The athlete who drank too much Coca-Cola

In 1917 the American Journal of Physiology published an article with the very descriptive title: "A comparison of the effects of breakfast, of no breakfast and of caffeine on work in an athlete and a non-athlete". That's a simplified outline of a deceptively complicated set of experiments looking closely at changes in pulse and blood pressure as well as work rate. The results are what we'd probably expect: breakfast is generally good for exercising, while caffeine might be useful but can have some bad side effects in high doses. This might not seem a promising source for a historian, but the article has three intriguing features. The first is the fact that the source of caffeine is Coca-Cola. Bought as syrup it's analysed by the researchers and made up into a "standard dose" of 7oz of cola, with 1.42 grains [about 92mg] of caffeine (no mention of any trace cocaine). Why use Coca-Cola? Probably because it's easier to standardise doses with this syrup than with coffee or tea, and is more palatable and familiar than any concoction the researchers could make up themselves. At the time Coca-Cola was still being sold as a "tonic" drink, something between a medicine and a food.   more