I read years ago about how U.S. President Zachary Taylor died unexpectedly after eating a large helping of raw cherries and ice cold milk. My understanding is that he may have actually died from cholera, and people at the time mistakenly thought the cherries caused it, though some historians and medical experts think Taylor could have died from gastroenteritis caused by the acidity of the cherries.
Tonight I was reading about Oxford University’s Bodleian Library, and I saw a bit about Thomas Lockey, who was Bodley’s Librarian from 1660 to 1665. He died in 1679, of none other than a ‘surfeit of cherries.’
Curious, I googled the phrase, and learned that Catherine Douglas, Duchess of Queensberry, also died of a surfeit of cherries, in 1777.
When I was only aware of Taylor’s death, I assumed the cholera story was correct, but now I’m wondering what the experts think.
Did Taylor die of cholera, ODing on cherries, or something else?
Did people actually die from eating excessive amounts of cherries, and if so, why do we never seem to hear about that happening now?
Was the phrase ‘a surfeit of cherries’ perhaps a euphemism for something more salacious, or did people at the time really think the cherries were responsible?
To clarify a couple things first: one, many fruits (the main exception being sour fruits such as oranges and lemons) can carry and transmit cholera. After all, the bacteria responsible for causing cholera is usually transmitted via unclean water, which fruits can absorb. The CDC, in fact, includes the peeling of fruit and vegetables among one of its five steps to preventing the contraction of cholera.
However, what's important to note is that there are two uses of the term "cholera." One refers to the actual disease we refer to as "cholera" today, which is the intestinal infection caused by V. cholerae. However, this specific disease, in our current medical understanding, only began to spread outside of the Indian subcontinent in the early 19th century, so it is unlikely that either Thomas Lockey or the Duchess of Queensberry died of this specific disease.
And while it is certainly possible that President Taylor did, to my knowledge his condition was described using the other term for cholera, "cholera morbus," which was a term frequently used for general digestive or intestinal ailments, most of which caused gastroenteritis. While Taylor's death was perhaps caused by the specific V. cholerae bacteria, he potentially died from an infection of a different bacteria or virus that contaminated either the cherries or the ice used to chill his milk.
I am not sure that any of those people you mentioned died specifically from eating too many cherries and overwhelming their digestive system with acid. Rather, they likely consumed contaminated cherries (or accompanying beverages) that carried some form of bacteria or virus. We never hear about people dying from a “surfeit of cherries” now because of much improved sanitation and food safety procedures or, in less developed areas, because medical officials are more able to name the cause of death as “cholera” or “gastroenteritis” due to our improved medical knowledge. Additionally, the idea of Taylor dying specifically from the cherries is more the result of popular rumor, as his doctors identified his disease as cholera morbid without mention of a specific food causing it. In the modern day, the increased dissemination of information decreases the amount of rumor and speculation taking place. Of course, it’s hardly possible to exhume and autopsy their bodies to gain much meaningful information after all these years (though Taylor was exhumed for arsenic testing). And, additionally, our medical understanding two-four centuries ago was not nearly as extensive as it is today, so contemporary medical accounts can be fairly lacking and non-descriptive from our modern perspective.
EDIT: Allow me to encourage you to pose this question to a science or medicine-oriented subreddit as well, as I would guess you'd have a better time getting a more thorough medical answer from there.
Sources:
https://www.cdc.gov/cholera/preventionsteps.html
https://www.asmscience.org/content/book/10.1128/9781555818364.chap18
https://millercenter.org/president/taylor/death-of-the-president
https://www.asmscience.org/content/book/10.1128/9781555818364.chap18