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The Maladies of Charles Dickens: 
A 20th Century View

By Dr. E.C. Abbott MD, FCRP(C), FACP
Associate Professor, Department of Medicine
Dalhousie University, Halifax, N.S., CANADA
cabbott@is.dal.ca

Childhood to Twenties (1812-1834)

• born February 7, 1812

• "a very little and very sickly boy"

• worked in the blacking factory

• poor nutrition

• age 12-15: attacks of colic and fever

• age 21: "vulnerable to psychological pain"

• taking hydrocyanic acid

• "rheumatism and perfectly deaf"

• attacks of colic and headache

Headaches, Colds, Depression and Colic (1835-1944)

1835

• attacks of headache, dizziness, which affect his vision

• taking calomel pills

1836

• severe colds

• "rheumatism in the face for a week"

• severe attack of colic

1837-1839

• "the worst and most annoying colds

• "dead beat" with very bad cold on chest

1840-1841

• confined to home with "worst cold you can conceive"

• "raging pain in every tooth - a perfect martyrdom...most abominable torture"

• depressed, "dead in spirit"

• violent fit of indigestion

• "bilious and in low spirits"

• surgery for anal fissure

1842-1844

• "sore throat" in Boston

• "depressed from work and weather"

• "rheumatism in the face, penetrates to depth of my ears"

• "using all conceivable remedies"

• "sneezing and wheezing"

• attack of colic

Headaches, Colds, Depression and Insomnia (1845-1859)

1845-1846

• "villainous cold"

• "sick, bothered and depressed"

• giddiness, headache, difficulty with vision"

• "bad night, anxious, bad head"

• tried cupping, brandy and water, rum and eggs

1847-1849

• "blinded by a cold"

• "another cold, wheezing"

• "inflamed kidney" - cupped and blistered

• "obstinate, barking cough"

• "the longer I live, the more I doubt the doctors"

1850-1859

• "legs swelling after standing for hours"

• recurrence of kidney problem

• exhaustion

• numerous colds

• "languid and short of starch"

• uses mustard poultices and Barley water

Headaches, Atrial Fibrillation, Gout, Anxiety, TIAs (1860-1868)

1860-1865

• son, Alfred, dies of pleurisy

• "neuralgias in face"

• "left foot swelling with pain" (refuses to admit it is gout)

• "irritability of heart"

• "sudden rushes of terror in train or Hansom cab", with pallor and perspiration

• takes to carrying brandy

1866-1867

• "irregular heart" - given quinine and digitalis

• "severe pain in left eye"

• chest pain, insomnia

• "a dozen oysters and a little champagne - the best restorative I have ever tried"

• another attack of gout (diagnosed as erysipelas)

• rectal bleeding

1868

• difficulty walking (painful foot)

• tries variety of cures in USA: Rocky Mountain Sneezer (brandy, rum bitters, lemon, sugar and snow)

• "egg and sherry pulls me up"

• coughing at night (takes laudanum - "the only thing that has done me good")

• depressed and breathless at night

• two episodes of blindness in left eye

Gout, Rectal Bleeding, TIAs and CVA (1869-1870)

1869-1870

• "left foot lame again" (Mr. Syme, celebrated surgeon, agrees it is due to walking in snow - "affection of delicate nerves and muscles")

• "weakness and deadness on the left side"

• episodes of rectal bleeding

• "painful right thumb, can't write plainly"

• "right hand, painful and swollen"

• difficulty with articulation - conversation disjointed

• discontinues reading and traveling

• left leg "hangs about me very heavily"

• brief loss of vision left eye

• continues to write last book, The Mystery of Edwin Drood

June 8-9

• sudden headache, falls in coma

• he dies some hours later, leaving Edwin Drood unfinished

The 13 Suggested Problems

• chronic renal tuberculosis

• chronic obstructive lung disease

• bronchial asthma, sinusitis

• common migraine

• gouty arthritis

• recurrent rheumatism (fibromyalgia?)

• Ischemic heart disease (atrial fibrillation)

• chronic intermittent dyspepsia

• anal fissure

• intermittent mod disorder (cyclothymic personality)

• personality: type A

• chronic renal failure (hypertension?)

• cerebrovascular disease (TIAs and embolic stroke)

Dicken's Remedies

• hydrocyanic acid

• calomel tablets

• mustard poultices

• quinine

• digitalis

• laudanum

• alcoholic spirits

• Rockey Mountain Sneezer

• Sherry and eggs

• poppy fomentation

• Bailey water

• bleeding

• cupping

• magnetism

• mesmerizing

Charles Dickens And Doctors

The British Medical Journal in June 1870 commented: "What a gain it would have been to a physic if one so keen to observe and facile to describe had devoted his powers to the medical arts."

REFERENCES:

E.C. Abbott (1990). "The maladies of Charles Dickens: A 20th Century View." Cl and Invest Med 13: B52 (Abstract)

Carol McLeod (1991). "Halifax Physician Examines Health of Charles Dickens," Atlantic Advocate, 82(1): 29-32.

In 1991, Carol McLeod stated in an article that Dr. Abbott said to her that "Charles Dickens from his early childhood till last years of his life, had left-sided periodic pain which was not renal colic caused by kidney stones but it was renal TB that led to Adisson's disease and hypofunction of the suprarenal gland. His sister and other family members died of pulmonary TB."

Dr. Edward Carl Abbott is a 65-years-old Canadian physician specialized in hypertension, endocrinology, metabolism, pharmacology and medical history. He published papers about the Austrian musician Mozart (FEATURES SECTION), Russian musician Vladimir de Pachmann and British novelist Charles Dickens. He received is MD from Dalhousie University in 1959 and has worked in Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Ontario. He has also worked as an honorary consultant in the Royal Post-Graduate Medical School in London, UK.

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