Green Coffee Bean Caused Yellow Fever

Don't get alarmed, this was the opinion of Benjamin Rush, one of the founding fathers, in 1793. He blamed Yellow Fever on rotting coffee beans that had been left on the port in Philadelphia. 

Nearly 100 years later, the cause of the fever was determined to have come from Mosquitoes and not coffee beans. 

Fast forward to 2014 and Historian & Associate Professor at the University of Pennsylvania David Barnes, stumped with this story, how the smell of rotting green coffee beans could be blamed for an epidemic that claimed 5,000 lives, decided to reenact this scenario.

Barnes purchased 50 pounds of green beans and left them to rot in a container through summer and early fall, before dumping them (on a tarp) near the original site of the coffee dump. 

Barnes' friends, colleagues and passersby had the opportunity to take in the smell, that was blamed, 300 years ago, for yellow fever. 

You can visit Barnes site and watch some videos and learn more about this interesting part in yellow fevers history here