Clifton College Scientific Society. 69 



The methods of preparing the beverage differ in different coun- 

 tries. At Constantinople the coffee is roasted almost black and 

 then ground extremely fine, so that it is something like charcoal 

 powder. In Arabia, when guests are invited to a person's house, 

 the slave who usually makes coffee lights a fire of charcoal in a 

 small stone furnace, and puts a large coffee-pot, full of water, by 

 the side of it to get warm, while he proceeds with the rest of his 

 operations. Then, from a niche in the wall, he takes a dirty rag 

 containing coffee-seeds. From this he takes two or three haudfuls 

 and puts them into an iron ladle. Then he blows the fire bright, 

 and puts the ladle on it ; when the beans begin to crackle and 

 smoke, but before they are in any way burnt, he takes them off 

 and pours them out on a little grass platter to cool, and at once 

 puts the large pot on the fire to boil. While the water is boiling 

 he draws towards him a deep stone mortar, with a narrow pit at 

 the bottom of it, and, pouring the berries into it, proceeds to 

 pound them with a stone pestle about a foot long by an inch and 

 a half wide. When they are crushed, but not reduced to powder, 

 he scoops them out, and filling a smaller coffee-pot with boiling 

 water from the larger one, he puts it on the fire, shaking the 

 pounded coffee into it, and occasionally stirring it with a small 

 stick to prevent too rapid ebullition and overflowing. Out of 

 another rag he then takes a little saffron and a few aromatic seeds 

 (without which the coffee is not considered perfect), and these, after 

 being slightly pounded, are thrown in among the simmering coffee. 

 Of sugar there is none, nor does milk appear either. Lastly, the 

 slave strains off the liquor through some filters of the inner bark 

 of the palm-tree (placed for the purpose in the spout), and he 

 pours out the coffee into diminutive cups, first, however, himself 

 taking some of the coffee, in the presence of the master and guests, 

 to assure them that there is no ' death in the pot.' 



Coffee acts on the brain as a stimulant, producing sleeplessness, 

 and it is in consequence valuable as an antidote to narcotic poisons. 

 This property it owes (1) to a volatile oil (produced in roasting), 

 whence also comes its fragrant smell; and (2) to the crystalline 

 caffeine. This caffeine, to which we have already alluded, is 

 found in some few other plants, and it is also contained in the 

 leaves of the coffee-tree itself. Indeed, the natives of Sumatra 

 use these leaves for infusion in preference to the berries. It was 

 even proposed to introduce this coffee-tree tea into England, but 

 the attempt failed, principally owing to the fact that the coffee- 

 tree, unlike the tea plant, cannot endure the frequent deprivation 

 of its leaves, but speedily dies. 



Besides the fruit of the true coffee-tree, numerous other plants 

 have been used or proposed as substitutes for Arabian coffee. To 



