Talk:List of people speculated to have been syphilitic
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This article was nominated for deletion on 19/3/2006. The result of the discussion was no consensus. |
As this is a highly controvertial topic, in an attempt to keep this NPOV and yet not clutter the main list with evidence, the evidence for and against will be listed here. Discussion not directly listing evidence will be listed at the end of this page. References should be listed at the end of the main page and/or internally in each evidence or discussion section.
Contents |
[edit] Evidence for and against
Please add new entries in alphabetical order.
[edit] Lord Randolph Churchill
For:
- He belived he had syphilis, and probably took measures to make sure none of the rest of his family caught it.
- Some accounts of his later years indicate possible mental breakdown including handwriting characteristic of loss of control due to syphilis.
- His last several speeches to parlament were considered to be a shadow of his former effectiveness.
Against:
- Some historians believe was a very bright individual who remained sane until his death, and any "mental breakdowns" seen by his critics were really emotional outbursts characteristic of his entire life.
- Historians who do not believe in the handwriting breakdown claim to not have seen any samples showing it.
[edit] Vincent Van Gogh
For:
- Vincent Van Gogh and his brother wrote letters to each other comparing syphilis symptoms in detail as their disease progressed. They were both aware they had it.
[edit] Adolf Hitler
References:
- http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/2842819.stm lists evidence both for and against.
[edit] Oscar Wilde
Against:
- He never showed the fatal signs of tertiary syphilis, and did not appear to die of it.
- Doctors at the time did not diagnose him with syphilis.
- His cause of death was probably not directly related to syphilis.
For:
- He admitted to having syphilis early in life, and no effacious treatment for it existed at the time, so he probably had it from that point on.
- Near the end of his life, he had strange skin rashes, which are one of the major symptoms.
- He liked to take very hot baths which is one of the known remedies for syphilis. He may have been able to keep it in check this way.
[edit] Woodrow Wilson
For:
- From Septempber 1919 until the end of his term, he was too incapacitated to appear to his public or his cabinet, and his wife largely took over. He could have been suffering from tertiary syphilis during this period.
Against:
- He caught influenza in 1919, which was nearly an epidemic at the time. This disease is also known to cause brain damage and behaviorial changes in some cases, very similar to damage caused by syphilis.
[edit] Joseph Stalin
Against:
- There is absolutely no data for. Addition of Stalin to the list probably was a politically motivated and has nothing with history. I do not like Vladimir Putin and would like add him to the list.
[edit] Discussion
I note that Mary Todd Lincoln's name is marked with a star. I'd like to see the references for this, as I have not been able to find any information on this outside of this page.
-Chinju 22:09, 22 September 2005 (UTC)
- In Pox, Hayden enumerates in great detail the symptoms Mrs. Lincoln had. She died in an insane asylum, and both Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln were taking the contemporary syphilis treatment drugs. I don't recall if her doctors explicitly diagnosed syphilis in their journals or not. --ssd 12:37, 10 May 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Al Gore? Please provide evidence.
Listing Al Gore as a syphilitic seems somewhat absurd, and possibly politically motivated. Please present relevant evidence of why his name is on this list.
