I had noted that two notable recent papers on Darwin's mysterious debilitating illness, Campbell and Matthews (2005) and Hayman (2009) both claimed that Darwin's illness started before he sailed on the Beagle at the end of 1831.
Allen Esterson gave it his usual thorough going-over, and argued against this claim. So I went back to Campbell and Matthews and to Hayman to see what they said and why. It turns out that their pronouncement is poorly supported, as far as I can tell. They cite only the non-specific sources of Darwin's autobiography and his letters in support; not much help from them there. When I searched these sources on-line, I found little persuasive evidence for their claim. So I now agree with Allen that there is scant indication that he "suffered since childhood" with his mystery ailment. Once again, it seems there's a disconnect between what people say is in the literature, and what's actually there. And at the risk of getting things further tangled up, I'd like to comment on two interesting points from Beth Benoit: The first was that we don't have to stick to one disease in explaining everything that happened to poor Darwin. I agree. To clarify, when I was referring to Hayman writing to me that he thought it possible that Darwin may have had an allergy to milk protein, he was suggesting this in addition to his primary published hypothesis of cyclical vomiting syndrome. He did not think that milk protein allergy alone could explain the "severity and range of his symptoms". Second, Beth said this in arguing that Darwin would have died young if he had suffered from milk protein allergy: "I'm responding here with a testimonial/account of only one, but my nephew is allergic to milk protein. It's a life-threatening condition. He's 25 and has had numerous visits to an ER if, for example, the same spatula that flips his grilled chicken breast was used earlier for taking a cheeseburger off the grill. His tongue swells, his throat closes." This kind of description is all too familiar to me, as my younger daughter has suffered from peanut allergy from a very early age, and we also experienced numerous frantic dashes to the ER as a consequence. Yet while peanut allergy is becoming increasingly common, deaths from it are fortunately still rare (Wiki gives 1 death per 830,000 children with all food allergies). I doubt that timely medical care can be given all the credit. This is by way of saying that food allergies differ substantially in severity in different people. Most people do survive them. Stephen ----------------------------------------------------------------- Stephen L. Black, Ph.D. Professor of Psychology, Emeritus Bishop's University e-mail: [email protected] 2600 College St. Sherbrooke QC J1M 1Z7 Canada ----------------------------------------------------------------------- --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([email protected])
