plant, one ascribing it to
a flock of sheep accidentally browsing on the wild shrubs, with the
result that they became elated and sleepless at night! Its physiological
action in dissipating drowsiness and preventing sleep was taken
advantage of in connexion with the prolonged religious service of the
Mahommedans, and its use as a devotional antisoporific stirred up fierce
opposition on the part of the strictly orthodox and conservative section
of the priests. Coffee by them was held to be an intoxicating beverage,
and therefore prohibited by the Koran, and severe penalties were
threatened to those addicted to its use. Notwithstanding threats of
divine retribution and other devices, the coffee-drinking habit spread
rapidly among the Arabian Mahommedans, and the growth of coffee and its
use as a national beverage became as inseparably connected with Arabia
as tea is with China.

Towards the close of the 16th century the use of coffee was recorded by
a European resident in Egypt, and about this epoch it came into general
use in the near East. The appreciation of coffee as a beverage in Europe
dates from the 17th century. "Coffee-houses" were soon instituted, the
first being opened in Constantinople and Venice. In London coffee-houses
date from 1652, when one was opened in St Michael's Alley, Cornhill.
They soon became popular, and the role played by them in the social life
of the 17th and 18th centuries is well known. Germany, France, Sweden
and other countries adopted them at about the same time as Great
Britain. In Europe, as in Arabia, coffee at first made its way into
favour in the face of various adverse and even prohibitive restrictions.
Thus at one time in Germany it was necessary to obtain a licence to
roast coffee. In England Charles II. endeavoured to suppress
coffee-houses on the ground that they were centres of political
agitation, his royal proclamation stating that they were the resort of
disaffected persons "who devised and spread abroad divers false,
malicious and scandalous reports, to the defamation of His Majesty's
government, and to the disturbance of the peace and quiet of the
nation."

Up to the close of the 17th century the world's entire, although
limited, supply of coffee was obtained from the province of Yemen in
south Arabia, where the true celebrated Mocha or Mokka coffee is still
produced. At this time, however, plants were successfully introduced
from Arabia to Java, where the cultivation w