(This is a very long post about a rather obscure bibliography that appears to have been overlooked. It will be of use to those interested in the history of medicine. The rest of you are excused and can move on to other things).
Disease and Destiny: A Bibliography of Medical References to the Famous
This bibliography is not well known, but it should be. If you are looking for a source that provides medical information about famous people, this is it. I should add quickly, however, that it is over fifty years old, so if you are interested only in current information or the newly famous, you are out of luck. I am fairly certain that it has no contemporary equivalent and although the internet would make the compilation of such information easier, it has not been done.
A Bibliographic Classic
Disease and Destiny was published in 1962, twelve years after the author Judson Gilbert died. It was cobbled together by Gordon Mestler, who provides an introduction that is valuable as well. If you read only those dozen pages you will be introduced to some interesting sources in the history of medicine that you are likely to have missed.
Dr. Gilbert was a practising urologist and surgeon who died at the age of 51 in 1950. Those of you who recall how tedious it was to go through the various printed indexes will be impressed by how much information was amassed by someone who did it as an avocation and who died so young. You will also be impressed by the number of languages other than English that are represented among the citations.
As a rationale for such a project Dr. Gilbert noted that:
“Interest and curiosity in the abnormalities of others is perhaps the most widespread human trait shared more or less equally by peoples everywhere, and of every time.”
That continues to be true in our day and one often encounters post mortems performed on those who lived in the past. Last summer in Amsterdam there was an entire Van Gogh exhibition devoted to answering questions such as these: “Why did Van Gogh cut off his ear? What precise illness did he have? And why did he commit suicide? 'On the Verge of Insanity' is the Van Gogh Museum’s first exhibition focusing on Van Gogh and his illness.” In Warsaw, Chopin’s heart was removed from a crystal jar and examined by scientists trying to determine the cause of his death. On this continent, there is considerable interest in the health of past presidents of the United States, given that two senior citizens were running for that office (as an interesting aside, at the time of the presidential debate between Nixon and Kennedy, both debaters were in their 40s).
Who Is Included:
There are many medical references in the Gilbert Bibliography that relate to presidents, and kings and queens, but his definition of ‘famous’ is a broad one.
The first entry is for Abd-el-Kader (1807? - 1883) an Algerian unknown to me. It is the case, however, that a town in Iowa is named after him (Elkader) and apparently Oliver Stone may soon produce a movie about him.
The last entry is for Zwingli. Even the most unpopular of letters are represented. For X there is Xenophon; V has Voltaire, Verne and Valery; Unamuno is in U and the collaborator Quisling resides in the Qs.
The numbers of citations for some of the famous are huge even though the bibliography was completed over fifty years ago. There are around 350 references for Shakespeare and over 330 for Napoleon. There are about ten pages devoted to Goethe, and Rabelais and Rousseau have around six. There are generally about twenty-five citations per page.
The names of the famous people covered are presented in alphabetical order and the references for each are listed chronologically. There is no subject index.
What Information is Included:
The type of information provided is either medical in nature or more broadly ‘bio-scientific. On p.11 one finds these criteria:
1. Medical information concerning the person himself;
2. Medical analyses, usually of a psychopathological nature, concerning the works of
the person;
3. Biographical or memorabilia;
4. Relations of the person to medicine and doctors;
5. Descriptions of the state or condition of contemporary medicine in the time of the person.
Scope of the Work:
The geographical coverage is global and the chronological range is from c1600 to c1960.
The indices used by Gilbert covered a wide range of journals published in many different languages. Given the magnitude of the project and the number of citations the names of the journals are presented in abbreviated form. One is expected to look them up in the Index-Catalogue ... of the Surgeon-General’s Office. As well, Gilbert used a few monographic sources and they are listed below.
A Note on Searching
As noted, there is no index. There is no way, for example, to find those among the famous who had syphilis or suffered from gout. Although the book is not available in an electronic format, I did discover that there is a way to do a subject search. This method, however, is only useful for those who have access to the printed book.
The text and contents of the book are not available over the internet. It is the case, however, that a searchable copy is provided by the HathiTrust Digital Library. That is, one can search the book for a disease or malady, but only the results are listed along with the page number. There is no text. Those who have a copy of the book at hand can go to the page number provided and look for the word. Keep in mind that there are no abstracts so a search is successful only if the word for which one is searching appears in the title of the article.
Selected References from the Gilbert Bibliography
From this selection of article titles you will quickly see that this is a fascinating bibliography. Only the article titles are provided which may seem strange. As I noted, however, Gilbert provides only abbreviated journal titles and I will not include them here. Here are two source titles which will show you why I should be excused for not typing them out: Zschr. Kinderpsychiat.,Basel, 23,33-47 and Bull. N. York Acad. M., 8, 479-96. There is some consolation in that I will provide a list of the monographs used by Gilbert at the end of this post.
The references are listed alphabetically by person. The headings provided here are arbitrary and are not found in the Gilbert Bibliography.
Doctors and Medical References in Fiction
“The Doctors in Jane Austen’s Novels”
“Medical Allusions in Don Quixote”
“Middlemarch and the Physician”
“Medical Digressions in Middlemarch”
“Physicians in Fiction: Physicians as Seen by Henry Fielding”
“Physicians in Fiction: Physicians as Seen by Sara Orne Jewett”
“Medical Men and Rudyard Kipling” and another “Kipling and the Doctors”
“Bernard Shaw on Doctors”
“English Doctors From Smollett to Trollope”
“The Doctors in the Decameron”
“Crabbe on Doctors”
One can now find many complete books devoted to the ‘genre’ of doctors and medicine in fiction. For example: Doctors, Nurses and Dickens, by Robert Donald Neely; Medicine In The Shakespearean Plays, And Dickens' Doctors, by Herman Pomeranz; Doctors and Melville by Richard Dean Smith and The Doctor in the Victorian Novel: Family Practices by Tabitha Sparks.
Interesting and Often Puzzling Entries
“Some Account of David Samwell, the Welsh Surgeon, Eye-Witness of the Murder of Captain Cook”
“Peter Francisco: Hyperpituitary Patriot”
“Paul Revere as a Dentist’
“Hitler’s Vocal Cords”
‘The Ocular History of James Joyce”
“Last Wound of the Late General Jackson (Stonewall): The Amputation of the Arm; His Last Moments and Death”
“Medical Wisdom of DeQuincey”
“George Gershwin’s Fatal Headache” [see the Gershwin entry in Wikipedia]
“The Death of Amy Robsart (wife of the First Earl of Leicester): Accident, Suicide, or Murder--or Disease?”
“The Medical Wisdom of Brett Harte”
“The Medical Adventures of Lewis and Clark”
“The Medical Wisdom of Nathaniel Hawthorne”
“The Medical Wisdom of Mark Twain”
Brains and Skulls
“A Study of the Brains of Three Scholars” [one is G. Stanley Hall, the psychologist]
“The Brain of Helen Hamilton Gardener” [nee Alice Chenowith - see the Wikipedia entry for HHG]
“The Skull of Bruce” (Robert Bruce)
“Sir Thomas Browne’s Skull”
“The Brain of the Poet Guido Gezelle” ( a Flemish poet)
“Remarks on the Brain of … Chauncey Wright”
“The Cerebral Fissures of Two Philosophers, Chauncey Wright and James Edward Oliver”
“The Description of the Brain of Charles Babbage”
Selected Diseases
“Appendicitis in Classic Literature” [in the entry for Laurence Sterne]
“Syphilis and Sterne”
“Syphilis and Sterne”
“Chatterton’s Syphilis”
“Syphilis and Columbus”
“Christopher Columbus and the American Origin of Syphilis”
“Syphilis and Washington Irving”
“Gout and James Russell Lowell”
“Swinburne - Genius and Epilepsy”
“Swinburne - Genius and Epilepsy”
(On the subject of ‘epilepsy’, two sources are provided in the introduction to the Gilbert Bibliography: Les epileptiques de genie dans l’historire et le litterature (1922) and Genius and Epilepsy: Brief Sketches of Great Men Who Had Both, by John Ernest Bryant.)
Books Cited by Gilbert:
Bryant, John Ernest, Genius and Epilepsy: Brief Sketches of Great Men Who Had Both,
Alexander III, Caesar,
Cobb, Ivo Geikie, Glands of Destiny: A Study of the Personality.
“The book is still [the 2nd ed.] divided into two parts, the first giving elementary information about the ductless glands and the second elaborating and attempting to explain the characters of ten notable figures in history through their ' endocrine make-up.”
“The book is still [the 2nd ed.] divided into two parts, the first giving elementary information about the ductless glands and the second elaborating and attempting to explain the characters of ten notable figures in history through their ' endocrine make-up.”
Dale, Philip Marshall, Medical Biographies: The Ailments of Thirty-three Famous Persons.
E.g. Byron, Catherine the Great, Columbus, Darwin.
Kendal, James, Idols and Invalids.
Henry the Eighth, Byron, Catherine of Russia, Lord Nelson, the Borgias.
Lindsey, John H. Medical Quotations from English Prose.
MacCarthy, Mary, Handicaps: Six Studies.
The six include: Mary Lamb, Beethoven, Arthur MacMurrough Kavanagh, Henry Fawcett, W.E. Henley and Robert Louis Stevenson.
Madden, Richard Robert, The Infirmities of Genius: Illustrated by Referring the Anomalies in the Literary Character to the Habits and Constitutional Peculiarities of Men of Genius.
Myers, Jay Arthur. Fighters of Fate: A Story of Men and Women who Have Achieved Greatly Despite the Handicaps of the Great White Plague, Jay Arthur Myers. Those affected by tuberculosis include: Elizabeth B. Browning, John Keats, Henry David Thoreau, Fedor Dostoievsky [sic].
Rae, James, Deaths of the Kings of England.Reviews of Disease and Destiny:
Annan, Gertrude L., “Gilbert Judson Bennett, Disease and Destiny, A Bibliography of Medical References to the Famous. With Additions and an Introduction by Gordon E. Mestler. Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences, Vol. XVIII, No.1, 1963, pp. 95-97.
“It will serve as an invaluable tool to the historian and a delight to the reader who seeks the odd and unusual in medical history.”
Anon. “Disease and Destiny,”Psychosomatics: The Journal of Consultation and Liaison Psychiatry, November–December, 1962 Volume 3, Issue 6, Page 499.
‘This book is heartedly recommended.”
Ash, Lee. Disease and Destiny; a Bibliography of Medical References to the Famous. With additions and an introduction by Gordon E. Mestler. Pref. by Emerson Crosby Kelly. London, Dawsons,1962. 535 pp. Bulletin of the Medical Library Association. 1962 Oct; 50(4): 795–797.
“Anyone afflicted with the incurable hobby of medical historical reading or research and anyone who persists in researching biographical fields must treat himself to the possession of this remarkable volume of medico-biographical bibliography.”
“We cannot close this review without paying special attention to Mr. Mestler's Introduction, which includes (p. 11-17) the finest essay we have seen on the subject of medico-biographical studies in the tradition of Platter's Observationum in hominus affectibus, Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy, and later works down to modern times.”
Cope, Zachary. “Disease and Destiny, A Bibliography of Medical References to the Famous,” Medical History,1962, 6(2):197-198.
“We assume that this reference book will be a necessity for every medical and many general libraries for it provides ready access to information which would otherwise be very difficult or impossible to obtain.”
“We assume that this reference book will be a necessity for every medical and many general libraries for it provides ready access to information which would otherwise be very difficult or impossible to obtain.”
Kahan, Tommy, “Book of Late Dr. Gilbert Wins Acclaim in England,” Tommy Kahan, Schenectady Gazette, Aug. 21, 1962.
“Dr. Gilbert, a urological surgeon, wrote the book as a result of a great interest in the illness of historical people and the medical significance of their actions, according to his wife, Mrs. Jessie Gilbert, who still lives in their Niskayuna [ a town just east of Schenectady] residence. He is also survived by a daughter, Mrs.Richard Gardner of Schenectady.”
“Dr. Gilbert, a urological surgeon, wrote the book as a result of a great interest in the illness of historical people and the medical significance of their actions, according to his wife, Mrs. Jessie Gilbert, who still lives in their Niskayuna [ a town just east of Schenectady] residence. He is also survived by a daughter, Mrs.Richard Gardner of Schenectady.”
Lasagna, Louis. “Disease and Destiny. A Bibliography of Medical References to the Famous, Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, December 1962, Volume 15, Issue 12, Pages 1126–1127.
Le Fanu, William, “Disease and Destiny. A Bibliography of Medical References to the Famous”, The Library, June 1963, Volumes 5-XVIII (Issue 2), p.157-158
“This handlist of papers on medical aspects of the lives and deaths of famous men and women from all lands and times is a most painstaking compilation, which will prove invaluable as a quick-reference tool for its chosen field. Hitherto the information it provides has had to be sought piecemeal and often inconclusively through biographical dictionaries and the indexes to general medical literature.”
MacNalty, Arthur S.“Diseases of the Famous,” The British Medical Journal, Vol. 1, No. 5294 (Jun. 23, 1962), pp. 1743-1744
“All historians should welcome this important and valuable bibliography, for the maladies of famous persons inevitably affect their work and life and often explain many of their actions.” [He calls it “indispensable”].
Raach, John H. “Disease and Destiny; a Bibliography of Medical References to the Famous” JAMA. 1962;181(4), p. 356.
“Books which contain bibliographical source materials are rare. There is a tremendous amount of time and energy involved in the accumulation of such material. To tabulate and publish such a bibliographical source for the health and disease of the world's great people is nothing short of phenomenal. Yet Dr. J. B. Gilbert's book has done precisely this.”
Viets, Henry R. “Disease and Destiny,” New England Journal of Medicine, Vol. 269, no. 2, 1963, p.114.
Other Works by Judson Gilbert:
History of Medicine:
“Notes On Medical Bibliographic Citation,” by Gilbert, J. B.,
Bulletin of the Medical Library Association, 03/1941, Volume 29, Issue 3
A Bibliography of Articles on the History of American Medicine compiled from "Writings on American History," 1902-1937. New York Academy of Medicine, 1951.
“Notes On Medical Bibliographic Citation,” by Gilbert, J. B.,
Bulletin of the Medical Library Association, Vol. 79, No. 4, 10/1991.
This is a reprint of the article above on the 50th anniversary of its publication.
Selected Medical Articles:
“Cancer of the Kidney: Squamous-Cell Carcinoma of the Renal Pelvis with Special Reference to Etiology”, by Gilbert, J. B.; Macmillan, S. F. Annals of Surgery, 09/1934, Volume 100, Issue 3.
“Studies of the Natural History of Genitourinary Tumors. I: Primary Cancer of Ureter”, by Gilbert, Judson B. The American Journal of Surgery, 1937, Volume 36, Issue 3
“Aberrant Adrenal Tumor of the Upper Part Of Abdomen: Report Of A Case With Six Year Cure,” by MacMillan, S. F; Gilbert, J. B, Archives of Surgery, 01/1940, Volume 40, Issue 1.
Obituaries For Judson Gilbert
“Obituary”, The Leader-Republican, Gloversville and Johnstown, N.Y. June 1, 1950.
At the end of the notice, there is a reference to fact that he was a member of “the Charaka Club of New York city, a small, exclusive group of men interested in the historical, artistic and literary aspects of medicine”.
“Dr. J.B. Gilbert of Schenectady Dies in Hospital”, Amsterdam Evening Recorder and Daily Democrat, June 1, 1950. He was 51 and had graduated from Syracuse, class of 1926. He was a urologist. It says that he had been ill for 5 months.
Additional Sources
I do not know of a more recent bibliography like Gilbert’s, that aggregates references about the medical ailments of famous people or fictional characters.
One can find specialized resources scattered about the internet. Wikipedia, for example, provides a “List of People With Epilepsy” and “Lists of People by Cause of Death”. There is also a biographical site that provides information about “Famous People Who Died of Unnatural Causes. There is also a trivia site that lists Unusual Celebrity Deaths. There are likely to be many more, but none as thorough as the Gilbert Bibliography.
Further Reading
For those of you interested in this subject, there is a recent book that can be found under either of these titles:
Orwell’s Cough: Diagnosing the Medical Maladies and Last Gasps of the Great Writers, by John Ross. This is the title of the British edition (Oneworld Pubs.)
Shakespeare's Tremor and Orwell's Cough :The Medical Lives of Great Writers, By John Ross. This is the title of the U.S. ed. (St. Martin’s Press)
Here are the chapter titles: (the names of the writers are in bold)
The Hardest Knife Ill-Used: Shakespeare’s Tremor.
Exil’d From Light: The Blindness of John Milton.
Dying From the Top Down; The Dementia of Jonathan Smith.
Some Sweet Poisoned Breeze Had Passed Into Her Lungs: The Brontes and TB
Dismal Labyrinth of Doubt: The Strange Death of Nathaniel Hawthorne.
Perilous Outpost of the Sane: The Many Maladies of Herman Melville.
Sex and the Dead: Brucellosis, Arsenic, and William Butler Yeats.
Medical Misadventures of an Amateur M.D.: Jack London’s Death by Hubris.
An Infamous Private Ailment: The Venereal Afflictions of James Joyce.
“The Disease Which Was Bound to Claim Me Sooner or Later”: Orwell’s Cough.
The End.
