Medical Histories of Other Historical Figures

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 Govermental Officials

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

Figures from the Sciences

Figures from the Humanities

Events with a medical undercurrent
Cited Sources
  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