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 people7: 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.
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 writers8; and as Sir Hans Sloane, in the Phil. Trans. No 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.
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 describes9.
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 seeds10. 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.
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 161511.
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 stomach12.”
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 drowsiness13.”
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 London14.
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 Bengiazlah15, 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.
“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 Zemzem16, in the Temple of Mecca, so much esteemed by all Mussulmen, it was not for that reason necessary absolutely to forbid them.
“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 before17.”
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 Lacedæmonians18; Abigail’s cup to David, which saved her husband Nabal’s life19; and the Nepenthe20, which Helen received from an Egyptian, and celebrated by Homer as a soother of the mind, in the extremest state of anger, grief, and misfortune21.
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 sedition22.
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 happy23; from whence many millions of bushels of this valuable treasure were then annually exported to Turkey, Barbary, and Europe24.—In Constantinople alone, the consumption is said to amount to more than what is expended for wine in Paris.
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 Coffee25; but the difference arises only from the soil, cultivation, curing, and keeping, and not from any difference in the species.
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 Europe26.
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 Coffee27.
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 extract28; a considerable quantity of oil29; a fixed salt30; and a volatile salt31.—These are its medicinal constituent principles.
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 state32.
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 perfection33.
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 astringent34.
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 languor35, which so greatly embitter the hours of nervous people, after any deviation to excess, fatigue, or irregularity.
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 dropsy36; and also in worm complaints37;—and in those camatose, anasarcous, and such other diseases as arise from unwholesome food, want of exercise, weak fibres, and obtruded perspiration.
In vertigo, lethargy, catarrh, and all disorders of the head from obstruction in the capillaries, long experience has proved it to be a powerful medicine38; 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 Coffee39.
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 past40.
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 cures41. From its possessing these qualities, Geoffrey cautions pregnant women, and such as are subject to excessive menstruation, to use it in moderation.
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 perspiration42, it allays thirst and checks preternatural heat.
Sir John Chardin, when in Persia43, 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.
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 known44.
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 afterwards45.
Coffee has been found useful in quieting the tickling vexatious cough that often accompanies the small pox46, 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.
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 useful47; and is a great restorative to constitutions emaciated by the gout and other chronic disorders48.
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 Coffee49.
Bacon says, Coffee “comforts the head and heart, and helps digestion50.” Dr. Willis says, “being daily drank, it wonderfully clears and enlightens each part of the soul, and disperses all the clouds of every function51.” 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 contemplation52.
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 properties53; 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.
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 cordial54, 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 enterprize55. 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.
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 temples56; if the Mallow was dignified with the name of Sacred57; if a statue was erected to the Lettuce58;—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 sleep59. These are the unrivalled virtues of the Poppy, so highly distinguished by the Creator, and whose excellence no human praise can reach.
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 Germany60; 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 conjecture61. 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 other62, 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 constitution63. But chemistry and experience have brought the subject into light, and Paulli’s baseless fabric has vanished.
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 tobacco64.
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 Hercules65.”
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.