13 FAMOUS PATIENTS

by ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 17, 1960

The more mortal aspects of great lives are viewed (or reviewed really) here in a series of profiles- or rather medical histories. Roosevelt as a ""respiratory-cardio-vascular case"" is seen through the many colds and allergies of his childhood, to the polio of his middle years, to the fatal hemorrhage which suggests serious, unrevealed cardiac findings; there is Hitler as a psychotic; Gandhi as a food faddist; Wilson's stroke; Proust's asthma; Lawrence's cough; Joyce's near blindness (iritis); Fitzgerald's t.b.; Freud's cancer (endured through 17 years and 33 operations); Darrow's mastoid; Gauguin's syphilis; Gershwin's brain tumor; and Caruso's pneumonia with successive complications. Dr. Fabricant's postmortems rely on generally accredited biographical sources, add an occasional diagnostic fact or clinical assumption, and presume that there is an equal interest in how great men died as well as lived. And one can question whether it serves any really instructive purpose to meet them in sickness rather than in health.

Pub Date: Oct. 17, 1960

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Chilton

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1960

Categories: NONFICTION