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COFFEE BUG 46 COFFIN Mocha, on the Red Sea. Next in quality to the Mocha coffee may perhaps be ranked that of southern India and that of Ceylon, which is strong and well- flavored and is brought to Great Britain in large quantities. Java and Central America also produce large quantities of excellent coffee. Brazilian coffee stands at the bottom of the list as regards quality. Of the best Mocha coffee that is grown in the province of Yemen little or none is said to reach the Western markets. Arabia itself, Syria, and Egypt consume fully two-thirds, and the remainder is exclusively absorbed by Turkish or Armenian buyers. The only other coffee which holds a first rank in Eastern opinion is that of Abyssinia. Then comes the produce of India, which those accustomed to the Yemenite vari- ety are said to consider hardly drinkable. American coffee holds in the judgment of all Orientals the very last rank. The Dutch were the first to extend the culti- vation of coffee beyond the countries to which it is native. By 1718 the Dutch planters of Surinam had entered on the cultivation of coffee with success, and ten years after it was introduced from that colony by the English into Jamaica, and by the French into Martinique. Coffee as an article of diet is of but comparatively recent introduction. To the Greeks and Romans it was wholly unknown. From Arabia it passed to Egypt and Turkey, whence it was intro- duced into England by a Turkish mer- chant named Edwards in 1652, whose Greek servant, named Pasqua, first opened a coffee-house in London. The excellence of coffee depends in a great measure on the skill and attention ex- ercised in roasting it. In the Asiatic mode of preparing coffee the beans are pounded, not ground; and though the Turks and Arabs boil the coffee, they boil each cup by itself and only for a mo- ment, so that the effect is much the same as that of infusion. Coffee acts as a nervous stimulant, a property which it owes mainly to the alkaloid caffeine. It thus promotes cheerfulness and removes languor, and also aids digestion; but in some constitutions it induces sleepless- ness and nervous tremblings. The imports of coffee into the United States in 1919 amounted to 1,046,029,274 pounds, valued at $143,089,619. The consumption per capita in 1918 was 10.29 pounds. The imports in 1919 included 571,921,573 pounds from Brazil, 158,- 343,135 pounds from Central America, and 121,416,418 pounds from Colombia. COFFEE BUG {Lecanium coffsea) , an insect of the coccus family, very de- structive in coffee plantations. COFFEE-HOUSE, a house of entertain- ment where persons are supplied with coffee and other refreshments. Formerly the chief resort of every class for pur- poses of conversation and information. It was the central meeting-place of poli- ticians, literary men, etc. Constanti- nople is believed to have been the first European capital in which coffee-houses were instituted, the year of their estab- lishment there being a. d. 1554. In 1650 the first one in England was opened in Oxford. They were suppressed by Charles II. in 1675, but were soon again allowed to be re-opened. COFFERDAM, a water-tight inclosure formed by piles driven into the bottom of a river and packed with clay, planks. or other stop-gaps. It is used as a dam while laying bare the bottom of the river, in order to establish a foundation for a pier, abutment, or quay. COFFER FISH (Ostracion), a peculiar genus of bony fishes in the small order Plectognathi, and in the family Sclero- dermi, which also includes the file-fishes. The body is inclosed in a firm box formed of hexagonal bony scales fitted into one another like a mosaic. The best known form is O. quadricomis from the tropical Atlantic. COFFEYVILLE, a city of Kansas, in Montgomery co. It is on the Missouri Pacific, the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe, the Missouri, Kansas and Texas, and the St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern railroads, and on the Verdigris river. Its industries include planing and flour mills, railroad shops, oil refineries, glass factory, packing plant, brick works, etc. Pop. (1910) 12,687; (1920) 13,452. COFFIN, the box or chest in which corpses are inclosed before being com- mitted to the ground. Coffins were in use in Egypt at a remote period of an- tiquity. Some of the Egyptian coffins were wood. There were fine sarcophagi of stone, and in Mesopotamia of clay. Cedar was used in Athens for inclosing the remains of heroes, and marble and stone among the Romans. COFFIN, CHARLES CARLETON, an American novelist and lecturer; born in Boscawen, N. H., July 26, 1823; began life as a civil engineer; afterward gave his attention to telegraphy. In 1851 he began to write for the Boston papers; and during the Civil War and the Aus- tro-Prussian War of 1866 was war cor- respondent for the "Boston Journal," writing over the signature of "Carle- ton." His books include: "Days and Nights on the Battle-Field" (1864);