( 39 ,) 
^ The greateft Part of Phyficians, - who have never been at Pains 
to examine the Nature and Properties of Coffee, believe it to 
be very wholefome^ only for thefe two Reafons, becaufe the 
Arabians call it Bon in their Lansua^c, and becaufe it comes 
from that Part of Arabia call’d the Happy ^ as if tlie Nature of 
this Drug depended on its Name, or the Country where it 
grows 5 and as if Hippocrates had not told us in his Book de 
Arte, that Things are not to be judg’d of by their Names. Ne- 
verthelefs, the ignorant Vulgar, deceiv’d at the Expence of their 
Health, look on the Coffee to be a Legume, whereas it is the 
Fruit of a Tree very like the Euonymus, according to Avicenna 
in his Book of Plants, and Projper Alpinus in his Treatife of 
the Plants of Egypt. Under this miftaken Notion, Coffee is 
look’d upon as a Remedy fo much the more efficacious, as the 
Difeovery of it is faid to be owing to Goats and Camels. 
‘ Some tell us it is of a cold Nature, and therefore they re- ' 
commend it to be drank very hot, or rather the Decodlion 
made of it to be fipp’d by little and little : But it is certain 
that Coffee is hot and dry, not only from the Authority of the 
Authors I have mention’d, but alfo from the chief and moil 
fenfible Effeds of it 5 for the aduft Particles of which it con- 
fifts are fo fubtle, and have fo great a Degree of Motion be- 
longing to them, that being mix’d with the Mafs of Blood, they 
carry along with them all the Serum of it into other Parts of the 
Body j from thence they diredly attack the Brain, where, after 
having diffolv’d all the Humidity and groffer Corpufcles they 
find there, they keep all the Pores of it open, and fo hinder 
the animal Spirits, the true Caufes of Sleep, from getting the 
Length of the middle of the Brain when thefe Pores come to 
be Ouit 3 from whence it happens, that thefe adufl Particles, by 
the Qualities which they are poffefs’d of^ do often caufe fuch 
obflinate ''Varchings, that the nervous Juices abfolutely neceffary 
for recruiting the Spirits, coming totally to fail, the Nerves 
relax, and a Weaknels or Palfy enfues 3 and by the Sharpnefs 
and Drynels of the Blood already quite burnt up, all the Parcs 
of the Body are drain’d of their Moifture to fuch a degree, as 
that the whole is reduced to a horrible Leannefs. Ail thefe 
Mifehiefs in a fpecial manner befall fuch as are of a bilious 
Temperament, or Melancholy, and whole Liver and Brain are 
naturally hot 3 in a word, fuch whole Spirits are moll fubtle, 
and their Blood mofl burnt up. From all which we cannot 
help concluding, that the Ufe of Coffee is prejudicial to the 
greatell Part of the Inhabitants of Marfeilles. 
3 
^ Thus 
