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Initially, coffee was consumed only as part
of a religious ceremony or on the advice of a physician. Once the
medical men had observed coffee's beneficial effects, more and more of
them started to prescribe it. Coffee was used to treat as astounding
variety of ailments, including kidney stones, gout, smallpox, measles
and coughs. A late 17th century treatise on coffee and its uses quotes
the work of Prosper Alpinus, a botanist. In his book on the medicines
and plants of Egypt, Alpinus writes : "It is an excellent remedy against
the stoppage of women's courses, and they make often use thereof, when
they don't flow so fast as they desire...it is a quick and certain
remedy for those women, who not having their courses are troubled with
violent pains". He goes on to
describe how coffee was made: "This Decoction they make two ways: the
one with the skin or the outside of the aforesaid grain, and the other
with the very substance of the bean. That which is made with the skin is
of more force then the the other...
The grain... is put into an iron
instrument firmly shut together with the coverlid, through this
instrument they trust a spit, by the means thereof they turn it before
the fire, till it shall be well roasted; after which having beaten it
into a very fine powder, you may make use thereof, in an equal
proportion according to the number of people that will drink it: Viz the
third part of a spoonful for each person, and put it into a glass of
boiling water, putting a littler sugar thereto: And after having let it
boil a small time, you must pour it into little dishes of porcelain or
any other sort, and so let it be drunk by little and little, as hot as
it can be possible indur'd".
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