Can coffee kill you? That's certainly a question in the 17th and 18th century. Coffee
is introduced into Europe about 1650's for Great Britain and a little bit later for France
and it starts to become very very popular and this is also the time when medical science
well really starts to get more scientific as it were and people are starting to ask these
questions about particular food things especially new food items coffee, tea, and chocolate are both
very popular especially by the time we get to the late or the early 18th century when they
are cheap enough for even everyday folks to afford so a lot of people are drinking this especially in
the morning and different parts of the the medical you know community as it were are looking into
these ideas and saying uh are there poor are there bad effects to coffee, tea, chocolate and they're
writing whole treatises pamphlets multiple people about the history of coffee about the history of
tea and then how to you know properly uh you know prepare it and then what are the effects of this
and coffee is one that has a little bit of controversy back and forth and it's kind of
fun to read these um controversial pamphlets at times. Okay nobody in the 18th century thought
coffee was going to kill you but they certainly thought it might have some bad effects maybe
it'll stunt your growth maybe it'll make you impotent um you know it certainly isn't good
for people with nervous disorders so we certainly have multiple people pointing out some problems.
Some thought that it was a waste for working-class people to spend a lot of money on coffee they
should probably drink beer instead it will be more healthy or you know you might have somebody
extreme like Benjamin Franklin they should be drinking water instead of beer so there are some
authors that thought maybe it was too wasteful that these working-class people were you know kind
of wasting their money um and uh also you know that whole idea of it'll kind of stunt your growth
right um so there are some authors about that but it seems like when we really dig in that
most of these medical people were very very pro pro coffee uh there's at least
one pamphlet that talks about coffee being good for the plague. Now I don't know about that
other people thought it was good for you know all sorts of breathing issues that it clears the mind.
So let's take a step back and think about coffee being introduced into Europe in this middle of
the 17th century time period it's coming in and since it isn't being imported in large quantities
it's uh very expensive and a specialized to drink there there was uh the the whole getting
started with coffee in England comes from a pre one particular servant from the Turkish
region and he has the knowledge to prepare coffee and and he prepares it in one gentleman's house
and every time guests come over they badger him about this drink and it becomes you know people
start to come to his house so much that he's like fine let's open a coffee house let's move this out
of my house because it's driving me crazy all these people want to drink this special drink
so it can be very very expensive in that time period so 1650 1660
and it takes off coffee houses that whole idea of we're gonna have just a house
and all you're gonna drink here is coffee it becomes a thing in this late 17th century time
period in England and of course when uh you know working-class people see that and they they can't
quite afford that it creates a great demand for that and that's when you know we finally get
to the early 18th century coffee starts to be grown in other places like the west indies and
the price comes down and boy it's just a great demand for this wonderful stimulating drink.
There are multiple treatises on coffee here's one from 1792 and he's talking about the effects of
coffee Bacon, Francis Bacon says coffee comforts the head and the heart and helps digestion
now this is Francis Bacon writing before coffee even gets introduced to Great Britain so he's
writing about what travelers are saying about coffee and then we have um then we have Dr
Willis he says being daily drunk it wonderfully clears and enlightens each part of the soul and
disperses all the clouds of every function and the celebrated Dr Harvey used it often and Voltaire
lived almost upon it he told me nothing exhilarated his spirits more than the smell of
coffee. He even had it roasted in his house every morning just so he could smell it roasting now
it's funny there's a bunch of different references to coffee stimulating you keeping you from being
sleepy and yet here's this little beginning right before the directions for preparing coffees
in the secrets in arts and trades note this coffee is much used among people of quality
who prefer it to strengthen the stomach especially when taken before going to bed. Which seems odd we
said some people talk about you know coffee being very stimulating another people talk about it
helping you go to sleep. Some of the language written about coffee here and this is early early
18th century is a little over the top but this is fun uh tis allowed to be a strong anti-hypnotic
greatly dissipating sleepy vapors and the fumes of wine so if you're a little hungover
then then coffee's gonna do you good things um tis likewise useful to such as our afflicted
with rheumatic and gouty humors and then I love this section down here where it says
um which coffee by which a right use supports the vital flame so this author was so concerned about
that coffee that you just really really had to have it that I mean it almost kept you alive
as opposed to you know will it kill you this author seemed to think you you needed it to live
there are authors here that specifically point out times and places when coffee is not good for you
and here is a section but on the other hand he disallows the use of it to such as paralytic
and likewise such as are troubled with melancholy vapors or have hot brains so
maybe hot brains is a nervous temperament maybe I think we've we've seen that in some other
writings where if you have a you're a nervous kind of person coffee is just going to be a
little too much for you here's an author that's speaking to the problems with coffee and people
with nervous dispositions he says but in thin and dry constitutions they the drinking coffee
are very hurtful as they dry the nerves too much and are apt to make them tremble
as with palsies and by the same means likewise they promote watching
by the bracing of the fibers too tense for that relaxation which is necessary for them to sleep.
Occasionally we see the idea of impotence and sterility pop up this may come basically from
one source earlier on here's what this reads coffee then produces sterility in Persians
not because it is cold but because it gradually dries their bodies by means of a certain sulfur
and it kind of talks about this kind of warm and cold humors there are some medical ideas
that are holdovers from the medieval era that are coming into here um so you know as we get into
now that kind of sticks around all the way into the 19th century but here they're still grasping
at straws as to why coffee would have well any sort of effect they didn't have the ability to
analyze coffee and break down the why of any of this they didn't know that caffeine was in coffee
or basically any of these things they were just looking at the effects
and kind of guessing as to the why. In this book called the treatise of food he says
coffee fortifies the stomach and the brain it promotes digestion it allays headache it
suppresses the fumes caused by wine and other spiritual slickers it promotes urine and opens
some people's bodies that it makes the memory and fancy more quick and people brisk that drink it.
I think it's fascinating as we dig into these treatises and pamphlets written on coffee
different scientific thought we've got some major thinkers here uh working on the idea of coffee is
it bad is it good how is it good why is it good and they come up with some crazy ideas here and
there it's really kind of funny to read them and you know we can look back at the 18th century
scientists and doctors and kind of make fun of them but we still have that same issue today
don't we you know doctors talk about oh butter's good for you and then somebody else will come out
with a different study bad butter's bad for you and the same thing with coffee even to this day
some people will think coffee cures everything and other other people might think coffee's
probably bad for you you should only maybe drink one cup a day. So can coffee kill you well I don't
think it's going to kill you in fact I think it smells wonderful and the vast majority of
authors in the 18th century and probably even today think coffee is probably good for you.