(4) 
^ word, it makes them forget their Sorrows and Anxieties, which 
‘ is the very Quality that Homer afcribes to his Nepenthe.' 
Such Reafonings as thefe hardly deferve a ferious Anfwer, but 
as M. du Four has thought it worth while to mention this Paflage 
of de la Valle, 1 lliall be at the trouble of tranflating what he has 
faid. ^ This Virtue of Coffee, fays he, that it keeps People 
^ long awake, iliews how ill- grounded was Pietro de la Valle's 
‘ Conjedlure about it. Two Reafons prove infallibly that he 
^ was miflaken : firfl, becaufe Coffee mix’d with Wine would 
‘ make a very difagreeable Liquor, and, fecondly, becaufe Homer 
‘ fuppofes the Nepenthe to be a Narcotick Plant, whereas Coffee 
^ prevents Sleep, and would do that ftill more, if afTifted by 
" Wine.’ 
The Commentators of Homer have not forgot the Nepe?ithe, 
and we have likewife a poflhumous Treatife of M. Petit about it 
publiflied by Gr^^ius in i6S^, which the curious Reader may 
confult. 
This whim of de la Valle is not more ridiculous than that of 
Pafchius, who pretends that Coffee made part of the Prefent which 
Abigail offer’d Da^id to appeafe his juft Refen tment againft her 
Husband Nahal, as we have it i Kings, c. xxv. 
Sandy s in his Travels, and after him Honuel, and feveral others, 
tell us, that • Coffee was the Jus Nigrum or Black Broth of the 
Lacedemonians. The only Foundation they go upon is the Co- 
lour, which at any rate would be a very weak Argument, but 
will be found ftill more fo, when it is confider’d, that, according 
to Julius Pollux, the Jus Nigrum was eaten, not drank ‘ 
^ ^uif^og KoMovi/Cov f^iv ag iTri ■aroAt) ro the Black BrOth 
is an Eatable chiefly in ufe among the Lacedemonians, Onomajl. 
Lib. C. c. 1 o. Dr. Mundy adds further from this Author, that 
the Jus Nigrum was made with Blood ,• but there is no fuch thing 
in Pollux, thefe Words if* >? KaXaixivyj not being meant of 
that, but of fome other fort of Food. What this Jus Nigrum 
really was, I believe it is now impoffible to tell , but fince I 
have mention’d Dr. Mundy, [ fhall add his Opinion about it, 
namely, that it is the fame kind of Food that we find fometimes 
calld Hypofphagma, which was made of Kids Blood boil’d with 
new Wine, Cheefe, Vinegar, and Herbs. 
All thefe Conjedures about Coffee relate to the time in which 
the Authors of them fuppofe that it was already known in the 
World, but they are intirely filent about the Means by which it 
was firft difcover’d. Concerning this I find nothing faid by any 
Author before Banefus. But as he has neither mention’d the 
4 Time, 
