104 INTRODUCTION OF COFFKI-: TO EUROPE. 



bean, and is ver^■ similar to the Theobromin of Cocoa. 

 The Paragua\- Tea, or "Mate" and the Kola-nuts also 

 contain Caffein. 



The Coffee plant was first cultivated on a large 

 scale b\' the Arabs, while Europe, with the exception 

 of Tiirke\ , knew nothing of the existence of this 

 beverage until the middle of the seventeenth centur^•. 

 Coffee was iirst brought to C-onstantinople from Eg^-pt 

 hv Selini I in 1517, and twent\- ^ears later there 

 were already several Coffee-houses in that cit\'. It 

 reached Western Europe through the \"enetians. Prosper 

 Alpinus, who lived in Eg\'pt as doctor to the \^enetian 

 Consul and published his work on Eg^-ptian plants bet- 

 ween the ^-ears 15V)1 — 9,\, gave the fu'st, although ver\' 

 imperfect, description of the Coffee tree. From Venice, 

 where the first Coffee-house was opened in 1()45, the 

 custom of coffee drinking spread rapidh* over the whole 

 ot Italv. Le Grand d'Auss-\' informs us that Marseilles 

 was the first town in France in A\'hich Coffee-houses 

 were built. In the time of Louis XIV the use of coffee 

 as a beverage came into vogue in Paris, and this was 

 chiefl\- due to the influence of Soliman Aga, tlie En\'o\- 

 of Mohammed III. Le Grand d'Auss)^ tells us that Soli- 

 man ingratiated himself so with the Parisian ladies that 

 it became the fashion to call on him. He had coffee 

 served to the ladies in oriental fashion; slaves handed 

 it to them in shining porcelain cups on gold -fringed 

 serviettes. The foreign furniture of the apartments, the 

 sitting on the floor, the conversation which was carried 

 on hv means of an interpreter, — all this Le Grand 



