The ritual of temperance, and state hygiene ; contributions towards a rationale in national healthiness.

  • Pattin, H. Cooper.
Date:
[1905]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The ritual of temperance, and state hygiene ; contributions towards a rationale in national healthiness. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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    Johnson, in his Physiology of Common Life, tells us that in antique days a poor dervish, who lived in a valley of Arabia Felix, observed a strange hilarity in his goats on their return home every evening. To find out the cause of this he watched them during the day, and observed that they eagerly devoured the blossoms and fruit of a tree which he had hitherto disregarded. He tried the effect of this food upon himself, and was thrown into such a state of exaltation that his neighbours accused him of having drunk of the forbidden wine. But he revealed to them his discovery, and they at once agreed that Allah had sent the plant to the faithful as a substitute for the vine. The plant upon which those sapient goats did browse was the Caffcea Arabica, whose flower is a pure white one with a rich and fragrant odour, and whose fruit is somewhat like unto a cherry—what we call the coffee bean corresponding (duplicated) to the stone in a cherry. The mental exaltation and general hilarity referred to bring into promin- ence the physiological effects of coffee consumed a la dervish, that is when the all-together is eaten in the raw condition. In the form of an infusion of the crushed and roasted bean, coffee is consumed by ourselves for its effects as a caffeinic stimulant. It has also extended to it, and deservedly, great favour on account of its fragrance. As is the case with tea, the stimulating influence exerted by coffee upon the nervous system is due to the alkaloid