Coffee : its history, classification and description.

  • Walsh, Joseph M.
Date:
[1894]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Coffee : its history, classification and description. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Gerstein Science Information Centre at the University of Toronto, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Gerstein Science Information Centre, University of Toronto.

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    claim will support them for a whole day, when on a marauding incursion or in active war, better than a loaf oi bread or a meal of meat, because it cheers their spirits as wt'' as feeds them. From E+^hiopia, the Coffee-plant_Js^ claimed to have been introduced ^^ito^ Abyssinia as early as a. d. while, according to Lagrenie, Coffee has been known and used in Abyssinia, from the very earliest times, quoting the Abbe Raynal, a missionary to that country in the latter part of the sixteenth century, to that effect, stating that he procured some of the berries from cultivated plants, and made atrial of them, finding them larger, rather longer and quite as fragrant as those obtained from Arabia.'' From Abyssinia it was evidently first introduced into Arabia, but at what period of the world's history, or uliBer what circumstances is also lost in doubt. Tradi- tion—never at a loss for some marvelous story—ascribes its first discovery in the latter country to a Dervish, who in the year 1275 was driven out of Moka, pursued and surrounded by his enemies in the adjacent mountains. In the extremity of hunger he is said to have gathered some Coffee-berries and eaten them, then, steeping some of the parched berries in some water to allay his thirst, he accidentally discovered their agreeable flavor and nutritious properties. While another Arabian legend attributes its first discovery as an alimentary infusion in that country to a Mollah named Chadeley, who on being informed by a goat-herd of the peculiar and exciting effect produced on his goats, whenever they happened to browse on the leaves and fruit of a certain kind of tree, resolved to test their virtues on his monks, with whom it is related he had considerable difficulty in keeping awake during their nocturnal devotions. Pre- paring an infusion from the berries of the plant indicated,