[NOTE:] - 110 -

...from [its] use, for it hath been made known by experience that from using coffee frequently and every day there ariseth trembling of the whole body, palpitation of the heart, and weakness of the nerves; it impaireth the sight, diminisheth desire, thickeneth the blood, and at times even causeth apoplexy*, banisheth sleep, and shutteth up the appetite. For this reason, physicians and those who understand such harmful consequences of coffee forbid its use; wherefore, those who have made a firm habit of the use of coffee would do well to mix into it roasted chicory root, or carrot [parsnip], or barley (see Number 107). Physicians advise drinking coffee as a medicine for those who lead a sedentary life, idle, motionless, and sleeping; [who] are corpulent in body, and by nature weak and lymphatic. There are many instances where, by using coffee in divers manners—as for example, by administering an enema, by bathing in its water, by using [it] unroasted, and by mixing [it] with yet other medicines—patients have received relief, such as lunatics (the debilitated), [those afflicted with] dropsy, melancholy (*sevda*), diarrhoea, and fever, and those having diseases like unto these. Concerning tea, it may be said that it is right profitable if it be used as a medicine, for it will greatly help those having bowel complaints (fever) and dropsy, by opening the urine, as likewise for difficulty of breathing, scurvy (*scorbutus*), bone-ache, and the like. But because it hath now become a general and daily habit, its beneficial virtue no longer taketh effect; on the contrary, it produceth excessive harm and maladies, for it drieth the chest, weakeneth the stomach, and taketh away the strength.

NOTE: To test [its effects], he began to give coffee to the drowsy and slumbering clergy to drink, so that they might become lively and sobered. From this time, the use of coffee began to become a custom throughout all Arabia, and from there it passed to Constantinople, and afterwards to all Europe. * In Latin, *apoplexia*. Apoplexia