ame to a head in 1679, when an ingenious attempt by the
physicians of Marseilles to discredit coffee took the form of having a
young student, about to be admitted to the College of Physicians,
dispute before the magistrate in the town hall, a question proposed by
two physicians of the Faculty of Aix, as to whether coffee was or was
not prejudicial to the inhabitants of Marseilles.

The thesis recited that coffee had won the approval of all nations, had
almost wholly put down the use of wine, although it was not to be
compared even with the lees of that excellent beverage; that it was a
vile and worthless foreign novelty; that its claim to be a remedy
against distempers was ridiculous, because it was not a bean but the
fruit of a tree discovered by goats and camels; that it was hot and not
cold, as alleged; that it burned up the blood, and so induced palsies,
impotence, and leanness; "from all of which we must necessarily conclude
that coffee is hurtful to the greater part of the inhabitants of
Marseilles."

Thus did the good doctors of the Faculty of Aix set forth their
prejudices, and this was their final decision upon coffee. Many thought
they overreached themselves in their misguided zeal. They were handled
somewhat roughly in the disputation, which disclosed many false
reasonings, to say nothing of blunders as to matters of fact. The world
had already advanced too far to have another decision against coffee
count for much, and this latest effort to stop its onward march was of
even less force than the diatribes of the Mohammedan priests. The coffee
houses continued to be as much frequented as before, and the people
drank no less coffee in their homes. Indeed, the indictment proved a
boomerang, for consumption received such an impetus that the merchants
of Lyons and Marseilles, for the first time in history, began to import
green coffee from the Levant by the ship-load in order to meet the
increased demand.

Meanwhile, in 1669, Soliman Aga, the Turkish ambassador from Mohammed IV
to the court of Louis XIV, had arrived in Paris. He brought with him a
considerable quantity of coffee, and introduced the coffee drink, made
in Turkish style, to the French capital.

[Illustration: A COFFEE BRANCH WITH FLOWERS AND FRUIT AS ILLUSTRATED IN
LA ROQUE'S "VOYAGE DE L'ARABIE HEUREUSE"]

The ambassador remained in Paris only from July, 1669, to May, 1670, but
long enough firmly to establish the custom he had introduced. Two ye