![]() These included toxicologists who testified that the drink caused “reflex irritability,” behavioral scientists who warned that it was addictive - noting that the drink was nicknamed “Dope” and “Coke” - and consumers who described themselves as hooked on the drink. ![]() The government lined up a formidable array of more than 20 witnesses critical of the soft drink company and its product. “It is remarkable,” Wiley wrote sarcastically, “what fear of publicity will do.” But after two years of building a case, he hoped that the 1911 trial would put an end to this nonsense. Two weeks after meeting with Fred Seeley, of the Atlanta Georgian, in the fall of 1909, Wilson authorized the seizure of Coca-Cola syrup bound for soda fountains. The business-friendly Secretary of Agriculture, James Wilson, stalled him off until an investigative journalist from Atlanta threatened to expose the government’s cozy relationship with the soft drink industry. Wiley began pushing the agriculture department to make a test case of Coca-Cola, the country’s largest soft drink manufacturer. He drafted a report on the beverages with the provocative title: “Habit-Forming Agents: Their Indiscriminate Sale and Use a Menace to the Public Welfare.” Kebler, during one of his investigative trips, was horrified to find children as young as four slugging down the stimulant-rich soft drink. Others like, Seven-Up, contained lithium, and others, like Coca-Cola in the early 20th century, contained a jolting level of caffeine (a glass then was comparable to a can of Red Bull today) and were often cheerfully marketed to children. Many - with names like Kola-Kok and Koke - still slipped some cocaine into the mix. Wiley and the head of his pharmaceutical division, Lyman Kebler, were focused on the “medicated” soft drinks sold to the public at that time. Harvey Washington Wiley had earlier declared that soft drinks containing the compound were “habit-forming and nerve-racking.” Department of Agriculture, then responsible for the safety of all American food and drink, was known to be caffeine-hostile. “Then a period of exuberance.”Īs a result, the Coca-Cola trial of 1911 helped establish caffeine as the country’s pick-me-up of choice. “Gradual rise of spirits,” reported one of Hollingworth’s test subjects after a jolt of caffeine. His carefully measured results told reporters - and their readers nationwide - that a morning cup of coffee (or two or more) was likely to make them more coordinated and smarter on a daily basis. And as it would turn out, caffeine would not only be the star of the three-week proceeding - its reputation would also be burnished by the scientific work done by expert witnesses, notably the meticulous research of New York psychologist Harry Hollingworth.
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