Until fairly recently, water in urban environments was unsafe to drink due to the communal nature of rivers and waterways. Used as a mode of transportation and an outlet for waste, drinking from this water was not a great option and the people of the early modern period. Unsanitary water could cause sickness and disease, especially when sick animals used the water as well. While those who lived in the country had more access to clean water than those who lived in the cities, as populations grew, so did the need for more water, both for consumption and for daily life. Fortunately, there were alternatives for those in and outside of cities and they often utilized an age old substitution: wine.
Children and adults alike drank wine daily, with or without meals, since it was a safe and sanitary alternative to water. Today, drinking wine is generally frowned upon before 5pm and drinking a whole bottle of wine by yourself is apparently also taboo. People now are aware of the damaging effects of too much alcohol consumption and the warning signs of alcoholism are common knowledge. Some people are able to drink every day and never develop a dependence on the substance, while others develop the disease seemingly instantaneously. Alcoholism probably did not develop during the 19th or 20th centuries, but was it recognized as a disease before then?
In literature I’ve read that takes place in early modern Europe, there occasionally will be mention of the town drunk, or a family member who perhaps indulges too much at family gatherings. In my limited experience with recipe books, I have yet to observe a recipe for a hangover or actual alcohol dependence. I expect that alcoholism, or any drug dependence for that matter, was not seen as an actual disease, but rather the results of a sinner or even just a lost soul. Since alcohol was so commonplace, the fact that someone was drinking significantly more than others, or needed it more than others, surely often went unnoticed.
If alcoholism itself did go unnoticed, were the bodily repercussions treated instead? Recipes for liver issues, back pain, melancholy, headaches, stones….these are all well within the reaches of a household recipe book and while these ailments certainly can be caused by almost anything; alcohol could definitely be one of the causes. Treating the results of alcohol dependence would have at least alleviated the patient’s symptoms for a time, even though they surely would return with continued alcohol use.
I am also inclined to ponder the question of tolerance. If children begin drinking wine at a young age, inevitably after just a short amount of time, they would have built a fairly great tolerance to wine and its alcoholic effects. That being said, is it possible that alcoholism was perhaps not recognized because it really was not an issue and the looming alcoholism was kicked out right at the gate? Or, since wine was consumed so often, the detox that creates the hangover and would show the bodily effects of the disease never had time to appear? As I research different recipe books for other projects I’ll make sure to take note of any recipes that involve such issues and I’ll report back.
-Melissa Martin
Recipes and Medicine in Early Modern England 