, as the
manufacturer at home, who lives by him; and is as much deserving the
protection of it, as the Country ’Squire, who leaves his fox-hounds, to
give a silent vote or two during the winter, and retires the remainder
of the year to his _Sabine Fields_ in sloth and ignorance.
SIR NICHOLAS LAWS was the first person who planted Coffee in
Jamaica;--but dying three years afterwards, in 1731, he had not the
happiness to see the cultivation of it make any considerable progress.
IN 1732, several of the Planters and Merchants, belonging to the
Island, became patrons of the undertaking; and convinced that, under
proper encouragement, it might be of importance to the Island, and
that Coffee might become a flourishing staple article of produce, they
subscribed the sum of 220l. 10s. towards defraying the charges of
soliciting an act of parliament for lowering the inland duty, upon the
importation of Coffee from Jamaica into Great Britain; which at that
time was 10l. sterling per cwt.
The circumstance being but little known at present, and considering
what obligation the Island is under to their exertions, I am happy in
having an opportunity of inserting their names, as a proper tribute
to the memory of those benefactors to the Colony, and friends to the
Nation.
~LONDON~, _Anno 1732_.
A List of the persons who subscribed and paid into the hands of
Mr. _Roger Drake and Co._ the several sums undermentioned, towards
defraying the charges of an application, for an Act of Parliament, to
encourage the planting of _Coffee_ in the Island of _Jamaica_.
£. _s._
John Ascough, Esq; 10 10
Thomas Beckford, Esq; 10 10
James Dawkins, Esq; 10 10
Henry Dawkins, Esq; 10 10
Mess. Drake, Pennant, and Long; 21 0
Thomas Fish, Esq; 10 10
Mr. James Fitter; 5 5
Cope Freeman, Esq; 10 10
John Gibbon, Esq; 10 10
Mr. John Gregory; 5 5
Capt. Joseph Hiscox; 10 10
Mr. Henry Lang, and Co. 5 5
James Lawes, Esq; 10 10
John Lewis, Esq; 10 10
Mrs. Susannah Lowe; 10 10
Samuel Long, Esq; 10 10
Charles Long, Esq; 10 10
Mess. Mayleigh and Gale; 10 10
Valent. Mumbee, Esq; 10 10
Favele Peeke, Esq; 10 10
---- ---- 10 10
Capt. George Wane; 5 5
--------
£.220 10
IN the same year, and in consequence of this solicitation, the _Act
5th Geo._ II. was passed, entitled, “An Act for encouraging the growth
of Coffee in the Plantations in _America_.”--The preamble recites,
that the soil and climate of Jamaica are particularly adapted for the
growth of this commodity; and the act itself reduces the inland duty
upon British Plantation Coffee, imported into Great Britain, from two
shillings to eighteen pence per pound:--And here it stood for many
years, producing a revenue of about 10,000l. per annum. A few years
ago, on the representation of the West Indian Planters, _Lord John
Cavendish_, the then Chancellor of the Exchequer, consented to the
very important reduction of one shilling more; thereby furnishing a
most useful lesson to all future financiers,--_the present duty of six
pence per pound actually producing nearly three times the sum that was
received when the duty was eighteen pence_: so true is the doctrine,
that heavy taxation defeats its own purpose.
IT has been computed, that one acre of land will contain 1100 Coffee
plants, which will produce berries in eighteen months from the
sowing of the seed. The trees will continue bearing for seven or
eight years.--Each tree, after the first bearing, may produce, at
a medium, one and an half or two pounds weight, one with another;
and six or eight servants can manage ten or twelve acres, besides
cultivating provisions for themselves. Upon this ground of calculation,
it is apparent, that one acre of land, supposing the weather not
unfavourable, may yield annually from 1700 lb. to 2200 lb. weight,
which, when brought to market, may sell for 9l. 15s. to 12l. 15s.
sterling _net_. This, it is true, is but a small profit; for it is
little more than five farthings per pound, whereas the _duty alone is
six pence per pound_. If the duty was equalized to that upon Sugar, the
medium profits per acre would be about 40l. per annum. At present, the
_net_ profits upon this article, and upon Sugar in Jamaica, are nearly
equal per acre; that is, 10l. or 12l. sterling.
IN the year 1752, the export of Coffee from Jamaica was rated at 60,000
pounds weight. In 1775, it was 440,000 pounds.--Under the present duty
of six pence per pound, there is reason to expect, that the exports may
rather increase than diminish. But it is not likely to become a subject
of very extensive culture in our West Indian Islands, until even this
duty is lowered, or at least while _foreign_ Coffee is permitted
to enter into completion with it at the British market. Though the
Planters of Jamaica, after a multitude of experiments, and the most
laudable exertions, have discovered the art of cultivating, picking,
and curing the berries, so as to make their Coffee equal to the growth
of Arabia; some samples have been produced from that Island, before
the cultivation was so well understood as it is at present, which were
pronounced, by the London dealers, even superior to the best brought
from the East.
“TWO of the samples were equal to the best Mocha Coffee, and two more
of them superior to any Coffee to be had at the grocers shops in
London, unless you will pay the price of _picked_ Coffee for it, which
is two shillings per pound more than for that which they call the best
Coffee. All the rest of the samples were far from bad Coffee, and very
little inferior, if at all, to what the grocers call _best_ Coffee[3].”
[3] Mr. _Stephen Fuller_’s Letter to the Committee of Correspondence in
Jamaica, dated, London, 28th July, 1783.
WHAT revolutions may change the nature of our commerce, were it
possible to foresee, it is not in my province to examine; but the
Legislature of England, as well as those of her Colonies, have had a
wise example before them, in the conduct of France, by her promoting
and protecting the growth of every thing, that could supply the place
of articles which Europe purchases in the East Indies. _Piementa_, or
_Pimento_ (_Myrtus Arborea Aromatica foliis laurinis_), or All-spice,
as it is commonly called, from having a flavour composed, as it
were, of cloves, cinnamon, juniper berries, nutmegs, and pepper, is
the peculiar spice of Jamaica[4]: and it equals in virtues, and is
more applicable to the general purposes of life, and luxury too, than
any spice that is brought from the East. The various uses into which
_Pimento_ is converted in Europe, are but little known to those who
raise it. One secret, at least, I am able to divulge to them, which is,
that its essential oil, coloured with _Alkanet Root_, to give it the
appearance of age, is sold all over Europe for the oil of cloves[5].
[4] From 12,000 to 15,000 bags of Pimento have been annually imported
into England from Jamaica: each bag contains about one hundred weight.
It pays a duty of about two pence per pound.
[5] The principal and prevailing flavour of Pimento is like that of
cloves: its oil exactly resembles the oil of that spice, and sinks as
that does in water. The oil resides chiefly, like that of cloves, in
the shell, or cortical part.
SIR HANS SLOANE, in the Phil. Trans. Abr. vol. II. p. 667. says, that
“_Piementa_ may deservedly be counted the best and most temperate,
mild, and innocent, of common spices, and fit to come into greater use,
and gain more ground, than it yet hath, of the East India commodities
of this kind; almost all of which it far surpasses, by promoting the
digestion of meat, attenuating tough humours, moderately heating,
strengthening the stomach, expelling wind, and doing those friendly
offices to the bowels, we generally expect from spices.”
TO this inferiority of the dear-bought and far-fetched spices of
the East, I can bear ample testimony;--and it ought further to be
considered, that the spice in question, being the produce of one of
our own Colonies, and growing there in the greatest abundance, can be
afforded at a price that the poor of Great Britain may have all the
comforts of its excellent properties; which I hope to have leisure to
make sufficiently known to them hereafter.
THE encouraging every article which increases the intercourse with our
Colonies, is increasing our commerce. The payment for all the staples
of the West Indies is made in our manufactures; the sale of which
must increase in proportion to the numbers that are employed in the
cultivation of what is bartered for them. Our West Indian Islands,
without draining us of specie or bullion, can supply us with many of
those very articles for which we are drained in other parts of the
world[6]. The quantity of shipping and seamen, necessarily employed in
carrying supplies thither, and transporting their commodities back to
Europe, must be very considerable. To these reflections it must also
be added, that the political disadvantage of not encouraging our own
Colonies is, that we must encourage those of other countries, which
have long supplied our markets, to the detriment of our revenue, and
the impoverishing our Colonies.
[6] The India Company pay for the Mocha Coffee in specie. The original
cost is about 7l. sterling per cwt.
HOW long our superiority in some branches of manufacture may continue
to be the source of wealth they are at present, is uncertain; but by
improving the produce of our own soil, and encouraging the consumption
at home, of such commodities as give employment to our own subjects
abroad, England will enrich her Colonies, and draw proportionate
advantages; secure their attachment, and establish a population there,
indispensable for the protection of those possessions, which are
productive of the most valuable and permanent commerce of the empire.
LONDON, _Pall Mall_;
30 January, 1792.
A
TREATISE, &c.
IT is a generally received opinion, that the human frame is not
less influenced by diet than by climate; that its dispositions and
characteristics owe their originality as much to food, as those
diseases, evidently do, which are the legitimate and indisputable issue
of it.
IF the preceding position be just, there cannot surely be a subject
more interesting to man, than the pursuit of that knowledge which may
instruct him to avoid what is hurtful to health, to select for his use
such things as tend to raise the value of his condition, and to carry
the enjoyments of life to their utmost improvement.
WITH this idea, I submit to the public some observations which have
occurred to me, on the dietetic and medicinal properties and effects of
COFFEE.
IN England, the use of this berry hitherto has been principally
confined to the occasional luxury of individuals; as such, it is
scarcely an object of public concern; but government, prudently
considering that this produce of our own West Indian Islands is raised
by our own countrymen, and paid for in our manufactures, has lately
reduced the duty on the importation of Plantation Coffee; which has
brought it within the reach of almost every description of people[7]:
and as it is not liable to any pernicious process in curing, and is
incapable of adulteration, the use of it will probably become greatly
extended;--as in other countries, it may diffuse itself among the
mass of the people, and make a considerable ingredient in their daily
sustenance.
[7] Good Plantation Coffee, roasted, may now be bought in London for
two shillings and six pence per pound. In Paris the best Martinico
Coffee, roasted, may be bought for one shilling and four pence per
pound.
THE plant, the berries, and the beverage made from them, commonly pass
under the same name. The Arabians, indeed, distinguish the trees and
the berries by the name _Buun_, _Bunna_, _Buna_, and _Ban_.
THE beverage, of which we speak in particular, is called by the
Egyptians _El-cave_; by the Persians _Cahwa_, and _Coho_; by the
Turks _Chaube_, and _Cahveh_; by the Arabians _Cachua_, _Caoua_, and
_Cahouah_; from whence originate _Caphé_, _Café_, _Coffi_, _Coffee_,
and _Coffea_, appellations by which it is universally known in Europe.
THESE names, from the original Arabic, acquire the pronunciation they
receive, by changing the _u_ into _f_, in the word _Cahouah_; which,
according to some writers, comes from a verb signifying to nauseate, or
to have no appetite: and is one of the names which the Arabians give to
wine, because it takes away the appetite, when drunk to excess.
THUS _Cahouah_ they suppose is derived from the Hebrew קיי, or קי, or
קהי, which signify to have an aversion,or a dislike to a thing. But
_Golius_, _Meninski_, and _Castel_, say, that _Cahouah_ signifies
to give an appetite, _quod appetentiam cibi adducit_. In opposition
to both these opinions, there are others who assert, that _Cahouah_
implies neither to give appetite, nor to take it away; and that
it is not derived from the above words, importing to have, or to
give distaste, but from קוי, which signifies to give vigour and
force,--_corroborare_, _roborare_, _confirmare_; and that _Cahouah_ in
Arabic means nothing more than to strengthen, and to give vigour.
IT is not impossible, notwithstanding these opinions so plausibly
founded, but that this beverage might have its name from _Cufa_ or
_Cafa_, a city in Arabia Felix.
THE Arabic _Ban_ (the Coffee berry) corresponds with our _Bean_, and is
probably its etymon. Perhaps the Greek Βύνη, “Barley steeped in water,”
Anglicè, _Malt_, may be traced from the Arabic _Buna_.
NUMEROUS and absurd have been the writers on _Coffee_. I have omitted
to mention many; and of those I have not, I hope it will be understood,
that I have introduced them to illustrate opinions rather than
sanction them.
THE botanical description of the _Coffee Plant_ has been already given
by several writers[8]; and as Sir Hans Sloane, in the Phil. Trans. N^o
208, p. 63., Dr. Browne, in his Natural History of Jamaica, and Mr.
Ellis, in 1774, have added to the number, it is unnecessary here to say
any thing on this part of the subject, or to treat of its cultivation;
but I thought it might not be uninteresting in this Essay to include
something of its history, which will shew it has been a topic of much
disquisition, and no less remarkable for the universality with which it
has been adopted by many regions of the East, than for the permanency,
after various persecutions, with which it has been retained;
notwithstanding the caprice of taste, the violence of tyranny, and the
austerity of religion.
[8] _Bon. Alpin. De Plantis Ægypti_, cap. 16.
_Bon vel Ban Arbor. J. Bauhin_, 422.
_Euonymo similis Ægyptiaca, fructu baccis Lauri simili. C. Bauhin.
Pinax. Theat. Botanic._ 428.
_Bon vel Ban ex cujus fructu Ægypti potum Coava conficiunt. Pluken.
Phytog._ 272.
_Coffee frutex, ex cujus fructu fit potus. Raij Histor. Plant._ t. 2.
p. 1691.
_Jasminum Arabicum cujus fructus Coffy dicuntur. Boerhaav._ Ind. P. 2.
p. 217.
_Bon Arbor cum fructu suo Buna. Parkinson, Theatr. Botan._ 1622.
_Jassaminum Arabicum, Lauri folio, cujus semen apud nos Café dicitur.
Jussieu, Act. Gall._ 1713, p. 388. t. 7.
_Jasminum Arabicum, castaneæ folio, flore albo odoratissimo. Tilli
Catal. Plant. Hort. Pisan._ p. 87. t. 32.
_Coffea Arabica, floribus quinquesidis dispermis. Linn. Spec. Plant._
ed. 2. p. 245.
THE first European who mentions Coffee, is in general understood to be
_Prosper Alpinus_, who went into Egypt in 1580, physician to a Venetian
Consul, and remained there three years.
IN 1592 he published, in Venice, his History of the Plants of Egypt;
wherein he gives an account of a tree, the seeds of which, called
_Bon_, and _Ban_, were by decoction converted into a drink, much used
by the Egyptians and Arabs. The great virtues of this liquor he also
describes[9].
[9] De Plantis Ægypti, cap. 16.
BUT I must observe that, in the year 1591, _P. Alpinus_, immediately
on his return, published his _Medicina Ægyptiorum_, in which he gave
nearly the same account of the tree as in the preceding, which was a
subsequent work; and here also he gave a very exact description of the
mode, used in Egypt, of preparing the drink called _Chaoua_, from the
seeds of this tree, called _Bon_, and also from their _capsules_. He
is also particular as to the different qualities of these two liquors,
and of the medicinal virtues of that, prepared from the seeds[10]. The
account given in this work has been overlooked by almost every writer
on Coffee. However, even with this correction of common error, I find
_Leonhart Rauwolff_, a German physician, who had traveled into the
East, has taken notice, though not in an accurate manner, of Coffee as
early as 1573.
[10] De Medicina Ægyptiorum, Lib. IV. cap. 3.
HE says, at Aleppo, “They have a very pleasant drink, called _Chaube_,
which is almost as black as ink. It is good for illness, chiefly that
of the stomach. It is made of a fruit called _Bunnu_, which in bigness,
shape, and colour, resembles a bay berry. It is surrounded with two
thin shells; and, as I was informed, is brought from the Indies. These
shells have within them two yellowish grains, in two distinct cells,
and agree in their virtue, figure, appearance, and name, with the
_Bunchum_ of _Avicenna_, and the _Bancha_ of _Rhasis_; therefore I
shall consider them to be the same, until I am better informed by the
learned.”
OF this opinion was _Faustus Naironus Bainesius_, who wrote the first
treatise that was written expressly on Coffee. It was printed at
Rome in 1671, and intituled, _De Saluberrima Potione Cahu, seu Cafe,
nuncupata_.
VELSCHIUS, in his treatise _De Vena Medinensi_, in 1674, says, that
the _Bunchum_ of the Arabians is not Coffee, but the _Narcaphthum_ of
_Diascorides_.
IN this _Velschius_ is mistaken, and has no authority for the
supposition, whether the _Bunchum_ of _Avicenna_ be Coffee or not.
THE Νάρκαφθον of _Diascorides_ is called by the Arabians _Nabach_;
what it is, is uncertain; many are the conjectures; but _Dioscorides_
mentions its use only for external purposes. Lib. I. cap. 22.
AVICENNA’s words respecting _Bunchum_ are: “It is brought from _Yemen_;
some say it is from the roots of _Amgailem_, which, when old (or
_shaken_), falls down. The best sort is cream-coloured, and of a light
grateful odour. The white and heavy (or _rank_), is not good. It is,
according to some, hot and dry in the first degree; and to others, it
is cold in the first degree. It strengthens the limbs, cleanses the
skin, and dries up the watery humours; gives an agreeable odour to the
body, prevents the hair from falling, and is good for the stomach.”
Lib. II. Tract. 2. cap. 91.
THE _Ben_ of _Avicenna_ also has been supposed by some writers to be
Coffee. _Prosper Alpinus_ was of this opinion. But this is certainly an
error.
AVICENNA says of _Ben_, “The seed is larger than the cicer, inclining
to whiteness, and has a soft unctuous pulp. It is hot in the third
degree, and dry in the second. It is mundificative, particularly the
pulp, and incites gross humours; with vinegar and water, it opens
obstructions of the viscera. Externally, it is good for eruptions; in
an emplaster, for all indurated abscesses, warts, &c.; with vinegar,
for ulcerations, excoriations, scald head, &c. It is bad for the
stomach, and causes nausea, and if taken with honey, excites vomiting
and purging.” Lib. II. Tract. 2. cap. 82.
NOTWITHSTANDING _P. Alpinus’s_ two publications, it appears that Coffee
could have been but little known in Italy, when his countryman _Pietro
Della Valle_ was at Constantinople in 1615[11].
[11] “Hanno i Turchi un’ altra bevanda di color nero; e la state si
fà rinfrescativa, e l’inuerno al contrario, &c.--Ma senza queste
dilicature ancora, co’l solo e semplice _Cahue_, è pur grata al gusto,
e, come dicono, conferisce molto alla sanità; massimamente in aiutar la
degestione; corroborar lo stomaco, e reprimer le flussioni de’ catarri,
&c.--Quando io farò di ritorno ne porterò meco; e farò conoscere all’
Italia questo semplice, che infin’ ad hora forse le è nuovo.” Viaggi di
_P. D. Valle_, Lettera 3.
MONS. DU FOUR, who wrote on Coffee in 1685, says, the French knew
nothing of it until 1645; and that it had not been used in France until
about 1657. Mons. _Galland_ also says, that its use was not known in
France until Mons. _Thevenot_ returned from his first voyage to the
East in 1657, when he constantly drank it, and treated his friends
with it, at his house in Paris.
MONS. LA ROQUE, who published his Journey into Arabia Felix in 1715,
confesses, that _Thevenot_ was the first that taught the French the use
of Coffee in 1657; but he contends, that his own father, having been
with Mons. _De la Haye_, the French ambassador at Constantinople, and
afterwards traveled in the Levant, did, when he returned to Marseilles
in 1644, drink Coffee every day; and brought with him not only Coffee,
but all the little implements used in Turkey in preparing it. He says
also, that there was a public Coffee-house opened at Marseilles in
1671, which was looked on as a great curiosity in France.
HE says, Coffee had scarcely been seen in Paris before 1669; nor even
heard of until that year, except in the house of _Thevenot_, and by the
report of travellers.
IN this year, _Solyman Aga_, Ambassador from _Mahomet_ the IVth came to
Paris; and it is to this embassy, _la Roque_, says, that the first use
of Coffee in Paris is to be attributed.
THIS embassy, which had given the Parisians a general taste for
Coffee, and the method of making it, gave them also the idea of public
Coffee-houses; for, in 1672, one _Pascal_, an Armenian, sold it
publicly at the _Foire St. Germain_; and afterwards, in the same year,
opened a Coffee-house on the _Quai de l’Ecole_, which was the first
public Coffee-house ever known in Paris.
COFFEE, however, was known in general to the English before it was to
the French or Italians; and was used in England before it was in France
or Italy.
THE _Journal des Scavans_, 28th January, 1675, observes, “_les Anglais
ont connu le Café vingt ans plulôt que nous_:” and it appears, that
these journalists were considerably within the time, as far as relates
to its having been first noticed, by the travellers of the respective
countries.
WILLIAM FINCH, an English merchant, employed in the service of the
East-India Company in 1607, says, “That the people in the Island of
_Socotora_ have, for their best entertainment, a China dish of _Coho_,
a black bitterish drink, made of a berry like a bay berry, brought
from _Mecca_, supped off hot; and it is reckoned good for the head and
stomach[12].”
[12] Purchas, p. 419.
BUT I am not certain whether _Biddulph’s_ account of the use of Coffee
in the East was not prior to _Finch’s_. In a letter from him at Aleppo,
which must have been soon after the death of Queen Elizabeth in 1603,
as he mentions that event as recent; he says, “The Turks have for
their most common drink _Coffa_, which is a black kind of drink, made
of a kind of pulse like peas, called _Coava_; which being ground in a
mill, and boiled in water, they drink it as hot as they can suffer it,
which they find to agree with them against their crudities, and feeding
on herbs, and raw meat. It is more wholesome than toothsome, for it
causeth a good concoction, and driveth away drowsiness[13].”
[13] Ibid. p. 1340. See also p. 1351, where it appears that _Biddulph_
was in the East in 1600.
IT is remarkable, that none of the travellers to the East, of any
country, who have given the first accounts of Coffee, have ever
mentioned the circumstance on which all its virtues depend,--its
torrefaction.
HAVING shewn that the first Coffee-house in Paris was opened in 1672, I
now observe, that the first Coffee-house in London was opened in 1652.
MR. DANIEL EDWARDS, a Turkey merchant, when he returned from Smyrna to
London in 1652, brought over with him a servant, named _Pasqua Rossée_,
a Ragusian Greek. This man used to prepare Coffee for him every
morning, for his breakfast. The novelty of this new repast brought so
many people to Mr. _Edwards’s_ house, that he lost all the fore-part of
the day in entertaining and satisfying the curiosity of his visitors.
Thus situated, he thought of an expedient to rid himself of the
trouble, and to gratify his friends; which was, to suffer his servant
to make and sell Coffee publicly. In consequence of which, _Pasqua_
opened an house in St. Michael’s Alley, Cornhill, which was the first
Coffee-house in London[14].
[14] On the spot, before the fire of 1666, where the Virginia
Coffee-house now stands. The first Coffee-house that was opened after
the fire was, what is now called _Garraway’s_.
IN 1660 (12 Car. II. cap. 24.) there was a duty of four pence per
gallon laid on Coffee made and sold, to be paid by the maker; and in
1663 (15 Car. II. cap. 9. sect. 15.) all Coffee-houses were licensed at
the general Quarter Sessions of the Peace for the County in which they
were kept.
THE following account is descriptive of the commotions and prejudices
which Coffee formerly had to contend with and conquer among the
Mahometans. Besides the similitude it bears to the ludicrous notions,
and contradictory opinions, concerning Coffee in later times, it may
not be unentertaining to those who are accustomed to reflect, how great
communities are often violently agitated by trifles; and that nations,
under weak or oppressive governments, as well as individuals, may be
seriously ridiculous, and equally subject to transitory delusion. It
will appear also, that Coffee, which after many struggles triumphed
over the scrutiny of physicians, had nearly sunk under the influence of
the _Alcoran_; but that the contest between the _Alcoran_ and Coffee
ended, as it were, in a coalition.
“KHAIR BEG, Governor of _Mecca_, by appointment of the _Sultan_ of
Egypt, was unacquainted with Coffee, or of the manner of taking it.
As he was going out of the Mosque one day, after evening prayer, he
observed in a corner of it a company of people drinking Coffee, who
were to spend the night there in prayer, and was much offended at it.
He thought at first they had been drinking wine; nor was his surprize
much diminished after they had explained to him the use and virtues of
this liquor. On the contrary, after they had informed him how much it
was in use in _Mecca_, and what merriment passed at the public places
where it was sold, he was of opinion that Coffee was intoxicating, at
least that it conduced to things forbidden by the law.
“FOR this reason, after having ordered these people to go out of the
Mosque, with an injunction never to meet there for the future upon
the like occasion, he next day convened a great assembly of Officers
of Justice, and Doctors of Law, together with Priests, and the most
eminent men of _Mecca_; to whom he communicated what he had observed
the night before in the Mosque, and what he was informed happened
frequently in the public Coffee-houses; adding, that he was resolved
to remedy this abuse, upon which he was desirous first to know their
opinions.
“THE Doctors agreed that the public Coffee-houses wanted regulation, as
being contrary to the law of pure Mahometism; and declared, that, with
respect to Coffee, it was necessary to examine whether it was hurtful
either to body or mind; and concluded to take the advice of physicians.
“THE Governor called in two Persians who were brothers, the most
celebrated physicians in _Mecca_: one of them even wrote against the
use of Coffee, jealous, perhaps, (says our author) lest the use of it
should spoil his practice; so they did not fail to declare, that Coffee
was cold and dry, and prejudicial to health.
“A DOCTOR of the assembly replied, That BENGIAZLAH[15], an ancient
Arabian physician of great authority, had said, that these berries were
hot and dry, and consequently could not have the qualities just now
ascribed to them.
[15] A celebrated physician of _Bagdat_. He died anno 1098.
“THE two Persian physicians replied, That BENGIAZLAH was a perfect
stranger to the berries in question; and declared, that if Coffee was
reckoned among things indifferent, and free for every body to make use
of, yet it was apt to lead to things not allowed of; and the safest way
for true Mussulmen would be, to hold it unlawful.
“THIS determination obtained all their suffrages; and several, either
out of prejudice or false zeal, did not fail to affirm that Coffee had
actually disturbed their brains. One of the assistants maintained,
that it intoxicated like wine, which set all the assembly a laughing;
because, in order to make a judgment of it, it was necessary to have
drunk wine, which is forbidden by the Mahometan religion. He was asked
whether he had ever drunk any wine? and he had the imprudence to answer
in the affirmative; which confession condemned him to the bastinado,
the punishment that is inflicted by the Mahometan law for this crime.
“COFFEE was, however, solemnly condemned at _Mecca_, as a thing
forbidden by law, notwithstanding the _Mufti_ opposed the determination.
“The lovers of Coffee thought the sentence would not hold water, as
the _Mufti_ did not sign it, and even determined to pay no regard to
it in private. However, one of them was surprized in the fact, and was
bastinadoed, and was afterwards led about the city on an ass.
“BUT this rigour was not of long duration; for the _Sultan_ of Egypt,
far from approving of the indiscreet zeal of the Governor of _Mecca_,
was surprized that he should dare to condemn a thing so much in favour
at _Cairo_, the capital of his dominions, where there were Doctors of
much greater authority than those of _Mecca_, and who had not found any
thing in the use of Coffee contrary to the law.
“The _Sultan_ ordered him therefore to revoke his prohibition, and
to employ his authority against the disorders only, if there were
any, committed in the Coffee-houses; adding, that because _it was
possible to abuse the very best things_, even the water of the fountain
ZEMZEM[16], in the Temple of MECCA, so much esteemed by all Mussulmen,
it was not for that reason necessary absolutely to forbid them.
[16] The Mahometans say this is the spring that God caused to issue
forth in the Desart for _Agar_ and her son _Ishmael_, when _Abraham_
sent them away.
“THE Governor was displaced, and the two physicians who bore a great
part in the prohibition of Coffee, came to an unfortunate end.
“AFTER the re-establishment of Coffee at _Mecca_, it was prohibited
again, and again re-established.
“THE _Sultan_ of Egypt consulted his Doctors of the Law at Cairo
upon this point; who gave their opinions in writing, and proved by
substantial reasons, the fallacy of the condemnation of Coffee, and the
ignorance of those who passed it; which established the use of Coffee
at _Cairo_, upon a much stronger footing than ever. But, in the end,
this great city also met with much trouble upon the subject. For,--
“IN the year 1523, a scrupulous Doctor stated, that Coffee intoxicated
the head, and was prejudicial to health: and he had suspicions that it
was unlawful. But none of his brethren were of his opinion, because it
was obvious that Coffee had not those bad qualities he ascribed to
it; and therefore this gave no shock at all to a custom so universally
received.
“BUT about ten years after, a preacher held forth so vehemently against
the use of Coffee, as a thing prohibited by law, that the mob fell upon
the Coffee-houses, broke the pots and dishes, and abused the company
they found there.
“UPON this, there were two parties formed in the city; one of which
maintained that Coffee was prohibited by law; the other, that it was
not. But the Judge in Chief having convened an assembly of all the
Doctors, to have their opinions, they unanimously declared, that the
question had been already determined by their predecessors in favour of
Coffee; that they were all of the same sentiment; and that there was
nothing further necessary than only to restrain the extravagant heat
of the zealots, and the indiscretion of ignorant preachers. The Judge
who presided was of the same opinion; and immediately ordered all the
assembly to be served with Coffee, and took some himself; an example
which presently composed all controversies, and made Coffee more
fashionable at Cairo than before[17].”
[17] An Arabian manuscript, N^o 944, by _Abdalcader_ of Medina. It is
in the great National Library at Paris; written about the year 1587.
THE commotions however which were then excited by this beverage, were
not confined to Mecca and Cairo; for _Pichevili_, a Turkish historian,
says:
“AT the time when the use of Coffee was most prevalent in
_Constantinople_, the _Imams_ and officers of the Mosques made a great
clamour, that they were deserted, whilst all the Coffee-houses were
continually crowded. On which the Dervises and Priests made a furious
attack on Coffee; not only affirming that it was unlawful, but that it
was a much greater sin to go to a Coffee-house than to a Tavern.
“AFTER a great deal of noise and declamation, all the Priests united
to obtain a solemn condemnation of this liquor; and maintained that
Coffee roasted was a sort of coal; and that every thing which had the
least relation to coal was forbidden by law. Upon this they drew up a
question in form, and presented it to the _Mufti_, with a request that
he would determine it according to the duty of his office. The _Mufti_,
without giving himself the trouble of examining any difficulties, gave
a verdict according to the wish of the Priests, and pronounced that
Coffee was prohibited by the law of _Mahomet_.
“ALL the Coffee-houses in _Constantinople_ were immediately shut up,
and the officers of the police ordered to prevent the drinking Coffee
in any manner whatever.
“YET, notwithstanding the rigour that was employed in the execution of
this order, they could never prevent the drinking Coffee in private:
and _Amurath_ III. in whose time this prohibition took place, again
permitted the use of it, in private houses, and it grew more and more
into esteem. At last, the officers of the police, seeing there was no
remedy, were content, for a certain sum, to permit it to be sold in
private houses, shutting up the doors, or in the back shops.
“THERE wanted but little encouragement to re-establish by degrees
the public Coffee-houses; and it happened that a new _Mufti_, less
scrupulous, or more wise, than his predecessor, declared solemnly, that
Coffee ought not to be looked upon as a coal; and that the liquor made
from it was not prohibited by the law. After this declaration, the
Zealots, Preachers, Doctors, and Lawyers, far from exclaiming against
Coffee, took it themselves; and their example was universally followed
by the whole Court and City.”
COFFEE, though a native of _Arabia Felix_, is said to have been
converted into use in Africa and Persia, long before a beverage was
made of it by the Arabians.
OF the first discovery of the properties of Coffee there is no
authentic account, that has come to the knowledge of European
enquirers. But as fiction in such cases generally supplies the place
of facts, it is impossible that so important an article as this in
question should be destitute of introductory anecdotes, on its first
appearance in the world.
FAUSTUS NAIRO, a native of the Holy-land, before-mentioned, who was
Oriental Linguist in the College at Rome, and some other romantic
writers I have been under the necessity of reading, pretend, that the
extraordinary virtues of Coffee-berries were discovered in nearly the
following manner:
IN the nation of _Yemen_, a keeper of goats was one night much
surprized that his herd would not go to sleep as usual, but jumped and
frisked about as if they had been infatuated. The next morning he went
to _Sciadli_, the Priest of the neighbouring Mosque, to intreat that he
would inform him of the cause of this wonderful change in the animals.
The priest desired the goatherd would conduct him to the pasture where
they had fed on the preceding day. When he came there, he found the
place covered with certain shrubs with berries on them, of which the
goats had eaten. These shrubs and berries had always been considered
among the wild and useless productions of the earth. The Priest,
however, having satisfied himself that these berries had effected the
alteration in the goats, gathered some, went home and boiled them in
water, and drank of the liquor. When night came, he perceived he could
not sleep, but began to dance and frisk about as the goats had done.
He reported these circumstances to the neighbouring Priests, who all
declared, that a liquor from these berries, properly prepared, would be
an excellent thing to keep the Dervises awake, when their duty obliged
them to pray after dinner. The experiment was tried, and continued
with the utmost success; and was also attended with great advantage
to their health. From the report of these Dervises, the use of Coffee
soon spread through other Asiatic nations; and _Sciadli_ was ever after
drunk as a toast, in a cup of Coffee, before any devotion was entered
on, among all the religious of the East.
BUT, turning from this ludicrous tale to the Arabian manuscript
before-mentioned, translated by Mons. _Galland_, we find, that about
the middle of the fifteenth century, _Gemaleddin_, the _Mufti_ of Aden,
a city in Arabia Felix, travelling into Persia, learnt the use of
Coffee there, and on his return introduced it to his countrymen: who
had no sooner adopted the drinking of this beverage, than they entirely
neglected an herb which had been long in use among them, called _Cat_,
of which they made an infusion, and drank it in the manner in which we
now drink Tea.
This herb, called by the Arabians _Cat_, is, I believe, the same as
our Tea; for it varies but little from the name which _Tea_ has always
borne in the Eastern countries, being called by the Chinese _Cha_ and
_The_; by the Japonnese and Indians, _Tchia_, _Tsia_, and _Cha_; and by
the Persians _Tzai_ and _Cha_.
LEYL says, that _Cha_ is a Tartarian word; that the plant Tea, is
indigenous in Tartary, and is there, and in all the Eastern nations,
called _Cha_; and that the Chinese only, who live near the coast, and
traffic with Europeans, call it _The_. It is also supposed to have been
unknown in China, until the incursions of the Tartars.
IT is from the preceding epoch, distinguished by _Gemaleddin_ the
_Mufti_, that any authentic account of the dietetic use of Coffee is
derived. Enthusiasm indeed has carried some absurd admirers of this
beverage so far into conjecture, as to trace marvellous stories of it
back to the remotest ages; and to suppose it the _Jus Nigrum_ of the
Lacedæmonians[18]; _Abigail’s_ cup to _David_, which saved her husband
_Nabal’s_ life[19]; and the _Nepenthe_[20], which _Helen_ received from
an Egyptian, and celebrated by _Homer_ as a soother of the mind, in the
extremest state of anger, grief, and misfortune[21].
[18] _Muraltus._ _Herbert’s_ Travels. _Sandy’s_ Travels. _Blunt’s_
Voyage.
[19] _Paschius_, an obscure writer at Leipsic, 1700.
[20] _Pietro della Valle._
[21] “Φάρμακον, κακων ἐπίληθον ἁπάντων.” Odyss. Δ.
FROM Aden it spread its influence to Mecca, Cairo, Damascus, and
Aleppo; and afterwards through all Arabia, and other parts of the
Ottoman Empire, and arrived at Constantinople, from Syria, in the reign
of _Solyman_ the Great, in the year 1554; introduced by two persons
whose names were _Schems_ and _Hekin_; one came from Damascus, the
other from Aleppo; each opened a public Coffee-house in that city; and
about a century afterwards, as I have already observed, it was adopted
at London and Paris.
THE virtues of this chearful liquor, like moral virtues under
despotism, operated in Constantinople to its detriment;--by dispelling
the torpitude brought on by their vicious excesses, and recruiting
their spirits, sunk by depravity of their habits, it introduced a
disposition among the Turks to exercise the understanding;--a crime in
every government that tolerates nothing but silent obedience.
RYCAUT says, that during the war in Candia, in the minority of
_Mahomet_ the IVth, when the Turkish affairs were in a critical
situation, “the _Visir Kupruli_ suppressed the Coffee-houses, though
he permitted the Taverns;” the former conducing to intellectual
recreation, and some speculations on the affairs of state, which the
_Visir_ thought would not bear examining. These were objections from
which the latter, as tending only to idleness and debauchery, was free.
This stupid edict appears to have had no other relative effect than to
diminish the revenue; for Coffee throve under this political, as well
as it did under the former religious, persecution.
HOWEVER ridiculous it may appear at this time, Coffee had the same
folly to encounter soon after its introduction into England; and
experienced the same treatment under _Charles_ the IId, that it met
with in Turkey under an _Amurath_ and a _Mahomet_: for having been
found an encourager of social meetings, Coffee-houses were shut up by
proclamation, as seminaries of sedition[22].
[22] Anno 1675.
THIS famous proclamation was dated 29th of December, 1675, and asserted
that, “Because in such houses, and by occasion of the meeting of
disaffected persons in them, divers false, malicious, and scandalous
reports were devised and spread abroad, to the defamation of his
_Majesty’s governments_ and to the disturbance of the quiet and peace
of the realm.”
THE opinion of the Judges was taken on this point, who in their great
wisdom resolved, “That retailing of Coffee might be an innocent trade;
but as it was used to nourish sedition, spread lies, and scandalize
_great men_, it might also be a common nuisance.”
RAY observed, that the part of Arabia which produced Coffee in such
abundance, might truly be styled happy[23]; from whence many millions
of bushels of this valuable treasure were then annually exported
to Turkey, Barbary, and Europe[24].--In Constantinople alone, the
consumption is said to amount to more than what is expended for wine in
Paris.
[23] The country of Yemen.
[24] The Abbé _Raynal_ says, that twelve millions five hundred and
fifty thousand pounds weight of Coffee is annually exported from
Arabia Felix; which, at 14 sols per pound, brings into that country
8,785,000 livres, 384,343l. 15s. sterling. The European Companies
purchase three millions five hundred thousand weight of this
commodity.
IT was long after Coffee had been an article of commerce, that
Europeans were able to obtain, or cultivate, the plant; as the berry
was exported dry, and unfit for propagation.
IT has been said, that a Frenchman, near _Dijon_ in France, was the
first person who made the experiment with success, about the year 1670:
the trees raised from the seeds he had sown produced berries, but
they were tasteless and insipid; and served for no other purpose than
curiosity.
ACCORDING to _Boerhaave’s_ account, a Dutch Governor was the first
person who procured fresh berries from Mocha, and planted them in
_Batavia_; and in the year 1690 sent a plant from thence to Amsterdam;
which came to maturity, and produced those berries which have since
furnished all that is now cultivated in the West Indies.
IN 1714 a plant, from the garden of Amsterdam, was sent by Mr.
_Pancras_, a Burgomaster, and Director of the Botanic Garden, as a
present to _Lewis_ the XIVth, which was placed in the garden at Marly.
In 1718 the Dutch began to cultivate Coffee in Surinam; in 1721 the
French began to cultivate it at Cayenne; in 1727 at Martinico; and in
1728 the English began to cultivate it in Jamaica.
M. FUSEE AUBLET, in his Observations on the Culture of Coffee, annexed
to the ingenious Mons. _Le Breton’s_ Paris translation of the third
edition of this Treatise, says that a Mons. _de Clieux_ carried the
first Coffee plant to Martinico in 1720; and that the French East-India
Company sent some plants to the Isle of Bourbon in 1717; and that one
plant only survived, which bore in 1720, and many were produced from it.
THE first plant in Jamaica was introduced by Sir _Nicholas Laws_,
and planted at Townwell estate, now called Temple Hall, in Liguanea,
belonging to Mr. _Luttrell_.--How its propagation has been extended
since those periods, in the West Indies, is well known.
SOME writers imagine that there are several sorts of Coffee[25]; but
the difference arises only from the soil, cultivation, curing, and
keeping, and not from any difference in the species.
[25] _Geoffry_, among others, was mistaken in this point.
IF the Coffee in our West-Indian Islands be planted in a dry soil, and
in a warm situation; if, after the trees have acquired a certain age,
the ripe berries are collected with care and cleanliness, which will
be small when dry, cream-coloured, and with a smooth polished surface,
like those which come from Arabia; and if they are kept a proper time
before they are used; this Coffee will have flavour and excellence
equal to the best that is imported from Mocha.
BUT the time and labour necessary to produce Coffee of the best quality
have discouraged our Planters from raising it at much expence; because,
until lately, it has been subject to a precarious, or losing market.
Therefore quantity, and large coarse berries of a green dingy cast,
the produce of young trees, luxuriant soil, and little attention, has
turned to better account than quality; as this produce, though unfit
for the London market, has been bought up for the consumption of the
Northern parts of Europe[26].
[26] Mr. _Fuller_ observes in his letter, “I would recommend to the
Planters, not to covet the production of the large berries, the
smallest being deemed the best by our buyers here, and fetching
the most money; perhaps not absolutely from its being of the best
quality, but because it admits of being mixed with the Mocha Coffee,
and sold as such.”
AFTER Coffee has received all the excellence it can from the Planter,
it is a matter of great consequence, that proper care be taken in
shipping it for Europe: it should not be put into parts of the vessel
where it may be injured by dampness, or by the effluvia of other
freight. Coffee-berries are remarkably disposed to imbibe exhalations
from other bodies, and thereby acquire an adventitious and disagreeable
flavour. Rum placed near to Coffee will in a short time so impregnate
the berries, as to injure their flavour. It is said, that a few bags of
pepper on board a ship from India, some years since, spoiled a whole
cargo of Coffee[27].
[27] _Miller._
THE French are more attentive in this respect than the English; and
indeed they omit nothing that can give their Coffee any advantage.
But if their Coffee be superior to ours, it is the effect of
more encouragement. The industry and genius of the French Coffee
Planters have been cherished; ours have been restricted by a duty,
which prevented the consumption of the article. Thus the spirit of
cultivation has been checked, improvement retarded, and consequently
the produce not brought to perfection.
THE chemical analysis of Coffee evinces that it possesses a great
portion of mildly bitter, and lightly astringent gummous and resinous
extract[28]; a considerable quantity of oil[29]; a fixed salt[30]; and
a volatile salt[31].--These are its medicinal constituent principles.
[28] _Newman_ obtained eight ounces from sixteen ounces of roasted
Coffee, by aqueous and spirituous menstruums.
[29] _Bourdelin_ obtained six ounces six drams from two pounds and an
half of roasted Coffee: and _Houghton_, Phil. Trans. obtained two
ounces four drams two scruples from one pound of unroasted Coffee.
_Du Four_ obtained two ounces five drams.
[30] _Le Fevre_, _Newman_, _Lemery_, _Bourdelin_, obtained nine drams
and an half from two pounds and an half of roasted Coffee.
[31] _Floyer_, _Bourdelin_, obtained a volatile salt, that
effervesced strongly with spirit of salt.
THE intention of torrefaction is not only to make it deliver those
principles, and make them soluble in water, but to give it a property
it does not possess in the natural state of the berry.
BY the action of fire, its leguminous taste and the aqueous part of
its mucilage are destroyed; its saline properties are created, and
disengaged, and its oil is rendered empyreumatic.--From thence arises
the pungent smell, and exhilarating flavour, not found in its natural
state[32].
[32] There always prevailed a notion among the chemists, particularly
with _Paracelsus_ and his followers, that in the empyreumatic oils of
plants were many medicinal virtues undiscovered. The oil of Coffee,
in itself, is almost insipid.
ANIMAL oils are changed by fire in the same manner in broiled meats,
and acquire that grateful odour so exciting to weak appetites.
IMITATIONS of Coffee have been procured from roasted beans, peas,
wheat, and rye, with almonds; but the delicacy of the oil in Coffee,
which the fire, in roasting, converts into its peculiar empyreuma, is
not to be equalled.
THE roasting of the berry to a proper degree, requires great nicety:
_Du Four_ justly remarks, that the virtue and agreeableness of the
drink depend on it, and that both are often injured in the ordinary
method. _Bernier_ says, when he was at _Cairo_, where it is so much
used, he was assured by the best judges, that there were only two
people in that great city, in the public way, who understood the
preparing it in perfection[33].
[33] _Bernier’s_ Letter to _Du Four_.
IF it be under-done, its virtues will not be imparted, and in use it
will load and oppress the stomach:--If it be over-done, it will yield
a flat, burnt, and bitter taste, its virtues will be destroyed, and in
use it will heat the body, and act as an astringent[34].
[34] “Cetera bonitas Caovæ præcipuè dependet à curiosa et exquisita
tostione.” _Ray._
FOURTEEN pounds weight of raw Coffee is generally reduced, at the
public roasting houses in London, to eleven pounds by the roasting;
for which the dealer pays seven pence half-penny, at the rate of
five shillings for every hundred weight. In Paris, the same quantity
is reduced to ten pounds and an half. But the roasting ought to be
regulated by the age and quality of the Coffee, and by nicer rules
than the appearance of the fumes, and such as are usually practised:
therefore the reduction must consequently vary, and no exact standard
can be ascertained. Besides, by mixing different sorts of Coffee
together, that require different degrees of heat and roasting, Coffee
has seldom all the advantages it is capable of receiving, to make it
delicate, grateful, and pleasant. This indeed can be effected no way so
well as by people who have it roasted in their own houses, to their own
taste, and fresh as they want it for use.
THE closer it is confined at the time of roasting, and till used, the
better will its volatile pungency, flavour, and virtues, be preserved.
COARSE, rank, new Coffee, is meliorated by being kept after it is
roasted, before it is used.
THE influence which Coffee, judiciously prepared, imparts to the
stomach, from its invigorating qualities, is strongly exemplified
by the immediate effect produced on taking it, when the stomach is
over-loaded with food, or nauseated with surfeit, or debilitated by
intemperance, or languid from inanition.
TO constitutionally weak stomachs, it affords a pleasing sensation; it
accelerates the process of digestion, corrects crudities, and removes
the cholic, and flatulencies.
BESIDES its effect on the gastric powers, it diffuses a genial warmth
that cherishes the animal spirits, and takes away the listlessness and
languor[35], which so greatly embitter the hours of nervous people,
after any deviation to excess, fatigue, or irregularity.
[35] _Baglivi._
THE foundation of all the mischiefs of intemperance is laid in the
stomach; when that is injured, instead of preparing the food, that the
lacteals may carry into the constitution sweet and wholesome juices to
the support of health, it becomes the source of disease, and disperses
through the whole frame the cause of decay.
FROM the warmth and efficacy of Coffee in attenuating the viscid
fluids, and increasing the vigour of the circulation, it has been used
with great success in some cases of fluor albus, and in the dropsy[36];
and also in worm complaints[37];--and in those camatose, anasarcous,
and such other diseases as arise from unwholesome food, want of
exercise, weak fibres, and obtruded perspiration.
[36] “C’est sans doute son fréquent usage qui garentit les Turcs de
l’hydropisie.” _Du Four_, p. 129.
[37] _Anthelminticum_ audit, et hinc pueris sæpe confertur, copiosius
vero haustum, parvos eos reddit, deoque non facile his ordinandum. Si
quis aliquot Cyathos decocti saturatioris hauriat, vermes plerumque
e ventriculo in intestina descendere experitur; si mox purgatio
propinetur, invisi hi hospites hac methodo expelluntur. _Linnæi_,
Amœnitat. Academ. Vol. VI. p. 178.
IN vertigo, lethargy, catarrh, and all disorders of the head from
obstruction in the capillaries, long experience has proved it to be a
powerful medicine[38]; and in certain cases of apoplexy, it has been
found serviceable even when given in glysters, where it has not been
convenient to convey its effects by the stomach. Mons. _Malebranche_
restored a person from an apoplexy by repeated glysters of Coffee[39].
[38] “La tête est la partie de tout le corps sur laquelle le Caffé
produit de plus considérables effets; car par son usage ordinaire, on
prévient presque surement l’apoplexie, la paralysie, la lethargie, et
presque toutes les autres maladies soporeuses.” _De Bleguy_, p. 180.
[39] Hist. de l’Acad. de Sciences, 1702.
THERE are but few people who are not informed of its utility for the
head-ach; the steam sometimes is very useful to mitigate pains of the
head.
In the West Indies, where the violent species of head-ach, such as
cephalæa, hemicrania, and clavus, are more frequent, and more severe
than in Europe, Coffee is often the only medicine that gives relief.
Opiates are sometimes used, but Coffee has an advantage that Opium does
not possess; it may be taken in all conditions of the stomach; and at
all times by women, who are most subject to these complaints; as it
dissipates those congestions and obstructions that are frequently the
cause of the disease, and which Opium is known to increase, when its
temporary relief is past[40].
[40] Ego cum Lugduni Batavorum studiis operam darem, per totum annum
Cephalæa miserè laboravi; et postquam potui copiose Teé, et præcipuè
quidem _Coffee_ quotidie sumendo assuevi, semper immunis ab ea vixi,
non tantúm sed ab omni alio incommodo, quamvis antea ita vixerim,
ut mortis haberet vices lenta quæ trahebatur mihi vita gementi, qui
per totum quinquennium cum longa morborum serie acriter conflictavi.
_Ray._
FROM the stimulant and detergent properties of Coffee, it may be
used to an extent to be serviceable in all obstructions arising from
languid circulation. It assists the secretions, promotes the menses,
and mitigates the pains attendant on the sparing discharge of that
evacuation.
In the West Indies, the chlorosis and obstructed menses are common
among laborious negro females, exposed to the effects of their own
carelessness, and the rigorous transitions of the climate; there
strong Coffee is often employed as a deobstruent; which, drank warm in
a morning fasting, and using exercise after it, has been productive
of many cures[41]. From its possessing these qualities, _Geoffrey_
cautions pregnant women, and such as are subject to excessive
menstruation, to use it in moderation.
[41] “Utuntur tamen ejus decocto ad roborandum ventriculum
frigidiorem, adjuvandamque concoctionem, et non minùs ad auferendas
a visceribus obstructiones; in tumoribusque hepatis lienifque
frigidis, et antiquis obstructionibus, feliciori cum successu
decoctum multos dies experiuntur. Quod etiam uterum maximè respicere
videtur, ipsum enim excalfacit, obstructionesque ab eo aufert, sic
enim in familiari usu est apud omnes Ægyptias, Arabasque mulieres,
ut semper, dum fluunt menses, ipsorum vacuationem, hujus decocti
ferventis multum paulatim sorbillantes, adjuvent. Ad promovendos
etiam, in quibus suppressi sunt, usus hujus decocti, purgato corpore
multis diebus, utilissimus est.” _P. Alpin._ Lib. de Plantis Ægypti,
cap. 16.----“Pellens est; qua ratione, non sine fructu, tanquam
emmenagogum, in menstruis suppressis adhibetur. _Linnæi_, Amœnitat.
Acad. Vol. VI. p. 179.
THE industrious overseers of plantations, and other Europeans employed
in cultivation in the West Indies, who are exposed to the morning and
evening dews, find great support from a cup of Coffee before they go
into the field: it fortifies the stomach, and guards them against the
diseases incident to their way of life; especially in clearing lands;
or when their residence is in humid situations, or in the vicinity of
stagnant water. Those who are imprudently addicted to intemperance find
Coffee a benign restorer of the stomach, for that nausea, weakness, and
disorderly condition, which is brought on by drinking bad fermented
liquors, and new rum, to excess.
IN continued and remitting fevers in hot climates, it frequently
happens, at the period when bark is indicated, that the stomach cannot
retain it.--This is an embarrassment of great importance, in which the
practitioner has an interval, only of a few hours, to decide on his
patient’s fate.--Bark in substance is required to answer the intention;
and here, as well as in many cases of intermittents, when every other
mode of administering bark has proved abortive, Coffee has been found
an agreeable and a successful vehicle.
IN obstinate intermittents, where a course of bark has been long
continued, it seldom fails to increase those visceral obstructions
which are incidental to the disease itself.
TO assist the bark in its operation, I have often used Coffee; and have
known instances where it has removed slight intermittents; and for
those obstructions, which the disease, or bark, or both, frequently
leave after them, and which patients are often obliged to suffer,
as the least evacuation brings on a return of fever, I have also
recommended Coffee, to make a considerable portion in the diet, with
advantage.
COFFEE having the property of promoting perspiration[42], it allays
thirst and checks preternatural heat.
[42] _Leewenhoek_, _Huxham_.
Sir _John Chardin_, when in Persia[43], cured himself of a bloody flux
by drinking four cups of hot Coffee, and going to bed, and covering
himself well with bed clothes. But this cure was occasioned by the
perspiration it produced; though he attributed it to some specific
quality in the Coffee.
[43] Anno 1671.
THE great use of Coffee in France is supposed to have abated the
prevalency of the gravel.--In the French Colonies, where Coffee is
more used than in the English, as well as in Turkey, where it is the
principal beverage, not only the gravel, but the gout, those tormentors
of so many of the human race, are scarcely known[44].
[44] _Urinam_ copiose pellit, imprimis si aqua misceatur; quosdam
calculo obnoxios Halmiæ novimus, qui cyathum Coffeæ murrhinum vitro
aquæ frigidæ, libra una repleto, infundunt, idque horis consumunt
matutinis, qui unanimiter fatentur, quod vix aliud ipsis sit notum,
urinam et fabulum copiosius pellens. _Linnæi_, Amœnitat. Acad. Vol.
VI. p. 177.
TAVERNIER says, the Persians are totally unacquainted with the gout
and gravel; and Mons. _Spon_, a celebrated Physician at Lyons, who had
travelled in the East, says, these diseases are rarely met with in the
Levant, which they attribute to the great use of Coffee in those parts
of the world. But climate, I apprehend, which the encomiasts of Coffee
will not admit, ought to be taken into the account.
DU FOUR relates, as an extraordinary instance of the effects of Coffee
in the gout, the case of Mons. _Deverace_. He says, this gentleman was
attacked with the gout at twenty-five years of age, and had it severely
until he was upwards of fifty, with chalk stones in the joints of
his hands and feet; but for four years preceding, the account of his
case being given to _Du Four_, to lay before the publick, he had been
recommended the use of Coffee, which he adopted, and had no return of
the gout afterwards[45].
[45] “Elle est salutaire aux goutteux par l’expérience particulière
de nos goutteux, qui s’y sont habitués: car ils en tirent du moins
ce bénefice que leur accês sont moins fréquent et beaucoup plus
supportables.” _De Blegny_, p. 185. et 186.
COFFEE has been found useful in quieting the tickling vexatious cough
that often accompanies the small pox[46], and other eruptive fevers.--A
dish of strong Coffee without milk or sugar, taken frequently in the
paroxysm of some asthmas, abates the fit; and I have often known it to
remove the fit entirely. Sir _John Floyer_, who had been afflicted with
the asthma from the seventeenth year of his age until he was upwards
fourscore, found no remedy in all his elaborate researches, until the
latter part of his life, when he obtained it by Coffee.
[46] _Huxham._
PREPARED strong and clear, and sweetened agreeably with sugar-candy,
and diluted, while hot, with a great portion of boiling milk, it
becomes an highly nutritious and balsamic diet; proper in such hectic
and pulmonic complaints, where a milk diet is useful[47]; and is a
great restorative to constitutions emaciated by the gout and other
chronic disorders[48].
[47] “Elle est d’un effet merveilleux pour ceux qui ont la poitrine
naturellement foible, ou accidentellement affoiblie par le rheume,
par le toux inveterée, par une pulmonie naissante, et par ces autres
espèces de fluxions qui rendent la voix rauque, et qui causent
l’asthme et la courte haleine.” _De Blegny_, p. 189.
[48] This is the best method of preparing _Milk Coffee_. It may be
sweetened with good Muscovada sugar, in costive habits, or where
sugar-candy cannot be had.
NIEUHOFF, a German physician, in his account of the embassy from
Holland to China in 1675, first described the advantage of milk Coffee
in pulmonic complaints.
Mons. _Monin_, an eminent physician of Grenoble, performed many
extraordinary cures with it among consumptive people, when a milk
diet, asses milk, and the air of Montpellier, had proved ineffectual.
He relates the following case of his wife; of whom, he says,--“she
had been in a consumption for sixteen years, and was at the point
of death lately with a peripneumony. The inflammation of the lungs
was removed by the ordinary methods in eight days; there remained a
very troublesome cough, an heat in the lungs, and quick pulse, with
a great dryness of the skin, which made me apprehend she would fall
again into her consumptive state. I prepared her by gentle purgatives
and aperient medicines, as her bowels were in a bad state, and her
spleen obstructed, and put her on a course of asses milk, which
she took regularly for a month, but without the least success; her
pulse remained the same, her cough was worse, she spit more, her
complexion was yellow, sometimes greenish; she complained of heats,
and oppressions of her breast, notwithstanding the exact regimen, and
gentle purgatives repeated every week. Finding that the asses milk was
useless, I again put her on a course of her former milk Coffee, of
which she took about a quart every day for six weeks, purging her every
ten or twelve days. This course was so favourable to her, that all the
symptoms before-mentioned ceased in the first eight days; her appetite
soon returned, and she grew more _en bon point_ than she had ever been
in her life.”
LONG watching and intense study are wonderfully supported by it, and
without the ill consequences that succeed the suspension of rest and
sleep, when the nervous influence has nothing to sustain it.
THEVENOT says, “When merchants in Turkey have any letters to write,
and intend to do it in the night-time, in the evening they take a dish
or two of Coffee, which is good to hinder vapours, head-ach, and to
take away sleepiness, &c.--In short, in the Turk’s opinion it is good
against all maladies, and certainly it hath at least as much virtue
as is attributed to tea; and as to its taste, by that time a man hath
drank of it twice, he is accustomed to it, and finds it no longer
unpleasant.”
WE are told, that travellers in Eastern countries, and messengers
who are sent with dispatches, perform their tedious journies by the
alternate effects of Opium and Coffee;--and that the dervises and
religious zealots, in their abstemious devotions, support their vigils,
through their nocturnal ceremonies, by this antisoporific liquor.
DU FOUR says, the poor people in Turkey use it through œconomy to save
victuals; as frequently two or three cups of Coffee is their whole
sustenance in the course of a day.
BERNIER says, that the Turks, who frequently subsist a considerable
time upon Coffee only, look on it as an aliment that affords great
nourishment to the body: for which reason, during the rigid fast of the
_Ramadam_, or Turkish Lent, it is not only forbidden, but any person is
deemed to have violated the injunctions of the Prophet, that has had
even the smell of Coffee[49].
[49] Nous remarquerons, qu’ayant fait usage de cette boisson, nous
avons découvert qu’outre les qualités qu’on vient rapporter, elle a
celle de soutenir les forces contre l’inanition, en forte qu’étant
prise à jeun, on peut se passer plus long temps de nourriture, sans
en être incommodé. _Journ. des Sc._, 1716, p. 283.
BACON says, Coffee “comforts the head and heart, and helps
digestion[50].” Dr. _Willis_ says, “being daily drank, it wonderfully
clears and enlightens each part of the soul, and disperses all the
clouds of every function[51].” The celebrated Dr. _Harvey_ used it
often. _Voltaire_ lived almost on it. He told me, nothing exhilarated
his spirits more than the smell of Coffee; for which reason he had,
what he used in the day, roasted in his chamber every morning, when
he lived at _Fernai_.--The learned and sedentary of every country
have recourse to it, to refresh the brain, oppressed by study and
contemplation[52].
[50] Cent. 8, Exp. 738. anno 1624.--_Bacon_ asserted this on the
authority of travellers, as Coffee was not then known in England.
[51] Pharmaceut. Rat. P. 1. Anno 1674. Coffee was then used in England.
[52] “Elle fortifie la mémoire et le jugement. Un aliment qui fortifie
puissamment toutes les actions naturelles.” _De Blegny_, p. 181, 184.
AMONG the many valuable qualities of Coffee, that of its being an
antidote to the abuse of _Opium_ must not be considered as the least;
for as mankind is not content with the wonderful efficacy derived from
the prudent use of opium, the abuse of it is productive of many evils
that are only remediable by Coffee.
THE diseases generally brought on by a continued course of excessive
doses of Opium, are either loss of appetite, stupor, debility, loss of
memory, melancholy, palsy, or dropsy:--and frequently the consequences
of the necessary and temporary use of common doses of laudanum,
are nausea, languor, giddiness of the head, cold sweats, head-ach,
hysterics, and tremor.
VARIOUS have been the attempts of physicians and chemists to correct
their favourite Opium, and to improve and separate its useful from its
hurtful properties[53]; but their preparations have neither meliorated
the simple juice of the vegetable, as the great _Sydenham_ asserts, nor
have they taken away those properties to which its prejudicial effects
are attributed.
[53] _Paracelsus_, _Helmont_, _Silvius_, and _Platerus._--The use of
Opium in the Lues Venerea is by no means a new discovery, as some
practitioners have lately thought. It has had its advocates and use,
like Guaiacum, and other diaphoretics. It was known to _Paracelsus_,
_Fernilius_, _Palmarius_, _Willis_, _Paulli_, &c.
THERE never has been, as far as we know, any preparation or combination
with Opium, from the days of _Mithridates_ to the present, that could
be relied on, to counteract the ill effects of its first operations, in
many constitutions; or to prevent those disagreeable after-operations
so much complained of, in almost every subject and disease.
SUCH a preparation would indeed be a large contribution to the Materia
Medica, and would make a considerable figure in the practice of physic.
But this may never be accomplished; it may not be in nature; the defect
may be the inherent imperfection of the vegetable, and inseparable from
it;--as in the moral world we find the brightest virtues may be shaded
with alloy:--if so, it will yet be some consolation, that we are able
to mitigate those ills which we cannot prevent.
EVERY author who mentions Coffee, allows that it possesses singular
power in counteracting the hypnotic, or sleepy effects of Opium: this
is the only virtue assigned to it, in regard to Opium; as if the
influence which Coffee exerts on the system, to produce that effect,
could be directed to no purpose, when these contradictions were not
employed in opposition, to rob each other of their attributes.
CONFIRMED by many observations, I believe that Coffee, besides being
the best corrector of Opium, is the best medicine to alleviate the
mischief it produces, that has yet been discovered, and that the
operations of common doses of Opium may be checked by it almost at
pleasure.
THE heaviness, head-ach, giddiness, sickness, and nervous affections,
which attack the patient in the morning, who has taken an opiate at
night, are abated by a cup or two of strong Coffee.
IN Military Hospitals in hot climates, recourse is often had to large
and repeated doses of Opium; from which I have frequently observed,
that the retention of the stomach of the patient has been greatly
injured; the secretion of urine impeded, or the bladder affected by
a paralysis:--even these effects have been subdued by a few cups of
strong Coffee.
THE general opinion is erroneous, though of long standing, that the
_Turks_ use Coffee, exclusive of dietetic purposes, only against the
sleepy effects of Opium.
The _Turks_, as well as the _Persians_ and _Indians_, take Opium as a
cordial[54], to invigorate them for the temporary enjoyment of amorous
pleasures, and to enable them to support fatigue, and to stimulate
their nerves to the exertions of courage and enterprize[55]. But when
the desired effects of this cordial are over, languor, lassitude, and
dejection of spirits succeed.--It is for these indispositions, that
Coffee is so medicinally necessary to the _Turks_, and they use it as
their principal remedy.
[54] “Præstantissimum sit remedium cardiacum, unicum penè dixerim,
quod in natura hactenus est repertum.” _Sydenham._
[55] _Mandelslo’s_ Voyages and Travels into the East, Lib. I.
_Bellonius_, Lib. III. cap. 15. _Erastus_, Disp. de Sapor. et de
Narcot. _Georg. Andreæ_, Itiner. Ind. Lib. II. c. 9. _J. J. Saar._
Itiner. Ind. p. 11. _Fogolius_ de Turcarum Nepenthe. _Sandy’s_
Travels, Lib. I. p. 66.
BUT while this unpleasing review of Opium is presented to our
contemplation, let us not forget the benefit which mankind derives from
that inestimable medicine.
IF the _Silphium_ was held in veneration, stamped on coins, and
hung up in temples[56]; if the _Mallow_ was dignified with the name
of Sacred[57]; if a statue was erected to the _Lettuce_[58];--what
honours are not due to the POPPY, whose pure and unadulterated juice
possesses power to relax the whole force of animal spasm; to arrest the
determination of the fluids and vital energy on particular parts, which
often tends to the sudden dissolution of the frame; to relieve corporal
pain by tranquillity, and mental affliction by sleep[59]. These are
the unrivalled virtues of the POPPY, so highly distinguished by the
Creator, and whose excellence no human praise can reach.
[56] _Plin. Hist. Nat._ Lib. XIX. c. 3. _Heschius_, Βάτἰς σίλφιον
silphion, _Spanheim_, de usu et præst. Numis. Dissert. 4.
[57] By _Pythagoras_.
[58] By _Augustus_. Several of the _Valerian_ family ennobled their
name with that of _Lactucinii_. _Plin._
[59] “Tam homini quam morbo conciliat.” _Paracel._
IT is not to be expected that Coffee should escape objections, when the
virtues of Opium could not secure that from censure and condemnation.
Among the furious enemies of Opium was Professor _Stahl_, of Hall in
Germany[60]; and among those of Coffee was _Simon Paulli_ of Rostock.
As the former could see nothing but the mischiefs of Opium, so the
latter was blind to the virtues of Coffee. But _Paulli_ founded his
prejudices against Coffee, as he had his prejudices against Tea,
Chocolate, and Sugar--not on experience, but on anecdotes, that had
been picked up by hasty travellers, which had no other foundation than
absurd report and conjecture[61]. Unacquainted with the real properties
of Coffee, his imagination supplied him with fictitious ones; and
classed with articles with which it has no more affinity than they have
analogy to each other[62], he assigned to it those qualities which
should affect the body, according to some theory of _Galen_ which had
misled him, to correspond with the account he had read of its supposed
effects on Sultan _Mahomet Casnin_, a despot of Persia; who, it is
said, from an excessive fondness of Coffee, had sotted away the vigour
of his constitution[63]. But chemistry and experience have brought the
subject into light, and _Paulli’s_ baseless fabric has vanished.
[60] De Opij Impostura.
[61] _Olearius_, _Martinius_, _Garranciers_, &c.
[62] “Instar Rutæ, Agni Casti, Camphoræ, Theè, Coffee, Chocoladæ, et
similium omnis,” &c. _S. Paulli_, Quadrip. Botan. p. 396.
[63] This story is related in the Travels of the Ambassadors from the
Duke of Holstein into _Muscovy_ and _Persia_, Lib. VI. It originated
from a complaint made against _Casnin_ by his wife. This lady was of
a different opinion from the Marquis _de Langle_, who, in his _Voyage
en Espagne_, says,--“Le Caffé égaye, exalte, électrife; à l’homme qui
a pris du Caffé en abondance, il ne manque plus qu’une femme, une
plume, et l’encre.”
SUCH has been the fate of _Fernelius’s_ declamations against mercury;
such _Guy Patin’s_ against antimony; and such _James_ the First’s, and
the Abbot _Nissens’s_ nonsense against tobacco[64].
[64] The Abbot _Nissens_ maintained, that the Devil first brought
tobacco into Europe.
I HAVE singled out _Simon Paulli_ from among the adversaries of Coffee,
for no other motive than to shew from what tales so learned a man
confesses he supports a notion, that Coffee (like Tea to the Chinese)
acted as a great drier to the _Persians_, and abated aphrodisiacal
warmth. This opinion has been since received, and propagated from him,
as he received and propagated it from its fabulous origin. The facts
have been refuted by Sir _Thomas Roe_, and many other travellers.
Sir _Thomas Herbert_, who was in the East in 1626, tells us, that the
Persians themselves have a very different opinion of Coffee.--“They say
that Coffee comforts the brain, expels melancholy and sleep, purges
choler, lightens the spirits, and begets an excellent concoction; and
by custom becomes delicious. But all these virtues do not conciliate
their liking of it so much as the romantic notion, that it was first
invented and brewed by the Angel _Gabriel_, to restore _Mahomet’s_
decayed moisture; which it did so effectually, that he never drank it
but he made nothing to unhorse forty men, and in his amours to rival
the fame of Hercules[65].”
[65] Page 311. Ed. 3. Setting aside the hyperbolical part of this
Persian opinion, here is at least a tradition, that this liquor was
used in Arabia in the time of _Mahomet_, whose flight from _Mecca_
was in the year 622. All the ancient nations who made much use of the
_Legumina_ in their diet, prepared many of them by torrefaction; and
it is most probable, that the Arabians were acquainted with the art
of preparing a liquor from the parched or roasted berries of a tree
that was indigenous among them, prior to its use in Egypt and Persia,
or in any of the neighbouring countries.
MANY have been the dogmas concerning Coffee: some authors alledge that
it is _dry_, and therefore good for the gross and phlegmatic, but
hurtful to lean people; some contend that it is _cold_, and therefore
good for sanguine, bilious, and hot constitutions; others, that it is
_hot_, and therefore bad for the sanguine and bilious, but good for
cold constitutions. Some assure us, that it acts only as a _sedative_;
others, that it acts only as a _stimulant_. With such disputants there
is no entering the lists. Medical science disclaims their pretensions,
as creations of the imagination; and transfers their contest for
decision to a Synod of Turkish Priests.
I AM aware that there are people who are decisively of opinion, that
Coffee is injurious “in thin habits and bilious temperaments, in
melancholic and hypochondriacal disorders, and to persons subject to
hæmorrhages.”--_Willis_, _Cheyne_, and others, as well as _Lewis_, who
conceived this notion to have been his own, were in some degree of this
opinion[66].
[66] Ab hac sorbitione abstinere debent biliosi, quibus præservida
sunt viscera, qui hæmorrhoidibus quibuscunque erysipelati sunt
obnoxii, melancholici, et hypochondriaci. _Geoffry_, De Vegetab. Tom.
II. sect. I. p. 437.
IN habits subject to hæmorrhages, particularly those of the pulmonic
and uterine kind, the interdiction of Coffee is every where justly
admitted[67].
[67] Yet Dr. _Percival_ says, it is “powerfully sedative.” Vol. I. p.
127.
I WAS acquainted with a person at Leyden, when I was a student there,
who seldom drank much Coffee, or continued the use of it for several
days successively, without having an hæmorrhage from the nose.
BUT the other exceptions, however they may have been taken up, and
asserted in England, where the confined use of Coffee has scarcely
afforded a fair opportunity to settle such a point, will be disputed
in countries where it is in general use. Let me add also, that the
result of my observations in those countries is evidence against the
exceptions; and it is confirmed by every information I have obtained
from medical people resident in Constantinople, and other parts of the
Turkish Empire.
LET us examine this arbitrary restriction to the use of Coffee, and see
what justice there is in the principle on which it has been imposed; to
which, as to all arbitrary impositions, we shall discover no reason, I
believe, in submitting.
IN regard to “thin habits,” where there is no disease, or
constitutional defect, I can say but little; knowing no theory that
militates against the prudent use of Coffee in the alimentary way; nor
why it should not be as harmless to such habits, as to those who are
formed with the greatest obesity and rotundity of figure.
TRAVELLERS observe, that in Turkey, though the Mahometans and the
Greeks live in the same towns, they differ widely in their manner of
living; and in nothing more than in their drinks. The Turks, whose
principal drink is Coffee, and one of the articles with which every
Turk is obliged to furnish his wife, are fat, fresh, active, healthy,
and prolific. The Greeks, on the contrary, who drink but little Coffee,
and much wine, are dry, bilious, passionate, and indolent.
IN “bilious temperaments,” facts and experience must determine. Bilious
temperaments are surely no where so common as in hot climates; and
in those very countries Coffee is certainly most used. There Coffee
is found to temper and soften the acrimony of the bile, and prepare
the stomach for purgatives, and suitable medicines. It is observed
in bilious habits, that the stomach receives nothing more agreeable
than Coffee, unless where there is febrile heat; and that the nausea
and inclination to vomit, which often accompany bilious complaints,
are taken away by Coffee. In the jaundice, and in obstructions of the
liver, it is sometimes used with great benefit.
TO the opinion that Coffee is hurtful in “melancholic and
hypochondriacal disorders,” a multitude of opinions may be opposed;
and its well known power in removing visceral obstructions, and
exhilarating the spirits; which qualities have been attributed to
Coffee ever since the use of it was known[68].
[68] “Il remedie très efficacement dans les deux sexes, à toutes
les espéces d’indispositions qu’on attribuë aux vapeurs du foye,
de la ratte, et de la matrice, et par consequent aux maladies
hypocondriaques, et généralement à toutes les passions hysteriques,”
&c. _De Blegny_, p. 177.
IF it be demanded, what general description of people should abstain
from the use of Coffee?--as it seems with some people to be necessary
for the rightly understanding its virtues to have something said
against it,--I must answer, that I know of none; yet I wish to be
understood, that I think animadverting on its properties and effects
may take place, without the writer’s being in the predicament of Mons.
_de la Closure_ at Perigueux, who ordered it for all his patients
because he liked it himself; or of Mons. _Barbarec_ at Montpellier,
who forbad it to his patients because it disagreed with him. These
physicians, like _Mahomet_, incurred the imputation of mixing their
inclinations with their prescriptions.--_Mahomet_ prohibited the use of
wine, because it disordered him, and brought on the epilepsy.
EVERY reasonable person must know, that Coffee cannot be proper for all
constitutions, and at all times. The exceptions may be numerous; but I
should make a bad figure in the eyes of travellers, who have witnessed
absurdity enough on this subject, were I, in discussing the dietetic
regimen of a nation, to attempt to fix invariable rules for individuals.
PEOPLE obnoxious to hæmorrhages, or possessing peculiar nervous
sensibility, or feverish irritability, should abstain from all
stimulating liquors; therefore from Coffee.--Those who, from their own
proper experience, find it does not agree with them, can hardly stand
in need of this injunction[69].
[69] “Je scay qu’il se trouve indifféremment entre les bilieux, les
fanguins, les pituiteux, et les melancholiques, des personnes à qui
il fait du bien, et d’autres à qui il fait du mal; c’est pourquoy
bien qu’il soit vray qu’il y aye peu d’alimens ny de medicamens si
généralement bon que le Caffé.” _De Blegny_, p. 105.
IT is well known, that there are some habits which cannot endure any
thing that increases the sensibility of the nerves; and others that are
affected by particular stimulants. A cup of strong Coffee will cause
some people to have a tremor of the hand.--_Boyle_ says it acted as
an emetic with one person; _Galland_ was also an instance, where it
occasioned the same operation in a most violent manner. Others will be
heated, or be kept from sleeping by it. Tea, Champagne and Burgundy
wines, and many other things, will produce similar effects. It was on
this account that _Slare_, and some others, have confounded the excess
of nervous sensibility with the palsy, which depends on a privation
of sensibility, or motion;--against which nothing appears to be more
suitable than Coffee[70].
[70] “_Resolutio nervorum_--interdum tota corpora, interdum
partes infestar. Veteres Authores illud ἀποπληξιαν, hoc ῶαραλυσιν
nominaverunt.” _Cels._ Lib. III. cap. 27.
“Privatio est sensus et motus, in toto corpore, vel parte quadam.”
_Aret._ Lib. I. cap. 7.
A SUBJECT like Coffee, possessed of active principles and evident
operations, must necessarily be capable of misapplication and abuse;
and there must be particular habits which these operations disturb.
In some it causes an insupportable acidity in the stomach.--_Slare_
says, he used Coffee in excess, and it affected his nerves[71]; but Dr.
_Fothergill_, who was a sensible man, and had read _Paul’s_ advice to
_Timothy_ respecting wine, and did not use Coffee in excess, though
he was of a very delicate habit, and could not use Tea, says, in his
letter to _Ellis_, that he drank Coffee “almost constantly many years,
without receiving any inconveniency from it.”
[71] _Slare_, having instanced himself as one with whom Coffee did
not agree, has misled many people; and as this circumstance is
sometimes quoted to justify objections against Coffee, I beg leave
to relate his account of it in his own words:--“Nor do I decry and
condemn Coffee, though it proved very prejudicial to my own health,
and brought paralytic affections upon me. I confess, in my younger
days I ignorantly used it _in too great excess_; as many daily do
make use of this, and other Indian drinks. Though I have quite
abandoned it for above thirty years, and soon recovered the good tone
of my nerves, which continue steady to this day; yet I must own,
Coffee to some people is of good use, when taken in just proportion,
&c.” “It is true that they (Indian drinks) do not agree with all
constitutions; with some, only one of these entertaining liquids,
as Green Tea; and with others, all of them disagree.”--This candid
relation of _Slare’s_, requires no comment.
DE LA CLOSURE says, that Mons. _Ferrana_, Dean of the Faculty at
Limoges, took Coffee every night to make him sleep. The celebrated
Mons. _Colbert_ drank Coffee to keep him awake, through his great
pressure of business; and by that means so habituated himself to live
without rest, that at length he could not sleep when he wanted.
BUT the history of particular cases serves only to prove, that mankind
are not all organized alike; and that the sympathy of one, and
antipathy of another, are amply provided for in that infinite variety
which pervades all nature, and with which the earth is blessed in
the vegetable creation.--Were it not so, physic would acquire but
little aid from the toils of philosophy, when philosophy had no other
incitement to labour, than barren speculation.
IT has long been a custom with many people among us, to add mustard to
their Coffee: mustard or aromatics may with great propriety be added,
in flatulent, languid, and scorbutic constitutions; and particularly by
invalids, and in such cases where warmth or stimulus is required.
THE Eastern nations add either cloves, cinnamon, cardamoms,
cummin-seed, or essence of amber, &c. but neither milk or sugar. Milk
and sugar without the aromatics, are generally used with it in Europe,
America, and the West India Islands, except when taken immediately
after dinner; then the method of the French is often followed, and the
milk is omitted.
COFFEE is most grateful to the stomach, as well as to the palate, with
the addition of cream, and sweetened with sugar-candy. The sugar-candy
should be reduced to a gross powder, to facilitate its dissolving.
A SMALL cup or two of Coffee, immediately after dinner, promotes
digestion.
HOWEVER, Coffee after dinner, in general, is to be considered as
a luxury; and its effects are then most pleasant where temperance
has been observed, and leguminous food and light wines have chiefly
composed the repast.
WITH a draught of water previously drunk, according to the Eastern
custom, Coffee is serviceable to those who are of a costive habit.
COFFEE is not proper where there has been long sitting after dinner,
when heavy meals of animal food have been made, and much Portugal wine,
has been drunk; and never should be used after dinner, nor at any other
time, by those who intend to return to the bottle, and drink wine
immediately upon it.
THUS far the properties and medicinal effects of Coffee, after
torrefaction, have been considered; and as the beverage made from it
contains all the essential virtues of the berry, which united are most
proper for dietetic purposes, I have not entered into any discussion
of its component parts separately, nor of the distilled water, syrup,
oil, and other simple preparations which have been made from the berry;
for I do not believe, that these preparations possess any properties
deserving particular notice; but that we are indebted to the virtues we
derive from Coffee, to the total derangement of its natural state, by
the process it undergoes in roasting at the fire.--And therefore the
fabulous story of the first discovery of its effects, does not merit
the least attention.
THE mode of preparing this beverage for common use differs in different
countries, principally as to the additions made to it.--But though that
is generally understood, and that taste, constitution, the quality of
the Coffee, and the quantity intended to be drunk, must be consulted,
in regard to the proportion of Coffee to the water in making it--yet
there is one material point, the importance of which is not well
understood, and which admits of no deviation.
THE preservation of the virtues of Coffee, particularly when it is of
a fine quality, and exempt from rankness, as has been said, depends on
carefully confining it after it has been roasted; and not powdering it
until the time of using it, that the volatile and æthereal principles,
generated by the fire, may not escape. But all this will signify
nothing, and the best materials will be useless, unless the following
important admonition is strictly attended to; which is, that after the
liquor is made,--_it should be bright and clear, and entirely exempt
from the least cloudiness or foul appearance, from a suspension of any
of the particles of the substance of the Coffee_.
THERE is scarcely any vegetable infusion or decoction, whose effects
differ from its gross origin more than that of which we are speaking.
Coffee taken in substance causes oppression at the stomach, heat,
nausea, and indigestion: consequently a continued use of a preparation
of it, in which any quantity of its substance is contained, besides
being disgusting to the palate, must tend to produce the same
indispositions. The residuum of the roasted berry, after its virtues
are extracted from it, is little more than an earthy calx, and must
therefore be injurious.
THE want of attention to this circumstance, I make no doubt, has been
the cause of many of the complaints against Coffee, and of the aversion
which some people have to it; and it is from this consideration that
Coffee should not be prepared with milk instead of water, nor should
the milk be added to it on the fire, as is sometimes the case, for
oeconomical dietetic purposes, where only a small quantity of Coffee
is used, as the tenacity of the milk impedes the precipitation of
the grounds, which is necessary for the purity of the liquor, and
therefore neither the milk nor the sugar should be added, until after
it is made with water in the usual way, and the clarification of it is
completed[72].--The milk should be hot when added to the liquor of the
Coffee, which should also be hot, or both should be heated together, in
this mode of using Coffee as an article of sustenance.
[72] It is not to Coffee alone that this reflexion is confined;
every article we use as a diluter, demands the same attention.
Malt liquors, particular small beer, which in this respect is much
neglected, ought always to be carefully fined. The fæculent matter
entangled by the mucilage of the malt, is hurtful to digestion, and
detrimental to health.
THE Persians roast the membrane which envelopes the seed, and use
it together with the seed itself, in their manner of preparing the
infusion, and it is said to be a considerable improvement. The people
of fashion among the Turks and Persians make a delicate drink from the
capsules only, which is cooling and refreshing; particularly in summer
time. This was much extolled by the French travellers, who saw no other
Coffee used at the houses of the great. This is called by the French,
_Café à la Sultane_.
THE Turks, Arabians, Persians, and Egyptians, drink Coffee all day
long, in small cups, supping it up by a little at a time, as hot as
they can bear it; and what is prepared from three or four ounces among
them, is considered as a moderate quantity for one person in a day. In
the Dutch, French, and English Colonies, it is the daily breakfast and
evening repast.
IF a knowledge of the principles of Coffee, founded on examination and
various experiments, added to observations made on the extensive and
indiscriminate use of it, cannot authorize us to attribute to it any
particular quality unfriendly to the human frame;--if the unerring
test of experience has confirmed its utility, in many countries, not
exclusively productive of those inconveniencies, habits, and diseases,
for which its peculiar properties seem most applicable;--let those
properties be duly considered; and let us reflect on the state of our
atmosphere; the food and modes of life of the inhabitants,--and the
chronical infirmities which derive their origin from these sources, and
it will be evident what salutary effects might be expected from the
general dietetic use of Coffee in Great Britain.
BUT this important object cannot be accomplished while England frowns
on West Indian agriculture and commerce.
WITH legislative consideration and encouragement, good Coffee would
be produced in our West Indian Islands in such abundance, that,
as in France, it might be afforded here at a price to render it a
cheap substitute for those enervating teas and beverages, which the
inferior classes of people adopt from necessity, and which produce the
pernicious habit of dram-drinking.
THE increased consumption of the article, for reasons already urged,
would benefit the State;--and the poor would be supplied with an
wholesome ingredient for improving their diet; which, if we extend
our views remote from the Metropolis, will be found such as would
admit of much addition and melioration, without any suspicion of the
interposition of Providence in their favour, or endangering the SALUS
POPULI on the score of superfluity and luxury.
FINIS.
Spelling corrections:
accceptable → acceptable
suprized → surprized
pubic → public
metioned → mentioned
prejudical → prejudicial
disaagreeable → disagreeable
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