Plagues and Prescriptions: Medicinal Uses of Coffee Throughout Time
“This little fruit is the source of happiness and wit,” said Dr William Harvey as he rested on his death bed. Renowned for his discovery of blood circulation, Harvey’s addiction to coffee was no subtle secret. Before his death, he left fifty-six pounds of coffee to his colleagues at the London College of Physicians for them to relish in his memory. Notably, some historians partly attribute Harvey’s discovery of blood circulation to his observation on how coffee affected blood movement as noted by Steven Topik. Harvey was not alone in his fascination with coffee. Indeed, coffee has attracted significant attention from the medical community throughout the ages. Yet, the important role physicians played in the eventual recreational usage of coffee has unfortunately been confined to merely a footnote in caffeinated history.
PRESCRIBING COFFEE
Renowned scholars of the Islamic Golden Age are responsible for producing the earliest written accounts of coffee. The ‘Canon of Medicine’ (1025) written by the influential physician and scholar, Avicenna, became the first text referring to coffee’s medicinal uses. Although, the Abd-al-Kâdir manuscript of 1587 is considered to be the first written account of coffee’s origins as mentioned by Ukers in his book ‘All about coffee’. Around 900 A.D. the physician and philosopher, Rhazes, affirmed that coffee is “very good for the stomach” in his medical text Al Haiwi (The Continent) writes Adriana Farah in ‘Coffee: Consumption and Health Implications’.
Coffee’s potential as a caffeinated cure was soon adopted by the Western world. In his book ‘Black Gold: A Dark History of Coffee’, Antony Wild mentions how doctors in England were keen on restricting coffee’s usage for medicinal purposes only. In their efforts to prevent the rise of latte lovers, English Physicians went to great lengths to ensure that the medical consumption of coffee was almost surgical. Wild refers to the ‘provang’, a long device made from whalebone with a silk pad tip would enter the stomach through the throat. Before this device was inserted, the patient would consume an ‘electuary’, which composed of ingredients such as “butter, honey, sallet oil, and coffee grounds.” The electuary along with the provang were utilised to create an emetic, a substance that induces vomiting. Indeed, coffee’s early usage in England can hardly be described as consumption. Yet, as the caffeinated clocks ticked with the times, some English Physicians started prescribing coffee as a medicine to be consumed - rather than ejected via a whalebone. For instance, the English physician and founding member of the Royal Society, Thomas Willis, prescribed coffee to cure nervous disorders, saying that he would rather “send the sick to coffee houses sooner than to the apothecaries shop” writes Cowan in his book ‘The Social Life of Coffee: The Emergence of the British Coffeehouse’. Possibly one of the earliest handbills that advertised coffee for medicinal purposes was issued by Pasque Rosée in 1652 as highlighted by Cowan. The handbill contended that coffee was a valuable cure for “headaches, consumption and coughs, dropsy, gout, scruvy, scrofula, and miscarriages,” amongst other things.
The advent of prescribing coffee eventually swam to Asian waters as well. For example, coffee began to be actively traded in Japan from 1724 as noted by Merry White in her book ‘Coffee Life in Japan’. Before then, it was referred to as the drink of the “red-haired” foreigners, also known as the Portuguese and Spanish traders, writes White. The few Japanese people that did consume coffee did so for medicinal purposes. This demonstrates another instance where before pleasure, coffee was sought as prescription. Particularly, White outlines how Rangakusha, Dutch studies scholars, were responsible for coffee’s widespread popularity in Japan as they helped translate medical and botanical texts from Dutch to Japanese. This led to Japanese doctors prescribing coffee like their Western counterparts. Coffee began to be prescribed “to strengthen appetite, cure headaches and “women’s diseases,” and stop diarrhea.”
While many physicians rejoiced at the potential of caffeinated cures, some within the medical community believed that coffee was the cause of certain illnesses. For instance, Wild highlights that coffee was thought to cause melancholy, paralysis and what is today referred to as ‘restless leg syndrome’. Most notably, some early Arabian sources warned against adding milk to coffee, claiming that it caused leprosy. Wild argues that this explains why qahwah is traditionally drunk without milk.
COFFEE & THE PLAGUE
Burgeoning interest in the medicinal uses of coffee led to physicians and researchers recommending its use during plagues. For instance, in response to the 1665 plague in England, the physician Gideon Harvey recommended using coffee as a remedy as noted by Cowan. Additionally, in 1721, Richard Bradley published ‘The virtue and use of coffee, with regard to the plague, and other infectious distempers : containing the most remarkable observations of the greatest men in Europe concerning it, from the first knowledge of it, down to this present time : to which is prefix'd, an exact figure of the tree, flower, and fruit, taken from the life.’ While Bradley was clearly indifferent to short and sweet titles, he definitely has more bragging rights than the average self-proclaimed coffee lover. Bradley wrote his work during the time when the plague spread across Marseillie in 1720-1721 and posed a risk to London’s ports. He argued that coffee offered valuable protection against the plague as it could lift spirits and that those who were victims of “Fear” were more likely to get infected. Bradley recommended drinking one cup of coffee in the morning and the second cup at 4pm.
COFFEE, CURES, COLONIALISM AND CLASS
Today, coffee is the world’s most widely consumed psychoactive drug, one which parents “routinely give to their children” as mentioned by Michael Pollan in his audiobook ‘Caffeine’. However, as Cowan rightfully points out, had coffee been restricted to purely medicinal usage, it never would have achieved its globally renowned status today as only upper-class members of society would have access to it. In fact, Cowan writes that given the rarity of coffee in 1660s England, farmers considered it to be an exotic drug yet they did not charge customs duties on coffee at the exotic drug rate due to successful lobbying pressure from the East India Company. Cure or not, capitalism and colonialism always manage to weave their way into any historical tales of coffee.
There are currently countless research studies and academic papers exploring coffee’s medical benefits. Yet, new evidence appears to constantly confound old studies and the medical community is yet to achieve a common consensus on whether coffee can truly alleviate certain illnesses. As modern medicine continues its inherited fascination with coffee, looking back at how physicians popularised coffee drinking gives us an even heightened appreciation for the profession.
Bibliography
Books:
Bradley R, ‘The Virtue and Use of Coffee, with Regard to the Plague, and Other Infectious Distempers: Containing the Most Remarkable Observations of the Greatest Men in Europe Concerning It, from the First Knowledge of It, down to This Present Time. To Which Is Prefix’d, an Exact Figure of the Tree, Flower, and Fruit, Taken from the Life.’ (M.DCC.XXI 1721)
Cowan. Brian William, The Social Life of Coffee: The Emergence of the British Coffeehouse (Yale University Press 2005)
Farah. Adriana, Coffee: Consumption and Health Implications (Royal Society of Chemistry, 2019)
Pollan. Michael, Caffeine: How Caffeine Created the Modern World (Audible Originals 2020)
Ukers. William H, All about coffee (The Tea and Coffee Trade Journal Co 1922)
White. Merry I, Coffee Life in Japan (University of California Press 2012)
Wild. Antony, Black Gold: A Dark History of Coffee (Harper Perennial 2005)
Journal articles:
Cappelletti S and others, ‘Caffeine: Cognitive and Physical Performance Enhancer or Psychoactive Drug?’ (2015) 13 Current Neuropharmacology 71 <https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4462044/> accessed 19 September 2022
Topik S, ‘Coffee as a Social Drug’ (2009) 71 Cultural Critique 81 <http://muse.jhu.edu/content/crossref/journals/cultural_critique/v071/71.topik.html> accessed 19 September 2022
Websites:
Cotler G and Gill B, ‘Coffee’ [1954] The New Yorker <https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1954/02/20/coffee> accessed 19 September 2022
Susan Isaac, ‘Coffee: A Plague Remedy?’ (Royal College of Surgeons, 7 July 2017) <https://www.rcseng.ac.uk/library-and-publications/library/blog/coffee/> accessed 19 September 2022