Cornelius Bontekoe

Cornelius Bontekoe

Cornelius Bontekoe (* 1647 ; † 1685 ) was a pseudonym of the Dutch doctor Cornelius Dekker .

biography

Dekker published some medical works that were very popular in the 17th and 18th centuries under the pseudonym Bontekoe. Because the sign of a brightly colored cow was hanging on his father's inn, Dekker was called Bontekoe by his fellow students.

The most important cultural and historical achievement by Bontekoe was the introduction of coffee, chocolate and tea in Berlin at the court of the Great Elector , where he worked as the elector's personal physician .

When coffee (like tea, chocolate, and tobacco) were introduced to Europe in the 17th century, there were bitter opponents (London Women's Pamphlet Against Coffee and Men's Response to it, 1674) and ardent supporters, including Bontekoe.

Bontekoe and William Harvey (treatise on the effects of coffee, tea and chocolate as life-prolonging agents, 1685), with whom Bontekoe was acquainted, defended the new drugs in their writings. Occasionally, Bontekoe prescribed his patients 50 cups of coffee a day, which substantiated his view of the healing properties of coffee. From today's perspective, the amount of coffee that Bontekoe had dispensed is certainly exaggerated. However, recent studies show that coffee has a positive effect on the heart and circulation, it has an anti-carious effect and is said to have a positive effect on diabetes mellitus .

In view of the high beer consumption, a consequence of the traumatic war experiences of the not so long ago Thirty Years' War , the medical prescription of coffee and tea was not least a measure against the widespread alcoholism .

Web links

• "CORNELIS BONTEKOE, de theedoctor" (PDF; 10.0 MB) by CW Bruinvis