A doença de Darwin revisitada

terça-feira, janeiro 19, 2010

Published 13 December 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b4968
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;339:b4968

Darwin’s illness revisited



John A Haymanassociate professor
1 Department of Anatomy and Developmental Biology, Monash University, Clayton, Melbourne, Victoria 3800, Australia
hayman@johnhayman.net

It is 200 years since the naturalist Charles Darwin was born. It is therefore an appropriate time to establish the nature of the illness that he endured throughout adulthood and to refute the many fanciful proffered diagnoses, both physical and psychological, or psychoanalytical.
Throughout his adult life Darwin endured a chronic, relapsing illness. This was present even before he sailed on HMS Beagle in 1831:
I was also troubled with palpitations and pain about the heart, and like many a young ignorant man, especially one with a smattering of medical knowledge, was convinced that I had heart-disease. I did not consult any doctor, as I fully expected to hear the verdict that I was not fit for the voyage, and I was resolvedto go at all hazards1 

Sea sickness was a major problem for Darwin, to the extent that he was incapacitated for days at a time.