Memoir upon Coffee, 331 



colouring, and aromatic principles of the substance infused ; 

 and the amateurs have long ago decided, that there is no other 

 way of obtaining it endowed with the most agreeable and 

 pleasant flavour. 



M. Disjonval, who lived a long time in Holland while the 

 French troops occupied the camp at Zeist, was desirous of 

 habituatin"; the soldiers to the «ise of coffee : he attempted to 

 prepare a quantity of it so large as to supply the consump- 

 tion of an army of 20,000 men which was then encamped 

 near Utrecht : for this purpose he contrived a coffee boiler of 

 extraordinary dimensions; he even prepared the cciffte with 

 cold v.ater, in order always to have a supply of it before hand; 

 but he soon perceived that, independently of the weak action 

 of a cold liquid on such substances as are submitted to its 

 influence, the infusion of coffee was much weaker in prin- 

 ciple, less aromatic, and that it required a second operation t» 

 brincr it to the degree of heat necessary for using it : he also 

 observed that this new method was always hurtful to the good 

 qualities of the coffee ; from which he concludes with good 

 reason, that coffee, like many other things, when it is again 

 heated, loses its value considerably- 



The berries of the coffee tree are not the only part of the 

 fruit which furnishes an agreeable liquor. . Some travellers 

 in Arabia Felix relate that the king of Hyemen, as well as the 

 Covernors of his states, use only the envelope of the fruit 

 of the coffee tree and tlie membranes which cover the ber- 

 ries ; which they roa^^t. Thi'- beverage, in great estimation 

 among the Arabs, is said to be more agreciihlc and more deli- 

 cate to the taste than that whieli is prepared with the seeds 

 of coflVe : the above is what is called in the East « Sultan 

 coffee." 



If, as wc have already seen, the Dutch and the Flemish 

 possess the true art of making coffee, thev arc ?.!so, perhaps, 

 the first who have endeavoured to render this kind of beve- 

 rafe of general use in their own country, and who at the 

 same time have tried the most methods of obtaining it at 

 little e.spcnse. 



Although the greatest pari of the Asiatics, according to 



syiiiC 



