Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: optic neuritis

  • Frederick Delius and his neurological disease

    The life of the English composer Frederick Delius and his tragic encounter with the spirochaeta pallida has been extensively documented. He was born in 1862 in the industrial Yorkshire town of Bradford. His family had come to England from Germany but was originally Dutch, having changed its name in the sixteenth century from Delij or…

  • Multiple sclerosis: Early descriptions

    JMS Pearce Hull, England Clinical MS: Augustus D’Este, McKenzie It was almost two centuries ago that the best known and possibly the first detailed patient’s description of multiple sclerosis (MS) was recorded. It survives in the diaries (1822-48) and almanac of Sir Augustus D’Este, the Harrovian grandson of King George III.1,2 In December 1822, when he…