Robinson Crusoe's Illness: Literature and Medicine

摘要

This essay originated from a re-reading of Umberto Eco's Six Walks in the Fictional Woods (1994) and from discussions of Charles Darwin's illnesses. The question of historical truth arises whenever we seek to validate a scientific analysis of a fictional incident. Whereas Darwin may actually have suffered from several health conditions, Robinson Crusoe's illness is the product of Daniel Defoe's imagination. But the search for a medical diagnosis must follow the same methods in both cases. After eight months as sole inhabitant of his island, Crusoe is taken ill. A detailed description of the symptoms is duly registered in his diary, along with his attempts at finding its possible nature and origin. The island, according to Crusoe, lies in the tropical waters of the Caribbean Sea, not far from the coast of Venezuela. From the standpoint of medical geography, his illness is a tropical disease that was prevalent in South and Central America in the seventeenth century. Five possible diseases are suggested and discussed.