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.