Medicine for a long life?: hygiene and distilled liquors in early seventeenth-century England.

This study examines opinions on distilled liquors in hygiene books in early seventeenth-century England. As these liquors gradually became popular in the late sixteenth century, health advice began to incorporate discussions on them. Focusing on William Vaughan, Tobias Venner, James Hart, and Francis Bacon, this study investigated how their opinions reflect their medical ideas and interests, as well as the changing drinking habits in contemporary England. Although Vaughan initially praised the life-extending effects of distilled liquor, his later treatises became much more sceptical. He criticized its regular dietary use as he became more focused on colonization and anxious about excessive drinking in contemporary England. Physicians Venner and Hart held a similar sceptical attitude toward distilled liquor but insisted on the difference in constitutions among humans. Vaughan, Venner, and Hart also exhibit ambivalence because they all admitted the efficacy of distilled liquor. Bacon believed that spirits in the body would perform destructive actions that eventually led to death and that these actions were enhanced by distilled liquors. Thus, he attempted to prepare milder drinks for a long life by infusing meat into wine and beer.