This is an unselected sample of historical figures other than Presidents, Vice-Presidents, Presidential candidates, British monarchs, or Osama bin Laden. It is loosely organized into these sections:

• American Government Officials
• Figures from the Military and Statecraft
• Figures from the Sciences
• Figures from the Humanities
• Events with a medical undercurrent
• Bibliography

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American Govermental Officials

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• Supreme Court Chief Justice Fuller administered to oath of office to President-Elect Taft on March 4, 1908 -- almost correctly.

  It was in these words of the presidential oath, read haltingly by Chief Justice Fuller, that Taft detected indications of Fuller's senility. Instead of asking the President-elect to swear faithfully to 'execute the office of the President,' Fuller said 'faithfully execute the Constitution.' (Standing next to Taft, Philander Knox, the incoming Secretary of State, whispered 'Don't do it!') 1a

  Interestingly, when Taft, as Chief Justice, administered the oath of office to Herbert Hoover in 1929, he made mistakes as well. 2a

• In 1897, 74-year-old Senator John Sherman was appointed Secretary of State. He appears to have been demented, as evidenced by the following conversation, recorded December 4, 1910 3a:

  The conversation turned on the subject of John Sherman and the time that Justice Day was the Assistant Secretary of State under him. He [Supreme Court Justice William R. Day] told the President [Taft] that Sherman's mind was infinitely worse than the public supposed it to have been. Day never dared leave him alone for a minute and always attended the cabinet meeting with him.

  "It was published at the time and was taken as a joke," said Justice Day, "but he did once decide to declare war against Austria [during the ride] between the State Department and the White House."

  Sherman had earlier been an effective Secretary of the Treasury (the famous "Sherman Anti-Trust Act" is named after him) and Senator. President McKinley appointed him Secretary of State in order to open Sherman's Senate seat for Mark Hanna, the man who put McKinley in the White House. Sherman was also the brother of Civil War General William T. Sherman.

• Shortly after Ronald Reagan's attempted assassination, Secretary of State Al Haig made a famously discombobulated appearance in front of the White House press corps to announce "I'm in control here" and thereby reassure the American people that the government was still functioning. The effect was precisely the opposite, and it ruined Haig's political career. Another White House insider, David Gergan, thinks Haig's appearance was due to the fact that Haig was out of breath from the unaccustomed exertion of having run to the press briefing room. Also, "There were various suggestions that his heart problems had changed him when he came over as secretary of state" as compared to his manner in the Nixon White House. 4a

• In 1980 Connecticut Governor Ella Grasso was on a reduced schedule for 8 months because of ovarian cancer, with liver metastases. The lieutenant governor made the ridiculous observation that she "is not fully incapacitated in the slightest." 4b

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Figures from the Military and Statecraft

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On the influence of epidemic diseases on political and military history, and on the relative unimportance of generals. 5a

• Nikita Khruschev -- President Kennedy and Soviet Chairman Khruschev met in Vienna in June 1961. Beforehand, the CIA advised Kennedy against "getting Khruschev too tired" and further briefed Kennedy that Khruschev's left temporal vein would swell when he (Khruschev) was irritated. 6a

• Alexander the Great -- Why did Alexander's army turn back in India, revolting against the General who had led them 11,000 miles in seven years? These men were above common hardships. What could break their morale? Part of the answer: snakes. The rains in India drove the snakes to the dry land where the Macedonians were encamped. Death from snakebite was horrible; soldiers "bled from every pore." 7a

  The death of Alexander at age 33 years is something of a medical mystery. As of 2004, at least 44 articles in the medical literature had appeared on him. The theories proposed include: malaria, typhoid fever, West Nile virus, perforated peptic ulcer, acute pancreatitis, Boerhaave syndrome, alcoholism, and carotid dissection. The ophthalmologists also wonder if he might have had ocular torticollis and transient cortical blindness at various times.

• Augustus -- his wife Livia died of breast cancer 8a

• Charlemagne -- He was tall, but his father was named "Pepin the Short" 9a

• Napoleon suffered from brucellosis all his life, and was supposed to have been partially incapacitated by a fever at the battle of Waterloo. 10a

  He tried to commit suicide after the battle of Toulouse, but the poison was stale. 11a

  At autopsy Napoleon was over 5 feet 6 inches tall -- the average height of adult men at that time. Thus, "the little corporal" was not that little. The popular misconception that Napoleon was short may derive from the fact that the French "foot" ("pied de roi") was 12.78 inches. Thus, when French sources gave his height as 5 feet 2 inches, the height in English feet would have been 5 feet 6 and a half inches. 12a

  Between age 36 and 40, Napoleon changed mentally and physically. He went from a slim, fit, shy, silent, energetic leader to a round, pudgy, sparse-haired, garrulous, sleepy, unfocused emperor with breasts "any beauty would be proud of" 12b. The physical features are consistent with acquired hypogonadism. Marion discusses the possibility Napoleon had 17-ketosteroid reductase deficiency, and addresses issues such as his childless first marriage and perhaps-childless second marriage. Marion concludes that the question of Napoleon's transformation will probably never be settled 12c.

• Prussian strongman Otto von Bismarck challenged pathologist/politician Rudolf Virchow to a duel. Virchow chose the weapons. He help up two large sausages, one of which was loaded with trichinella. Bismarck called off the duel. 11b

• Dr. Angela Balabanoff first met Benito Mussolini in 1902. At that time he was living under a bridge. He said to her: "Nobody can help me. I am condemned to remain a wretched vagabond all my life. My father was a drunkard and, besides, I have a congenital disease for which I have to thank him." The person who reports this conversation, George Seldes, makes it clear that this was congenital syphilis. 13a

• The Shah of Iran's medical treatment in the United States on October 22, 1979 was followed by street demonstrations in Tehran, the storming of the American embassy (Nov. 4), 444 days of captivity for 50 American hostages, and the establishment of a theocratic government (Nov. 6) that continues in power today.

  The Shah's illness begain in 1974, when he noticed a painless lump 14a. Two French physicians found he had lymphoma, and clandestinely treated him over the next 5 years. The diagnosis was kept secret, even from the Shah's wife and sister. While living in exile in Mexico in mid-1979, the Shah developed jaundice, nausea, fever, and chills. Mexican doctors diagnosed malaria, but in late September an American consultant, Dr. Benjamin Kean of Cornell University Medical School, ruled out malaria and suspected gallstones as the culprit. Later examination by the French physicians disclosed that the lymphoma had advanced. Kean saw the Shah again in mid-October and was shocked by the interval decline. Now knowing of the cancer, Kean's medical report on the Shah led to hospitalization at Sloan-Kettering in New York City a few days later. Allowing the Shah to enter the United States was a major decision for President Jimmy Carter. The Shah's gallbladder was removed, and, with that as a pretext for Ayatollah Khomeni, all hell broke loose in Iran. The Shah died in Egypt nine months later 14a.

  Interestingly, Carter's decision to allow the Shah to receive care in the United States was based on faulty medical information. Carter was under the impression that only a major American medical facility could save the Shah's life, when, in fact, a Mexican hospital would have been adequate. MacMahon and Curry discuss where the slip-up(s) may have been 14a. Dr. Kean has written at length about his role in the Shah's care 15.

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Figures from the Sciences

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• Alan Turing would sometimes bicycle to Bletchley Park from his off-campus billet wearing a gas mask. He was thought daft. Turned out he had hay fever and the gas mask prevented him from getting symptoms. [Bletchley tour guide, 27 May 01]

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Figures from the Humanities

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• "As far as we can ascertain, since man has existed the louse has been his inseparable companion. Unlike other parasites, he never leaves his host, except as the consequence of accident or disaster. When he is cast out, or when his host perishes, he is doomed unless he can promptly find another. This fact has led many religiously inclined louse scholars to speculate on the problem of whether Adam and Eve were lousy." 5b

• When Beckett died in 1170, the lice coming off of his cooling body "boiled over like water in a simmering cauldron." 10b

• Thomas Wolfe (author) dies of tuberculous meningitis at Johns Hopkins Hospital in 1936. 16a

• Franz Josef Haydn's head was stolen by a phrenologist, and not reunited with the rest of the body until 1954. 17a

• Pope Clement VII died after taking powdered diamond prescribed by physicians. 11c

• At kennedy's inauguration, poet Robert Frost was going to read a poem he had written for the occasion. However, "the bright sunlight and wind conspired to rob the eighty-six year old Frost of his sight, despite Lyndon Johnson's effort to shield the paper from the blinding sun with his top hat." So, instead of reading his composition, Frost recited portions of an old poem from memory. 18a

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Events with a medical undercurrent

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• The D-Day invasion of France was the greatest mass vomit in human history 19a (owing to sea-sickness contracted in the amphibious landing craft).

• In the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-71 smallpox vaccination was required by the Prussian army, but not by the French. The result: 297 Prussians died of smallpox vs. 23,400 French. The French lost the war. 11d

• In the American Civil War (1861-1865) the official tolls in the Union Army were:
      93,443 dead from battle or wounds
      186,216 dead from disease (81,360 from typhoid fever and dysentery)
  This represented a great improvement from the experience of the Royal (British) Navy in 1763, which had "133,708 men lost to naval service by disease and desertion, 1512 killed in action, out of a total of 184,899 raised." 10c

• Shortly after the French conquered Haiti and the Mississippi Valley, they lost 29 thousand of their 33 thousand men to yellow fever. "It was this disaster that led to [Napoleon's decision to sell] the Louisiana Purchase" to the infant United States. 10d

• "Incidentally, medicine has another indirect influence on war which is not negligible. There seems little doubt that some of the reckless courage of the American troops in [World War I] was stimulated by the knowledge that in front of them were only the Germans, but behind them were the assembled surgeons of America, with sleeves rolled up." 5c

• Smallpox in Carthage arguably changed world history. Even afflicted with the disease, Rome barely conquered her. Had Carthage survived, they might have replaced Rome's administratively oriented system with their commercial Semitic one, perhaps resulting in a commercial system like our own thousands of years earlier. 5d

• Between 30 and 50 thousand Communist Chinese soldiers contracted schistosomiasis in 1950, preventing an assault on the island of Formosa (Taiwan) 10e. Also: 20a says year was 1947.
• Educators are generally older and, therefore, sensitive to plague. Four of the 30 universities in Europe were wiped out in the 14th century. Three colleges at Cambridge and two at Oxford can trace their origins to the plague, as they were founded to combat this decline. By eliminating the established teachers, who taught in Latin, the plague made room for younger teachers who wanted to use the colloquial tongue: English. Thus, plague was partially responsible for the ascendancy of the English language. 10f

1. Manners, William. TR and Will: A Friendship that Split the Republican Party. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc., 1969.

   a  p.25

2. Pringle, Henry F. The Life and Times of William Howard Taft: A Biography. New York: Farrar & Rinehart, Inc., 1939.

   a  p.1074

3. Butt, Archibald W. Taft and Roosevelt: The Intimate Letters of Archie Butt, Military Aide. Garden City, NY: Doubleday (1930). Volume 1: pages 1-432. Volume 2: pages 433-862.

   a  pp.565-566 Comment: Butt, an Army officer, was military aide first to President Theodore Roosevelt and then to President William Taft. On April 14, 1912, Butt was at sea aboard the Titanic returning from a European vacation that Taft had insisted he take. President Taft later said: "When I heard that part of the ship's company had gone down, I gave up hope for the rescue of Major Butt, unless by accident. I knew that he would certainly remain on the ship's deck until every duty had been performed and every sacrifice made that properly fell on one charged, as he would feel himself charged, with responsibility for the rescue of others." Taft was correct. Butt did not survive the sinking.

4. Abrams, Herbert L. "The President Has Been Shot": Confusion, Disability, and the 25th Amendment in the Aftermath of the Attempted Assassination of Ronald Reagan. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1992.

   a  p.109  b  p.220 Comment: Rigorous and enormously thought provoking. Abrams tells not only the story of the shooting itself, but, more importantly, the maneuvering to disguise Reagan's slow recovery afterwards and forestall any consideration of transferring power to the Vice President.

5. Zinsser, Hans. Rats, Lice, and History. Boston: Little, Brown, 1934.

   a  p.xi  b  pp.181-182  c  p.132n  d  p.126 Comment: A wonderful, easy-to-read, beautifully written, little book, although afflicted with social conventions of its time.

6. Wyden, Peter. Wall: The Inside Story of Divided Berlin. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1989.

   a  pp.50

7. Fox, Robin Lane. The Search for Alexander. Boston: Little, Brown.

   a  pp.328, 332

8. Brewer, Clifford. The Death of Kings: A Medical History of the Kings and Queens of England. London: Abson Books, 2000.

   a  p.9

9. Roueché, Berton. Eleven Blue Men and Other Narratives of Medical Detection. New York: Berkeley Medallion, 1965 (originally published 1953).

   a  p.115

10. Cloudsley-Thompson, JL. Insects and History. New York : St. Martin's Press, 1976.

    a  p.15  b  p.105  c  pp.142, 171  d  p.171  e  p.2  f  pp.65-66

11. Mould's Medical Anecdotes: Omnibus Edition. Mould, Richard F. Bristol, UK: Institute of Physics Publishing, 1996.

    a  p.185  b  p.324  c  p.???  d  p.371

12. Marion, Robert. Was George Washington Really the Father of our Country?. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1994.

    a  pp.85-86  b  pp.75-76  c  pp.79-82

13. Seldes, George. Witness to a Century. New York: Ballantine Books, 1987.

    a  p.273

14. MacMahon, Edward B. and Curry, Leonard. Medical Cover-Ups in the White House. Washington, DC: Farragut, 1987.

    a  pp.138-153

15. Kean, Benjamin H. M.D.: One Doctor's Adventures Among the Famous and Infamous from the Jungles of Panama to a Park Avenue Practice. New York: Ballantine Books, 1990.
16. Harvey, A. McGehee. Adventures in Medical Research: A Century of Discovery at Johns Hopkins. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1976.

    a  p.66

17. Cooper, Pauline. The Medical Detectives. New York: David McKay, 1973.

    a  p.93

18. Dallek, Robert. An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy 1917-1963. Boston: Little, Brown, 2003.

    a  pp.323-324

19. Heave Ho! My Little Green Book of Seasickness. Mazel, Charles. Camden, Maine: International Marine, 1992.

    a  p.107

20. Desowitz, Robert S. New Guinea Tapeworms and Jewish Grandmothers. New York: W. W. Norton, 1981.

    a  p.105