Very Illustrious Patients

Beethoven would have written his Tenth Symphone, Napoleon could have won at Waterloo, Madame Pompadour might have married King Louis XV, Roosevelt would not have granted half of Europe to Stalin at Yalta... Who really knows? Perhaps history would have been different if Beethoven had not had cirrhosis of the liver, if Napoleon had not suffered from ulcers and hemorrhoids, if Koch's bacillus had not settled in Madame Pompadour's uterine annex, if arteriosclerosis had not already irrevocably compromised Roosevelt's decision powers before Yalta... This historical-medical journey reveals many a curious and unanticipated aspect of the illnesses and weaknesses of many Very Illustrious Patients...