Charles Darwin and the Dentists.

Charles Darwin suffered relapsing, debilitating illness for most of his adult life with many symptoms. His most prominent complaints were episodic nausea, retching and vomiting. As is common in patients with repeated vomiting he developed dental problems, problems that may be dated back to his voyage on the Beagle and his vomiting due to persistent seasickness. Dental problems continued after the voyage and he was one of the first patients to have extractions under chloroform. Watching a dental procedure caused Darwin great distress, much as surgical and obstetric procedures had previously caused him distress with onset of symptoms. Darwin's dental experiences are consistent with the proposed diagnosis of his lifetime illness- patients with similar illnesses today have much the same dental problems. Dentists also helped Darwin with his researches and collection of specimens. In Darwin's day, dentists, like country clergymen, had time to follow other interests. Dentists contributed to Darwin's dental health, to the dental health of his family and to Darwin's work and biological studies. Dentists, in their own right, were also prominent in developing our biological understanding.

Motion sickness in ancient China: Seasickness and cart-sickness.

OBJECTIVE: To find and analyze descriptions of motion sickness in Chinese historical sources. METHODS: Databases and dictionaries were searched for various terms for seasickness and travel sickness, which were then entered into databases of full texts allowing selection of relevant passages from about the third to the 19th century ad. RESULTS: Already in 300 ad the Chinese differentiated cart-sickness, particularly experienced by persons from the arid north of China, from a ship-illness experienced by persons from the south, where rivers were important for transportation and travel. In the Middle Ages, a third form of motion sickness was called litter-influence experienced by persons transported in a bed suspended between 2 long poles. The ancient Chinese recognized the particular susceptibility of children to motion sickness. Therapeutic recommendations include drinking the urine of young boys, swallowing white sand-syrup, collecting water drops from a bamboo stick, or hiding some earth from the middle of the kitchen hearth under the hair. CONCLUSIONS: The Chinese medical classics distinguished several forms of travel sickness, all of which had their own written characters. The pathophysiologic mechanism was explained by the medicine of correspondences, which was based on malfunctions within the body, its invasion by external pathogens like wind, or the deficit or surfeit of certain bodily substances such as the life force Qi. The concept of motion as the trigger of sickness initially appeared in a chapter on warding off the influence of demons and corpses, e.g., ancient magic and beliefs.

What the ancient Greeks and Romans knew (and did not know) about seasickness.

OBJECTIVE: To find and analyze descriptions in ancient Greek and Roman literature that reveal what was known at the time about seasickness. METHODS: A systematic search was made in the original literature beginning in the Greek period with Homer in ca 800 bc and extending up to Aetios Amidenos in the late Roman period in ca 600 ad. RESULTS: Rough seas and unpleasant odors were recognized as the major triggers; susceptibility was greater in persons not adapted to sea travel, of a labile mental state, or with anxiety; nausea, emesis, vertigo, anorexia, faintness, apathy, headache, and impending doom were frequently reported symptoms. Preventive and therapeutic measures included habituation to sea travel, looking at stationary contrasts on the coast, fasting or certain diets, inhaling pleasant fragrances, medicinal plants, and ingesting a mixture of wine and wormwood. CONCLUSION: The triggers, symptoms, and preventive measures of seasickness were well-known in antiquity. The implications for transport of troops and military actions were repeatedly described, e.g., by Livius and Caesar. At that time, the pathophysiologic mechanism was explained by the humoral theory of Empedokles and Aristoteles. Seneca Minor localized the bodily symptoms in various organs such as stomach, gullet, and esophagus, and also attributed them to an imbalance of bile. Recommended medication included ingestion of the plant white hellebore, a violent gastrointestinal poison. This remedy contains various alkaloids but not scopolamine, which today is the most effective anti-motion-sickness drug.

Charles Darwin's impressions of New Zealand and Australia, and insights into his illness and his developing ideas on evolution.

Charles Darwin visited New Zealand in December 1835, and Australia from January until March 1836, on the return portion of his voyage around the world in HMS Beagle. Despite the shortness of these visits, he retained an interest in these countries throughout his life, maintaining correspondence and receiving many biological specimens. His experiences in these places influenced his thinking on evolution, particularly on the evolution of man. Aspects of his health recorded during this part of the voyage support a new hypothesis for the diagnosis of the illness that Darwin endured for most of his life.

Cox's chair: 'a moral and a medical mean in the treatment of maniacs'.

Two hundred years ago Joseph Cox published his book on the treatment of insanity. His novel technique was rotating the body in a specially designed chair. Initially modest and later extravagant claims were made for the therapeutic benefit of 'Cox's chair'. It was widely adopted in Europe in the first decades of the nineteenth century, but lost favour thereafter. Its benefits have proved to be scientific rather than medical because it was adopted by students of the senses to investigate vertigo; a century later it re-emerged as the Bárány chair for the clinical assessment of vestibular function. The legacy of Cox's chair, and its related treatment of swinging, are to be found in funfairs throughout the world.

Frederic Wood Jones: his illnesses.

As an inveterate sea traveller Wood Jones never conquered seasickness. An attack of appendix in 1910 is also described. Following another attack in 1913 his appendix was removed. Within 24 h of surgery he was laid low by gout. Gout struck again in 1949. There followed two papers on his disease. In 1920 he confessed that he had had 'lumbago' and sciatica for a long while. He was admitted to Westminster Hospital on 23 March 1954 and died in the same hospital on 29 September of that year.