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Authors: George Biro and Jim Leavesley

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What Killed Jane Austen?: And Other Medical Mysteries

W
HAT
K
ILLED
J
ANE
A
USTEN
?
A
ND
O
THER
M
EDICAL
M
YSTERIES
W
HAT
K
ILLED
J
ANE
A
USTEN
?
A
ND
O
THER
M
EDICAL
M
YSTERIES
G
EORGE
B
IRO AND
J
IM
L
EAVESLEY

This book is dedicated to our wives, Kitty Biro and Margaret Leavesley, who have been our constant supporters, our sternest critics and invariably a source of ideas.

First published by Harper Collins, Australia in 1998

This edition published in 2011

The History Press

The Mill, Brimscombe Port

Stroud, Gloucestershire,
GL
5 2
QG

www.­thehistorypress.­co.­uk

This ebook edition first published in 2011

All rights reserved

© George Biro and Jim Leavesley, 1998, 2007, 2011

The right of George Biro and Jim Leavesley, to be identified as the Author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyrights, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

EPUB ISBN
978 0 7524 7206 5

MOBI ISBN
978 0 7524 7205 8

Original typesetting by The History Press

Contents

About the Authors

Preface

1 ­ ­ ­Kings and Queens

2 ­ ­ ­Eccentrics, Reformers and Pioneers

3 ­ ­ ­Quacks, Pseudologists and Other Phonies

4 ­ ­ ­Famous Patients

5 ­ ­ ­Warfare and Medicine

6 ­ ­ ­Discoveries and Diseases

7 ­ ­ ­Disasters

8 ­ ­ ­Addictions and Obsessions

9 ­ ­ ­Longevity

A Final Word:­ Can Immunisation Alone Save Third World Children­?

Bibliography

About the Authors

George Biro was born in Budapest, Hungary, in 1938, to an Italian mother and a Hungarian father. The family migrated to Australia in 1947. With such a cosmopolitan background and being good at languages, he harboured thoughts of becoming a journalist. His parents actively discouraged such folderols and recommended he find a more secure and socially acceptable job. So he became a medical student in Sydney; whether this fulfilled the parental criteria is a moot point.

After graduation George joined a group practice in Manly, New South Wales, as a GP/anaesthetist. Later he worked in Ryde Hospital in Sydney. In 1990, having acquired what he saw as the insisted-upon security and social acceptability, he reverted to his first love of writing to become a freelance medical journalist. His articles have appeared in various medical publications. This is his second book.

Jim Leavesley was born in Blackpool, the holiday resort in northwest England. He had early fantasies of becoming a Lancashire county cricketer, but again parental reproval—coupled with the obvious fact he was not good enough at cricket—soon put an end to that nonsense.

He entered Liverpool University Medical School, graduating in 1954. He migrated to Perth, Western Australia, in 1957. After having worked as a GP in the same medical practice for 33 years he retired to Margaret River, not to grow grapes but to pursue his lifelong ambition of studying and writing about medical history.

Between 1978 and 1986 he did a weekly medical talkback broadcast on local ABC radio, and from 1981 he has been a regular contributor to programs produced by the Science Unit of the ABC, mostly ‘Ockham’s Razor’. He lectures extensively on medical history and writes a fortnightly column called ‘Historically Speaking’ for
Australian Doctor
. In 1993 he was made a Member of the Order of Australia for ‘services to medicine in general and medical history in particular’. This is his sixth book.

Preface

Most of these essays saw the light of day in the ‘after hours’ section of the medical newspapers
Australian Doctor
and
Medical Observer
. Others have been adapted from broadcasts written for and presented on ABC radio.

Those in the medical newspapers were aimed at giving light, even comic, relief and soothing balm to doctors once they had ploughed through and wrestled to the ground the daunting and largely indigestible fare of attempting to resolve complicated medical cases or unravel the latest medico-political chicanery or come to terms with more stories of litigation against their colleagues.

Medical history was always regarded as a soft option or indulgence in medical schools; it never featured in examinations. Nonetheless, we are all curious about our roots and the fate of our forebears, and from the interest the stories generated it became obvious that their recounting held a compelling, perhaps morbid, fascination.

With this in mind, it was felt the anecdotes would appeal to a wider audience. So with the help of some judicious editing to cut out the most gory bits, a selection of bizarre, whimsical and ghoulish essays as well as off-beat, quirky clinical facts have been brought together in this book.

1
Kings and Queens
Mary I of England and Philip II of Spain

Mary Tudor, Queen Mary I of England, or Bloody Mary, had staunch religious convictions which made her unpopular in various parts of the country. But what nobody knew at the time was that while on the one hand she displayed energetic piety, on the other hand she had an enervating and disheartening medical condition. If it had been treated successfully the course of English history would have been changed. Mind you, she would have had to wait for over 400 years to be properly investigated.

Mary was born in 1516, the eldest child of Henry VIII by his first wife, Catherine of Aragon. Her father treated her very cruelly as a child, used her in a game of political cat and mouse, and often expressed the wish in her hearing that she were dead. Not surprisingly, her health was always indifferent—although details are sketchy, as the royal archives from Windsor only date from the reign of George III (1760). It is known, however, that she suffered from bouts of fever (perhaps malaria), anorexia and depression. Even at her coronation in 1553 it was said she had fallen prey to melancholy to the point of illness.

At the time of her coronation she was unmarried. As queen, she became a glittering prize in the dynastic stakes of Europe. In the end her second cousin Philip, later Philip II of Spain, emerged as the frontrunner. Philip’s father—the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and Charles I of Spain—negotiated the marriage (Philip’s second).

True love had nothing to do with this match. Both Philip and Mary were devout Catholics and opponents of Protestant heresy, but above all, Charles needed English support against the French.

To marry Philip, Mary defied the hostility of her people. Historian Hendrik Van Loon wrote: ‘Stout British hearts trembled at the prospect of the Spanish Inquisition establishing itself in their midst, and stout British fists were clenched in silent menace.’

Charles set down reams of instructions; Philip must be devout, never trust anyone, never show his emotions. Above all, beware the perils of the bedroom:

‘When you are with your wife … be careful and do not overstrain yourself … because intercourse … often … prevents the siring of children and may even kill you.’

At the age of 16 he had married the Princess of Portugal, who died only days after giving birth to Don Carlos. This first son of Philip was physically and mentally deficient; Don Carlos was to die in prison under mysterious circumstances.

Mary and Philip were married in 1554, and the Venetian ambassador reported the bride to be of ‘low stature, had large white eyes, was very thin with a red and white complexion, had reddish hair, a low and wide nose, no eyebrows and were her age not on the decline, she might be called handsome’ (which leaves us to wonder what he would call ugly). Philip was 12 years younger than Mary.

Mary believed herself to be pregnant on two occasions. Four months after the nuptials her breasts swelled and discharged a fluid, and she had morning sickness. The following month she thought she felt movements. In April 1555 she withdrew from court in anticipation of a confinement on 9 May. The doctors assembled and a woman of similar age to Mary and who had recently been delivered of triplets was brought to see the queen by way of good luck.

In a flush of premature enthusiasm Philip was misinformed by the Princess Dowager of Portugal that a son had been safely delivered on 7 May. At Hampton Court, scene of the lying-in, Dr Calagila thought delivery might happen any day. That was on 22 May, but he covered himself by adding it may be as long away as 6 June.

On the strength of this, letters of announcement were prepared to send to Heads of State in Europe. The date was left blank. They are now in the Public Records Office, London, still waiting to be completed and posted; for nothing happened.

On 26 June Philip was informed that the calculation could be out by two months. On 29 June movements were said to be confirmed and milk expressed. Still nothing.

On 29 August Philip could wait no longer and left for Spain. He did not return until March 1557, some 18 months later. By this time Mary was 40 years old and her indifferent health was not improved by worrying about her barrenness. Philip stayed for four months then left England for good.

In his report home, the Venetian ambassador wrote, among other snippets, that besides bouts of melancholy, Mary suffered from ‘menstrual retention and suffocation of the matrix to which for many years she has been often subject’. Significantly, he also added that she was so short-sighted that, a book had to be held quite close to the face, and her voice was rough and loud like a man’s.

In the autumn of 1557 Mary again thought she was pregnant. Alas, she waited in vain; she was not pregnant at all. So desperate was she for a child that there was a plot to pass off a substitute male baby as her own.

Mary took her childlessness as divine vengeance for the heresies still being practised in England. So she executed eminent Protestant clerics like Thomas Cranmer, John Hooper, Nicholas Ridley and Hugh Latimer. During her brief reign, Mary had over 300 of her own subjects burnt alive.

She also pushed England into joining Spain against the French. When England lost Calais, Mary bore much of the blame.

She remained well, until May 1558 when intermittent fever set in. No child was forthcoming, and by October she became febrile, confused and lost her vision. On 17 November 1558 Mary died—deserted by her husband and hated by her own people—aged 42 years and nine months. She was buried in Henry VII’s chapel, Westminster Abbey. Her half sister, Queen Elizabeth I, was later to be interred on top of her, and both are there still.

What did she have? Certainly two phantom pregnancies, and with the discharge from the nipple, what sounds like so-called ‘prolactinaemia’. The hormone prolactin is produced in the pituitary gland, which is situated in the base of the brain. Normally prolactin is released into the bloodstream after childbirth and stimulates lactation while at the same time suppressing ovulation, thus stopping pregnancy occurring during breastfeeding. If there is a tumour (or prolactinoma) of the secreting cells, then an excess of the hormone is produced; this condition is called prolactinaemia, and is nothing to do with childbearing and can occur anytime, but the effect is as though the woman has just been delivered of a child, hence the breasts secrete and she is infertile.

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