Historical Figures Who Were Affected By Syphilis
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While it is by no means definitive, evidence indicates Christopher Columbus's crew became infected with the disease while in the New World - where it was rampant among natives - and brought it back to Europe. Genetic studies indicate the disease originated in South America.
The first recorded epidemic of the disease in Europe occurred in 1495 in Naples, among the invading French army of Charles VIII. It's not clear what caused Columbus's demise, but his symptoms included arthritic pain, mental confusion and instability, inflammation of the eyes, and gout - all of which are consistent with undiagnosed and untreated syphilis.
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When Al Capone assumed control of the Chicago Outfit, he took control of several cathouses. His status afforded him the opportunity to consort with many of his female employees. Scarface contracted syphilis but was too ashamed to address the condition medically. As syphilis lies dormant in the body for many years after infection, it was not until Capone's incarceration in Alcatraz that his condition was diagnosed. By then, Capone's brain function was already being affected to such a degree that he was eventually released from jail in 1939. When the public speculation began as to how soon Capone would reassert himself as a mob boss in Chicago, Capone associate Jake "Greasy Thumb" Guzik famously stated that it wasn't going to happen: "Al is nuttier than a fruitcake."
Capone quietly spent the last few weeks of his life in Palm Island, FL. He suffered a stroke, a symptom of syphilis, before perishing at age 48 on January 25, 1947.
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Because Adolf Hitler displayed many of its physical and mental symptoms throughout his life, syphilis has been frequently cited as a potential cause of his chronic illness and mental instability. Hitler was deeply concerned with his health and kept several doctors within his inner circle. One of them, Theodor Morell, was an acknowledged expert on treating syphilis. Hitler was diagnosed with heart- and nerve-related issues, which resulted in chest pain, tremors, digestive problems, and insomnia. The paranoid delusions and psychotic rage episodes that occurred later in his life are often signs of late-stage syphilis.
However, many of these symptoms could also be explained by other causes, including side effects of the bomb plot that almost ended his life, his strict vegetarian diet, and methamphetamine and opiate use, a practice introduced by Dr. Morell, who routinely injected Hitler with the drugs. Any diagnosis will always remain in the realm of speculation.
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Abraham Lincoln did not marry until age 33. After the president's passing, his former law partner claimed that Lincoln had admitted to contracting syphilis around 1835. Lincoln spent time on the Mississippi River and in New Orleans and is rumored to have patronized cathouses while in the city.
His passing syphilis to his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, would provide an excellent explanation for her eventual descent into hysteria. Before passing in 1882, she experienced other symptoms of untreated syphilis, like knife-like back pain, dementia, impaired coordination, weight loss, and, eventually, blindness. After President Lincoln's demise, only his brain was autopsied, so we'll never know if he was afflicted.
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Friedrich Nietzsche's life was marked by poor health from a young age. He suffered from extremely painful migraine headaches, indigestion, and semi-blindness, which, in 1878, prematurely ended his professorship at the University of Basel at the age of 34. He spent the next decade wandering around Switzerland, Italy, and France, practically living out of a suitcase. On January 3, 1889, on a public street in Turin, Italy, Nietzsche suffered what's been described as a psychotic break. He began to send bizarre letters to his former colleagues in Basel. His landlord also informed them that Nietzsche was in rough shape.
Nietzsche was transported back to Switzerland by train and, ultimately, to an asylum in Germany where he was unsuccessfully treated. Doctors there pronounced him incurably in the throes of the final stages of syphilis, probably contracted while he was in the military. Friedrich Nietzsche spent the final 11 years of his life without writing or speaking a single meaningful word. A stroke took his life in 1900; he was 55. The diagnosis of syphilis is doubted by some historians, who argue he might have been the victim of a brain tumor and that syphilis was a means to discredit the philosopher's reputation.
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Officially, the passing of Vladimir Lenin was attributed to a succession of strokes that began in 1922 and resulted in a period of rapid deterioration, which ended with his demise in January 1924. According to The Guardian, these strokes left him with symptoms that included "short episodes of loss of consciousness, numbness of the right hand, throbbing headaches, sleeplessness, hallucinations, loss of appetite and epileptic seizures."
Lenin is said to have contracted the disease in 1902 from a Parisian lady of the night and was repeatedly treated for symptoms that were a well-known secret within the Soviet medical hierarchy.
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Idi Amin ruled Uganda as a military dictator from 1971 until 1979. It is estimated that 300,000 Ugandans perished from political violence inflicted by his regime in a country of 12 million people. Amin was also quite sexually active, having married six women, who gave birth to at least 40 official children; however, this number is believed to be unofficially higher.
Amin was sanctioned early in his military career for failure to obtain treatment for a venereal disease, and his subsequent erratically violent and paranoid behavior, delusions of grandeur, and irrational statements would certainly be consistent with an individual afflicted with syphilis. When Amin perished in exile in Saudi Arabia, much of the world's media attributed his passing directly to the disease.
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For much of his life, Henry VIII was a remarkably fit and healthy individual who was athletically inclined. However, by his mid-50s, he weighed over 400 pounds, was covered with infected sores, and was barely mobile. Syphilis has always been one of the explanations for Henry's demise, a theory obviously based on his promiscuous lifestyle and subsequent physical and mental issues, which made him extremely paranoid and irritable in the second half of his life.
Because Henry VIII and his wives were never treated for syphilis, this diagnosis has remained merely a possibility. There are many other possible explanations for his eventual passing, including diabetes, Cushing's syndrome, McCleod's syndrome, gout, and cancer. Henry VIII passed on January 28, 1547, bedridden, his room fouled by the smell of his ulcerated legs.
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When Oscar Wilde perished in a dilapidated Paris hotel in 1900, the tragedy was quickly attributed to encephalitis caused by the advanced stages of syphilis. This perspective was maintained until Wilde's descendants attempted to dispute this claim in the late 20th century. However, Richard Ellmann wrote in his definitive 1969 biography, Oscar Wilde: Biographie, that he believed Wilde suffered from syphilis most likely contracted from a lady of the night when he was at Oxford.
During Wilde's lifetime his teeth turned black from mercury treatments, a common remedy for the disease and the reason Wilde frequently covered his mouth when he spoke.
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Even from a relatively young age, Ludwig van Beethoven's health was an issue. Two factors probably did not help the composer's general wellness: his daily heavy consumption of alcohol and his frequent patronage of cathouses. Deafness from a possibly untreated infection is a classic symptom of syphilis. Additionally, poor digestion, diarrhea, extremely painful headaches, and bronchitis were all chronic health issues that Beethoven experienced for most of his life.
Abnormally high levels of lead found in an analysis of Beethoven's hair and symptoms of cirrhosis of the liver indicate Beethoven succumbed to the consumption of large amounts of wine that was illegally but frequently fortified with lead to improve the taste. Although it was never absolutely determined, Beethoven might also have suffered from syphilis.
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The only actual evidence that William Shakespeare contracted syphilis is the obvious tremor exhibited in his signatures from late in his life. However, syphilis is mentioned in Shakespeare's works more times than any other disease, referred to as "the infinite malady," "hoar leprosy," and the "malady of France."
Shakespeare stopped writing 15 years before his demise and withdrew socially, so it's unclear how he passed. He lived to age 52, was never known to have been treated for the disease, and survived long past the actual 17th-century life expectancy of 35 years of age.
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Scott Joplin Was Felled By Tertiary Syphilis
Scott Joplin, the famous American composer of ragtime melodies, including "The Entertainer," probably contracted syphilis in one of the many dance halls and cathouses where he made his living. Untreated, the disease finally manifested itself in 1915, when Joplin lost the ability to play the piano and compose music.
He eventually descended into dementia and insanity before being confined to a New York City mental asylum, where he perished penniless on April 1, 1917. His grave did not receive a marker until the resurgence of his music in the '70s and the popularity afforded Joplin in the 1973 film The Sting.
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Baroness Karen Blixen, the Danish writer of such works as Out of Africa (under the pen name Isak Dinesen), contracted syphilis while she and her husband were living in Kenya, ostensibly to operate a coffee plantation. The Blixens eventually separated and divorced. While Blixen never tested positive for syphilis after 1915, she continued to believe that she was infected with the disease and took mercury as a remedy.
She remained in poor health for much of her life, dying of malnutrition possibly related to anorexia nervosa at age 77 in 1962.
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