poxblog

Another note on Lenin

While I was working on the Lenin story, I noticed an odd juxtaposition: on my computer screen, Lenin was lying in state in his masoleum in Moscow while on my television screen, Ronald Reagan was lying in state in Washington. As I was tracking down Oskar Vogt's slices of Lenin's brain, wondering what proof of pox could be found in those pickled tissues, I was remembering a post I did some time ago about a study showing spirochetes (of a different sort) in the brains of Alzheimer's patients, questioning then why that study had not been replicated.

A few days later Gavin Yamey, who wrote a lovely review of POX for the British Medical Journal asked me to do an article on the ethics of using bodily remains for medical testing for the new international health journal that is part of the the “open access” movement, a non-profit committed to making the biomedical literature a freely available public resource. (His contact info: http://plosmedicine.org) --Gavin Yamey MD, MRCP. Magazine Editor, PLoS Medicine, Public Library of Science, 185 Berry St, Ste. 1300, San Francisco, CA 94107 USA http://www.plos.org).

Thinking as I have been for the past few days about various remaining body parts of the deceased famous, I was wondering how much land/resources are currently being used to dispose of people who die today. Is there a better alternative to the Neptune Society? I just received an email from Mark Meritt, who posted the statistics -- as well as a green alternative-- on his new website, potluck.com. Non-Fiction - Essay: Adding a Final Nail to the Coffin, by Mark S. Meritt - June 28, 2004

But enough cheery thoughts for tonight.

Lenin article

I see that Chris Chivers' article was picked up this week by the International Herald Tribune and The Moscow Times. Be interesting to see where this goes.

Lenin Syphilis article--European Journal of Neurology June 2004

The enigma of Lenin’s (1870–1924) malady
V. Lernera, Y. Finkelsteinb and E. Witztuma
aMental Health Center, Faculty of Health Sciences, Ben-Gurion University, Be’er Sheva, Israel; bDepartment of Neurology,
Sha’arei Zedek Medical Center, Jerusalem, Israel, affiliated with Ben-Gurion University, Be’er Sheva, Israel

Received 29 October 2003
Accepted 2 January 2004
The health of heads of states is not always handled in the same way as an incapacitating
disability in ordinary professionals. Instead of suspension of responsibilities, the
health status of political leaders is concealed, especially when the illness is perceived as
stigmatizing, such as organic mental impairment or sexual disorder. The objective of
the present paper is to analyse the malady of Lenin (1870–1924) in the light of relevant
and newmedical information. It is hoped that this will accentuate the need for
transparency when the health of a statesman is concerned.
376

Interview in NYT on Lenin--June 22

New York Times Link
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Last week I worked on an article on Lenin's syphilis with Chris Chivers of the Moscow Bureau of the New York Times It was in response to an article by three Israeli scholars in the June issue of the European Journal of Neurology (posted above). The "smoking gun" (despite what Professor Freeze says) was the fact that eleven of Lenin's doctors during his last days agreed to prescribing Salvarsan. Several of the doctors were well-known syphilologists, including Max Nonne, a student of the famous nineteenth century syphilologist Wilhelm Erb. The authors stated this in the article published in Israel but left it out in the European Journal. They told Chris who told me; I emailed Israel to confirm, which they did, just in time for Chris's deadline; he left out that it was ELEVEN doctors who concurred. The toxic Salvarsan was discontinued because of side effects. The article is cut in below:

June 22, 2004
A Retrospective Diagnosis Says Lenin Had Syphilis
By C. J. CHIVERS

MOSCOW, June 21 - Whispers have circulated for decades that Lenin, founder of the Bolshevik Party and the totalitarian Soviet state it ushered to power, was afflicted with syphilis throughout his career. Now a new study turns that speculation into a retrospective diagnosis.

Ashley Robins Con Statement "Did Wilde Have Syphilis?" Published in THE WILDEAN, Jan-Feb 2004

A more neatly spaced version of Ashley's article will be posted soon. This is for a few people who asked to read it right away. Subscription info to THE WILDEAN will be posted soon as well. Next, I'll post my response.

DID WILDE HAVE SYPHILIS?

Deborah Hayden may not be medically trained but her knowledge and
understanding of syphilis, especially in the nineteenth and early
twentieth century context, are remarkable. She is to be congratulated on
her recently published and acclaimed book, Pox: Genius, Madness, and the
Mysteries of Syphilis, in which she gives an overview of
syphilis and then develops case studies on about a dozen historical
figures (Beethoven, Nietzsche, van Gogh and Joyce to mention a
few)suspected of having been infected. In these individuals she
describes the impact of the disease on their lives, careers and
personalities.

Oscar Wilde syphilis debate--update

The January/February 2004 issue of the Wildean, the journal of the Oscar Wilde Society, has a pro/con article about the syphilis question. Ashley Robins, South African psychopharmacologist and author of an article in the Lancet on the syphilis question, wrote an essay summarizing the reasons why there is no clinical proof that Wilde had syphilis. I wrote a reply, agreeing that there is no clinical proof, but suggesting that there is more than enough circumstantial evidence to have convinced a nineteenth century syphilologist that Wilde had syphilis. The editor, Donald Mead, has agreed to let me post the article on this blog, which I will do soon. He plans to publish letters about the debate in the next issue, so I will include his contact information as well.