The Right Chemistry: Cheers to the man who discovered 'wine disease'
Eberhard Gockel, an obscure German physician, deserves credit for his discovery based on observations at monasteries under his care.
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The epidemic in 1639 rocked the region of Poitou in France to its core. As described by Francis Citois, Cardinal Richelieu’s personal physician at the time, many of the “Pictones,” as the area’s inhabitants are known, experienced symptoms starting with colic (abdominal pain), fever, lethargy, constipation and insomnia before progressing to visual problems, mental deterioration, paralysis and, often, death. The cause of “colica Pictonum,” as the disease came to be called, was unknown. There was nothing unusual about that since medical knowledge was primitive and illnesses were generally attributed to an imbalance in the body’s “humours,” divine retribution for sin, or spells cast by witches.
Citois was not the first to describe such cases. Reports of severe colic, followed by loss of control of the extremities, blindness and insanity can be traced back to ancient Rome. Then in the 11th century, Avicenna described an epidemic of these symptoms, as did Paracelsus in the 16th, and English physician Thomas Sydenham in the 17th century. But it remained for an obscure German physician, Eberhard Gockel, to finally discover the root cause of colica Pictonum. Gockel was not an ideal candidate for making a major medical discovery given that he was the author of a book about illnesses caused by witches and werewolves and a treatise on a rooster that reputedly laid an egg. In spite of such follies, Gockel, as “City Physician of the Town of Ulm,” managed to come to a correct conclusion based on observations he made in a couple of monasteries that were under his care.
Gockel regularly visited the monasteries during an outbreak of colica Pictonum. On one such visit, he was offered a glass of wine, whereupon he was “attacked by the most atrocious colic pains and terrible fever.” Since these symptoms mimicked the disease he witnessed in a number of the monks and guests at the monastery his attention turned to the wine. A visit to the wine cellar yielded a clue. The bottom of the barrel that had been purchased from a wine merchant in nearby Goppingen contained a viscous sediment!
Gockel tracked down the merchant and learned that he routinely added a concoction of powdered litharge steeped in vinegar to the wine as a preservative and sweetener, especially when unsuitable weather conditions resulted in a grape harvest that led to sour wine. Litharge is a natural mineral form of lead oxide and its addition to wine had been a common practice since Roman times but had not previously been connected to disease. Now it aroused Gockel’s suspicion! His hunch was placed on a firmer footing when he learned that two visiting friars had contracted colic after sharing their hosts’ wine and had recovered completely upon returning to their own monasteries. When questioning revealed that none of the monks who abstained from wine had contracted the disease, Gockel was sure he had found the cause. Colica Pictonum was poisoning caused by lead!
In 1697 Gockel published his account of “wine disease,” in a paper entitled “About the sweetening of acid wine with litharge with the greatest harm to those who drink it.” In it, he gave credit to Samuel Stockhausen who may well deserve the title of being the father of occupational medicine. In a book published in 1647, Stockhausen discussed the short life expectancy of miners, a phenomenon that had been known since ancient times. He paid particular attention to those involved in the mining of lead and the symptoms he described were recognized by Gockel as being identical to what he had observed in his adulterated wine drinkers. This helped cement Gockel’s theory about colica Pictonum and its various historical manifestations were now seen as the result of consuming wine that had been doctored with lead.
The Romans had accidentally discovered that wine stored in lead vessels was less prone to spoilage and as a bonus, developed a sweeter taste. This sparked the idea of boiling grape juice in a lead pot to reduce its volume and concentrate the sweetening effect. The resulting syrup was known as “sapa” or “defrutum” and was added to wine, particularly if the wine was sourer than desired. This practice was continued throughout history, often referencing a treatise by the Roman agricultural writer Lucius Columella who gave specific instructions for the preparation of sapa. The lead content of wine prepared according to Columella’s directions has been estimated to be about 20 mg/L. Since 0.5 mg of lead per day can produce chronic lead poisoning, it is no surprise that until Gockel’s discovery, oenophiles were plagued with colica Pictonum.
The Ulm tainted-wine episode led to the passage of a law against the production of leaded wines in Germany. At first, not much attention was paid to the law, but when a cooper, Johann Ehrni, was beheaded in Stuttgart after being found guilty of “correcting” his wines with litharge, the practice came to a dead stop.
Eberhard Gockel is not one of the famous names in the history of medicine, but he deserves a great deal of credit for shedding light on the misery of colica Pictonum through his observation of tee-totaling monks. Gockel himself did not exactly lead a monastic life; he fathered 18 children! As a final footnote, the wine dealer who had sold the leaded wine to the monastery broke his neck when he was thrown by his horse. Some saw this as divine retribution.
Joe Schwarcz is director of McGill University’s Office for Science & Society (mcgill.ca/oss). He hosts The Dr. Joe Show on CJAD Radio 800 AM every Sunday from 3 to 4 p.m.
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