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Post Mortems Two: Mere Mortals: Medico-Historical Essays

Charles MacLaurin

This 1925 collection of extensive essays (a second book following the first of similar title) comprises well written biographies of a few famous folk. The life narratives include analyses of medical and/or psychological elements in each person’s life. Biographies include Samuel Johnson, King Henry VI, King Henry VIII, King Edward VI, Mary Tudor, Queen Elizabeth I, Ivan The Terrible, Martin Luther, Henry Fielding King James I (VI), King Charles I, King Charles II, Catherine of Braganza, Nell Gwynn, Henri Quatre, Marguerite de Valois, Frederick The Great, The Children’s Crusade, Some Epidemics Of Social Importance, F.W. Nietzsche, Arthur Schopenhauer, Baruch Spinoza. “But there were far more whose actions were clearly the result of their state of health; and some of these who happen to have been leaders at critical epochs I have ventured to study from the point of view of a doctor. This point of view appears to have been strangely neglected by historians and others. If the background against which it shows its heroes and heroines should appear unsentimental and harsh, at least it appears to medical opinion as probably true; and it is our duty to seek Truth.” From the Preface to the first (1922) volume - Summary by David Wales