( 5r ) 
Whether the Arabians ufe any Art to prevent the 
Growth of the C o f f e e- P l a n t other 
Countries, 
W H O was the Inventor or firfi: Relater of this Story, That 
the Arabians fpoil the germinative Faculty of the Coffee- 
Fruit, I cannot find. Of all the Authors I have confulted, du 
Four is the firft who has mentioned it , but at the fame time he 
talks of it as a thing that had been often faid before him 5 nei- 
ther is he at all inclined to think it is true. 
A great many People affure us, fays he, that the Coffee-Fruit 
is boiled, or paffed through a hot Oven, before it be expoled 
to Sale, in order to deffroy the Germe or vegetative Principle in it, 
for fear it fliould be fbwn elfewhere. Others maintain the con- 
trary, and their Opinion is grounded on a Reafon, which to me 
feems indifp unable. If it were true, fay they, that Coffee is either 
boiled or heated in an Oven before it is exported from Arahiay 
it would be a very rare thing to find any Berries with the Skins 
upon them j for thefe being but thin, would neceffarily be con- 
fumed at the firff Approach of Fire ,* and yet a great many fuch 
Berries are to be met with in the Coffee that comes to thefe Parts : 
befides, the Fire would give it a burnt Tafle or Smell, which 
neverthelefs we do not perceive it hath. 
Thofe who are for the other fide of the Queffion, anfwer, that 
the Tree which bears the Coffee, being a Plant of fo great Confe- 
quence, it is impoffible to think, that either Curiofity, Neceflity, 
or Intereft, muff not have naturalized it in fome other Country 
before this Time, if the germinative Faculty of the Fruit were 
not loft before it reaches any other Place. But fuch People do 
not duly attend to the Difpenfations of Providence, which has 
given to every Country, exclufive of all others, the Privilege of 
producing fome Things, which all the Induftry of Man can ne- 
ver render common in any but that. 
Dr. Rohinjon, tho’ without giving any Reafon for it, is of a 
different Opinion from Monfieur du Four. The Arabians, ac- 
cording to him, are as careful in dejlroying the germinative Fa- 
culty of the Coffee-FmV or Seed^ as the Dutch of the Moluccos are 
in their Nutmegs. 
This Opinion is likewife adopted by Mr. Ray, and he has 
tranflated Dr. Rohinfons ^ords into Latin^ without ever inquiring 
I further 
