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| Paper: |
Galileo as a Patient |
| Volume: |
441, The Inspiration of Astronomical Phenomena VI |
| Page: |
73 |
| Authors: |
Thiene, G.; Basso, C. |
| Abstract: |
The clinical history of Galileo, as it turns out from hundred letters
he wrote and received, is so informative as to make it possible to
delineate the natural history of his body. It is well known that he
suffered from recurrent episodes of fever (terzana) since
1606, when he was in Florence as guest of Cristina Lorena for
education of the future granduke Cosimo II. By reading signs and
symptoms he reported several times, it is clear that he had various
diseases (rheumatism, haemorroids, kidney stones, arrhythmias). When
in December 1632, at the age of 68, Galileo delayed his journey to
Rome claiming sickness, Pope Urban VIII committed 3 physicians to
examine him. They reported that Galileo was affected by “pulsus
intermittens” (most probably atrial fibrillation), large hernia at
risk of rupture, dizziness, diffuse pain, hypochondriacal melancholy
as a consequence of the “declining age”. It was in February 1637
that he started to have eye disease with lacrimation and progressive
loss of sight, which in 10 months led to loose at first the right eye
and then also the left one. According to the consultation, asked at
distance to Giovanni Trullio on February 1538 in Rome, the diagnosis
of blindness due to bilateral uveitis came out. Keeping with the
current medicine, the illnes might have been explained in the setting
of an immune rheumatic disease (Reiter's syndrome). The cause of
Galileo's death, which occurred on 8 January 1642 at the age of 78, is
not known since it was not submitted to autopsy. We can speculate
cardiac death due to pneumonia complicating congestive heart
failure. |
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