Historical Illnesses Trivia Quiz

Answer: Polio

Strangely, Franklin Roosevelt was stricken with childhood paralysis (polio) as an adult. He was in a wheelchair for most of his presidency. The press was much more accommodating in those days and would rarely photograph him being carried or in awkward positions.

In 2003, an academic study suggested that the diagnosis of poliomyelitis was incorrect. The article in "The Journal of Medical Biography" posited the idea that the affliction he suffered from was Guillain-Barré syndrome.

Answer: Syphilis

Poor Al. He left prison and retired to Florida with syphilis. Interestingly, the third stage of the disease includes dementia.

Answer: Porphyria

Porphyria, his urine is said to have been blue. This is another illness that includes dementia as a symptom.

Answer: Syphilis

Isak Dinesen was the pen name of Karen Blixen. Her most famous work was "Out of Africa". She supposedly contracted syphilis from her wandering husband, Baron Blixen. She left her farm in Kenya to return to Denmark for painful treatment and was spared the ravages of the later stages of the disease.

Answer: None of these

Vlad the Impaler was a 15th century prince of Wallachia (now part of Romania). Bram Stoker had read about him and used some of what he learned to create "Dracula". Good old Vlad , had a zest for inflicting cruel and unusual punishments, especially impaling people, and was generally very bad. He could have been suffering dementia from syphillis, but we don't know for sure.

Answer: Hemophilia

Son of Nicholas II of Russia. He was executed with his family by the Bolsheviks in 1918. His mother was a granddaughter of Queen Victoria who carried the gene for hemophilia. Victoria married her progeny off to European heads of state, thus spreading the hemophilia.

Answer: hernia

In letters to his daughter, Sister Maria Celeste, Galileo complained of many diseases in his old age. He mentions his hernia for which he wore a heavy iron truss. He may have suffered from many other diseases but we are not completely sure what they were. (Galileo's letters were destroyed but we know somethings about him based on her concerned responses -- her letters to him were preserved).

Answer: Deformed wrist

In France as US Ambassador, Jefferson jumped a fence to impress a woman (Maria Cosway - remember the head and heart letter?). He broke his wrist (yeah, the one that wrote the Declaration of Independence) for a woman! It didn't heal correctly.

Answer: Club foot

The most romantic and handsome of poets had a club foot. This deformity is said to have affected him greatly.

Answer: Insanity

The son of the most influential ruler of Western Europe (Henry V - remember Agincourt?) suffered bouts of insanity all of his life. He was imprisoned and died (probably murdered by his enemies).