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 opinion‍66.

In habits subject to hæmorrhages, particularly those of the pulmonic and uterine kind, the interdiction of Coffee is every where justly admitted‍67.

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 known‍68.

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 injunction‍69.

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 Coffee‍70.

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 nerves‍71; 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.”

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 completed‍72.‍—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.

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.