Covers the history of twelve important diseases and addresses public health responses and societal upheavals.
In 1962 the U.S. President John F. Kennedy said, “Life is unfair. Some people are sick and others are well.” He, of course, was referring to himself and the persistent rumors about his ill health. Forty years later, an examination of his medical records revealed that he had Addison's disease, a life-threatening lack of adrenal gland function, as well as osteoporosis and persistent digestive problems. He was given pain killers (demerol and methadone), stimulants, and antianxiety agents, as well as hormones (hydrocortisone and testosterone) to keep him alive, especially during times of stress. Although doubts linger whether President Kennedy's physical ailments influenced the manner by which the Cuban missile crisis was handled or whether they affected other political decisions, it is clear that for many world leaders, including Great Britain's King George III, several of Queen Vizctoria's children and grandchildren, Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, and Alfonso XIII and Generalissimo Franco in Spain, as well as, indirectly, the leaders of Nazi Germany, sickness was the seed for historical change.
Mary Queen of Scots (1542 to 1587) had a mysterious ailment. At the age of 24 she wrote, “Oftentimes I have great pains . . . ascending unto my head . . . it descends to my stomach so that it makes me lack an appetite . . . and there is sickness with great vomit . . . excuse my writing, caused by the weakness of my arm . . . wherewith we are tormented.” In 1570, when she had another attack, her symptoms were described by her physician: “terrible pains in the side made worse by every movement, even breathing. She vomited continuously, more than 60 times, and eventually brought up blood. She became delirious, and two days later she lost her sight and speech, had a series of fits, remained unconscious for some hours and was thought to be dead. Yet within 10 days she was up and about again. She had unquiet and melancholy fits, convulsions, shivering, difficulty in swallowing, altered voice, weakness of arms and legs so that she could neither write, walk or even stand unaided.” The onset of her symptoms was rapid and suggested to some in her court that she was being poisoned. Others judged her to be hysterical. It is most likely, however, that Mary Queen of Scots was neither hysterical nor the victim of poisoning. Instead, she and many of her descendants probably suffered from an inherited disorder—a curse of British royalty—that would alter the course of world history.
Mary Stuart, Queen of Scotland since birth, was engaged at the age of 3 to Prince Francis, heir to the throne of France; at age 15, when she married
