Alexander Leeper, Robert Louis Stevenson, And Fanny Stevenson © 2001
By Max Banfield
Now available as an eBook here and from Amazon.com here
The following quote is from a letter sent to me by James S. Winegar, President of The Robert
Louis Stevenson Museum, International Offices, Phoenix, Arizona,
"The Minister of Youth Sports and
Culture in Samoa loves the book. We presented him with his own
copy and he devoured it." (end of quote).
The book is aimed at providing modern readers with an insight into the causes of health problems of the past, so that they can better understand the cause, effect, and methods of treating illnesses, particularly obscure ones, today.
There are other
biographies which present the idea that the health problems of
Leeper, Louis, and his wife Fanny were due to depression, stress,
or hypochondria, but this web page examines how their physique,
their personal and food hygiene, their housing and sanitation,
the industrial pollution of the nineteenth century, and the epidemic contagious illnesses of that pre-antibiotic era influenced their health.
In the case of Robert Louis Stevenson his main illness was tuberculosis which he would have been disposed to get by his thin and gangly physique, and poor chest shape, and consequent constricted lung space, combined with the industrial pollution from the dust in his family's factories where they ground stones to build lighthouses, and the coal dust in the air and fog which Edinburgh had a reputation for, and where all of the buildings were blackened by soot.
He traveled extensively on his fathers wealth, and learnt from experience that whenever he was away from Edinburgh and large industrial cities like London and Sydney his symptoms would ease, so he ultimately decided to live on an island in the South Pacific.
He didn't know why, and neither did his doctors, but it would have been because of the fresh sea, forest, or mountain air, which cleared the soot from his contaminated lungs in much the same way as the sea clears debris from the beach as the tide comes in an out to produce clean beaches. That is my conclusion and is my copyright together with other information on this webpage and in my book.
Many other people have given a variety of reasons for his health problems, treatment and death, such as contained in this book about "The Wilderness Cure" where many people, including Robert Louis Stevenson, were treated at a sanatorium in Saranac. here (I found this link while searching Twitter on 7-10-13, provided by GTBI - the Global Tuberculosis Institute).
He also reported relief when he was treated in the mountains of Switzerland, and his friends and companions said that, whenever he got on a boat, and was a few miles from shore (in the fresh sea air), he would be feeling in full health, while those around him were sea sick.
However, he also smoked cigarettes and drank a lot of alcohol, and died of a stroke while relaxing and drinking a glass of wine on the verandah of his island mansion, on a sunny day, at a age 44.
Alexander Leeper was born in Ireland, where he contracted tuberculosis
and had to travel to Australia in search of a warmer climate
which was more suitable to his health. During his lifetime he
achieved a first in Classical Moderations at Oxford University
and became a leading educator, librarian and churchman in Melbourne.
He developed tuberculosis because it was a common and contagious
illness that occurred in epidemics in the industrial cities of
the nineteenth century, and it probably affected his right lung
because he had sideways curvature of the spine to the right which
would have congested the lung on that side, making it more vulnerable.
He had a lot of problems with his ailment because most people
did, because there was no cure at that time, so it was chronic
and usually featured severe relapses and resulted in early death.
However Leeper read many medical books and experimented with
many remedies, including the Alexander Technique, which he recommended
for school students and military recruits. The Alexander technique was developed by Frederick Matthias Alexander of Tasmania and
was a method of improving posture to cure the problem which he had with voice loss while reciting, and to remove pressure from the lungs and prevent or relieve respiratory diseases. Leeper met
Frederick Alexander, championed his method, and lived to the
age of 86, when most men under conventional medical treatment
died in their 30's.
He is mentioned in this set of biographies because his personality
and achievements were the exact opposite of the medical stereotype
of hypochondriacs, where poor character, cowardice, laziness,
and ignorance of literature and history were described as prominent
"Robert Louis Stevenson" (Louis) was born in Edinburgh,
Scotland, where he qualified in law at Edinburgh University and
went on to become one of the most famous Scottish writers with
his books such as Treasure Island, and Kidnapped. He developed
chronic tuberculosis of the lungs but many other biographers
have doubted this because there were no blood tests or X-rays
available in the nineteenth century and various doctors of the
time provided uncertain and contradictory diagnoses, where they
often referred to his ailments as mysterious. He also had many
relapses but always seemed to recover so his ailments have been
interpreted as being trivial. Further doubt is expressed by the
idea that he died of a stroke rather than tuberculosis and it
has been suggested that this was brought on by stress.
However Louis family were lighthouse builders which required
them to quarry, cut, and grind thousands of tons of granite blocks
for the lighthouse towers. This was a dusty occupation in which
many workers developed silicosis of the lungs which was often
followed by tuberculosis and early death. Thomas Stevenson had
the symptoms of tuberculosis which was probably contracted in
this way, and then the tuberculosis germs were exhaled in the
breath which is how many close family members contracted the
ailment, and this may have been how his son Louis first contracted
the illness as a teenager. Louis condition was aggravated by
a 6000 mile journey by ship and train to meet his future wife
Fanny, during which he was exposed to cold, cramped, and unsanitary
train cabins which were crowded with foreigners who carried all
sorts of exotic infections, including tuberculosis.
Several doctors diagnosed severe tuberculosis including some
who were world authorities on the subject, and he was advised
to leave his misty and smoggy and polluted home in Edinburgh
and seek the pure mountain air, or the fresh sea air of the Swiss
Alps, the south of France, or the tropical Pacific islands. In
his journeys to find a climate more suitable to his health he
stayed in many countries where epidemics were rife, and were
killing millions of people, and he contracted some of those illnesses
which included pneumonia, bronchitis, malaria, meningitis, and
probably also typhus, typhoid, cholera, and brucellosis.
settled in the island paradise of Samoa, but died of a stroke
at the age of 44 because of the combined effect of his thin and
stooped physique and his sedentary occupation as a writer, and
because of chain smoking, and drinking alcohol and coffee to
excess, and spending too much of his life consuming a high cholesterol
diet, and because of the accumulated effect of many bouts of
meningitis on the arteries of his brain.
Fanny Stevenson was born in Indiana in
the U.S.A. and met Louis while they were both staying in Europe.
Several years later Fanny sent Louis an urgent telegram asking
him to come and help her because she was suffering from brain
fever, which was the nineteenth century medical word for meningitis,
probably affecting her as a complication of malaria or brucellosis.
The couple married soon after and travelled together in search
of a climate suitable for Louis health, and on the way she had
to nurse him through his many fevers which were caused by a variety
of infectious illnesses, and after an incubation period of several
days or weeks she would come down with the illness herself. This
is one reason why other biographers have portrayed her as a sympathy
seeking hypochondriac who complained about trivial or imaginary
ailments, where it has been said that whenever Louis became ill,
she would predictably dash into the sick bed herself as if it
was a jolly old game of musical chairs. However the nineteenth
century feverish illnesses were highly contagious ailments which
caused severe debility and killed millions.
Fanny read many articles about health, including some in the
British Medical Journal called The Lancet, in an attempt to prevent
or treat the many illnesses that Louis suffered from, which is
another reason why she has been described as a hypochondriac.
However, she had to deal with doctors who gave contradictory
diagnoses, and who were unable to give cures. She would also
take the precaution of ensuring that visitors had clean handkerchiefs,
and would prevent doctors from entering Louis sick room snorting
and sneezing. These ideas were well ahead of the medical thinking
at that time when a lot of doctors dismissed the idea that germs
When Fanny's five year old son Hervey died of Scrofula, an infectious
illness, Fanny became ill herself but this has been described
as the psychosomatic illness of a grieving mother which set up
a neurosis which was responsible for her future illnesses. The
symptoms were probably those of Antwerp fever, which was a name
given to several different epidemic illnesses such a tuberculosis,
typhoid, and typhus, because doctors could not distinguish the
difference at that time. Many of her subsequent illnesses were
the same as those of Louis which were contracted after an incubation
period for the particular infection.
Fanny also had a severe illness in March 1893 which has been
described as a spectacular breakdown and a mental white out which
she suddenly snapped out of because of an obscure change of attitude
that she supposedly had at that time. However she was probably
suffering from typhoid, which was followed by meningitis when
the infection spread to the lining of her brain, and this produces
wild, argumentative, uncooperative, and violent outbursts with
fever, fits and hallucinations. Such severe infectious illnesses
usually ended suddenly in death or complete recovery. Typhoid
germs collect in the gallbladder, and the puss later coagulates
into gallstones, which can eventually block the gallducts and
cause pain which is relieved by surgery. Fanny had gallbladder
surgery a few years after her so called 'breakdown'.
The Robert Louis Stevenson And Fanny Stevenson Health Controversies
Robert Louis Stevenson was born in Edinburgh Scotland on 13-11-1850 and became one of the world's most famous writer's with books such as Treasure Island, Kidnapped, and The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. He died in his mansion home of Vailima on the South Pacific island of Samoa on 3-12-1894 at the age of 44.
However, some modern biographers have interpreted him as a whinging, sympathy seeking
hypochondriac, who spent most of his life complaining about trivial
or imagined illnesses.
I can only assume that such writers have
lead lives of privilege and good health which has left them ignorant
of the realities and complications of disease.
noted that he seemed, from a superficial view of his
life, to have been constantly plagued by ill health, but, in
fact, in his short 44 years, he was probably only ill for an
average of 6 weeks per year, and despite his ailments he
achieved more than most healthy people of his time.
weak chested Stevenson family
Robert Louis Stevenson has been described as descending from
a family of weak chested hypochondriacs. However he was born
into a family of Lighthouse engineers, who built and supervised
the lighthouses around the Scottish coast. This required working
in cold, wet, and arduous conditions, and also in the grinding
of granite blocks for the lighthouse towers. This commonly produced
occupational illnesses related to working in very rough weather,
and to chest diseases resulting from the inhalation of granite
dust. For example, late in life, Louis uncle, Alan Stevenson
(the weak chested hypochondriac ?) developed a bout of rheumatism
after rowing a boat thirty six miles across the sea during a
storm, and then climbing 200 feet up a rock cliff to reach a
When Louis was 12 his father was spitting blood, which is a symptom of tuberculosis
and one of several possibilities is that Louis first contracted
the condition then because, after weakened lungs have become
infected, the illness, which is contagious, is often passed on
to close family members. His father may have recovered but Louis
condition became chronic.
Stevenson's gangly physique
RLS had a gangly physique which other writers have attributed to thyroid problems
but it is unlikely that he had that illness, and his physique
can be easily accounted for in other ways. As an infant he had
many infectious illnesses related to the pollution of the river,
drinking water, and food supply, and the industrial air pollution
of Edinburgh, and Chicken pox, whooping cough, feverish colds,
bronchitis, pneumonia, digestive upsets and gastric fever, and
probably diphtheria and infantile cholera were among his feverish
ailments which are commonly accompanied by a loss of appetite
which would adversely affect the physical development of a growing
In this illustration
he can be seen as thin and stooped and he has one shoulder lower
than the other indicating sideways curvature of the spine. With
this physique his lungs would be compressed and poorly ventilated
and easily congested, disposing to the contraction and persistance
of respiratory infections in adulthood.
COMBINATION OF FACTORS THAT PROBABLY CAUSED STEVENSONS TUBERCULOSIS
(IN THE CITY
OF EDINBURGH NICKNAMED "OLD SMOKY" FROM THE SMOKE IN
Robert Louis Stevenson's tuberculosis was
probably the result of the combined factors of his thin and stooped
physique which compressed his lungs, dust from the factories owned by his family where they ground stone for use in lighthouses, and the smoky atmosphere of the cities of the industrial revolution, and bacteria
which more readily infected lungs that were already congested.
His birthplace was Edinburgh and he
grew up in that city which had the nickname of Auld Reekie, which
is Scottish for Old
Smoky, which comes from the fact
that the houses and factories were heated by coal and wood fires
which billowed smoke out of their chimneys and filled the surrounding
atmosphere. The problem would have been made worse by the fact
that Louis was a chain smoker.
The following quote comes from the BooksfromScotland.com
website . . . "The
young Stevenson spent much of his time away from Edinburgh's
smoky atmosphere in the hope that fresher air would alleviate
his chest complaints" here
Other writers have suggested that the ailments that RLS had as
an adult were psychosomatic and depressive illnesses which were
part of a neurosis which was related to the nightmares which
he had when he was a young boy and was told biblical horror stories
by his nurse Cummy. One writer said that his adult illnesses
were always and without exception preceded by stress. However
nightmares in childhood are a common accompaniment of many feverish
illnesses because the infection sometimes spreads to the brain.
Furthermore, as an adult Louis was a fearless adventurer compared
to most people of his day. Nevertheless he sometimes reported
that he suffered from depression but this was almost always the
result of the distressing aspects of his relapsing bouts of tuberculosis,
and not the cause of them, and although he suffered from rare
instances of depression for other reasons, as occurred briefly
when his father died, these are normal responses to a death in
the family etc. However, for the majority of the time Louis was
cheerful and resilient in the most harrowing situations. Furthermore,
there is considerable evidence that the adult illnesses which
he survived were part of epidemics which killed millions of less
RLS tuberculosis controversy
Some writers have questioned whether RLS actually had tuberculosis
or some other less severe lung disease and some nineteenth century
writers have even suggested that tuberculosis was a psychosomatic
disorder with no organic basis. However many of the top tuberculosis
experts in the world diagnosed Louis as having, or as being in
remission of severe tuberculosis. Their medical experience would
have given them the ability to diagnose the condition with some
certainty, despite the fact that there were no x-rays or blood
tests available at the time to absolutely confirm this. The suggestions
that Louis had some other lung disease are speculative and have
much less evidence to support them. Of course, the nineteenth
century idea that tuberculosis had no organic basis was ridiculous
and has since been discredited by advances in medical knowledge
and technology, and further discredits any claims that Louis
had psychosomatic complaints. (It also sheds doubt on some of the modern application of psychosomatic concepts).
The death of Robert Louis Stevenson at age 44
Some authors have argued that if RLS actually had tuberculosis
he should have died of it, but, as he died of a stroke, he therefore
did not ever have tuberculosis, and that his stroke was brought
on by stress. However the main reason that Louis did not die
of tuberculosis like many others, was because he was intelligent
and wealthy and could afford to leave the industrial pollution
of Edinburgh and go to a country with a clean air environment,
such as Samoa, to relieve the strain on his lungs, as was recommended
by every top tuberculosis expert in the world at that time. It
is highly unlikely that he died as the result of stress, because
at that time he was 44 years old, living as a virtual millionaire
by today's standards, in a mansion, with 19 servants, in the
Pacific island paradise of Samoa, doing the work that he enjoyed.
The family disputes which were said to bring on his stroke were
rather petty and very common, and would not produce a stroke
in a healthy person. However, Louis was a chain smoker, and a
prolific drinker of alcohol and coffee. He was a whiskyfied Scot,
and in Samoa he had a cellar which was stocked with the finest
French wines that money could buy and he died with a glass of
claret in his hand. Smoking and drinking causes hardening of
the arteries which commonly results in heart attacks or strokes
which kill people in their mid forties. Furthermore Louis had
many feverish illnesses which terminated in meningitis, which
also damages the arteries of the brain and can cumulatively result
in a stroke.
An empirical method of preventing and treating tuberculosis
by Max Banfield ©
I published my book about Stevenson's health in 2001, and have recently had it converted to an eBook, and written this small item on 22-3-2012
Robert Louis Stevenson tended to get relapses of tuberculosis whenever he returned to large cities such as London and Edinburgh, but he didn't know why. However it would have been due to the thick air pollution from the smoke which billowed from the chimneys of coal and peat fires in houses and factories, and mixed with the fogs.
When he traveled on his many journeys he often gained relief from his symptoms, but he didn't know why. However, he went to Switzerland, where there was fresh mountain air, and he sailed the Pacific, where there was fresh sea air, and he chose to live in Samoa, where there was fresh forest air.
In my estimation the constant inhaling and exhaling of fresh air would have cleaned out his lungs in much the same way as the ebbing and flowing or ocean tides cleans beach sand, which is quite different to the mud at the edge of stagnant and polluted ponds.
(Another famous author, George Orwell, was born in 1903, and died of tuberculosis in 1950 at the age of 46. His health problems were aggravated by the smogs of London before the Clean Air Act was implemented in 1956.
Preventing dust induced lung diseases by learning from the mistakes of history
Another influence on the cause would be that he came from a family who built many of the light houses in the seas around Scotland, and that work involved the grinding of massive blocks of stone, which would have produced a lot of stone dust which can damage the lungs, and dispose to lung diseases, and the contagious infections of pneumonia and tuberculosis.
Nowadays various methods are used to prevent lung diseases caused by various types of dust and sandblasting, and they included methods such as stopping the dust from entering the atmosphere through chimneys, vacuuming the dust away from the user, damping the dust with water sprays to stop it from entering the inhaled air, and wearing face masks etc.
(A recent TV report by a group which promotes ethics on labels discussed the fatal lung diseases which still affect workers in factories in Turkey where they use sand blasting methods to create the fashionable stone-washed affect in jeans. April 2012)
Cigarette smoking damages the lungs
The fact that Robert Louis Stevenson smoked cigarettes, would also have contributed to his lung diseases, and the stroke which eventually killed him at the age of 44. Nowadays many countries have campaigns to educate the public about the damage that smoking can do to the heart and lungs, and reduce life-expectancy.
The Fanny Stevenson neurosis
Fanny Stevenson suffered from many illnesses
which some other authors have suggested were due to a neurosis
which can be traced back to the giddy spells, blackouts, and
hallucinations which she had after the death of her infant son
Hervey. However, her son died of Scrofulous tuberculosis which
was one of the Antwerp fevers. Most doctors of that time could
not easily distinguish between illnesses such as scrofula, typhoid,
and typhus, and all were highly contagious. Fanny probably had
one of those illnesses which produced the giddy spells at the
time of her sons death, and the illnesses which she had later
in life can be reasonably easily accounted for in other ways
as the infectious ailments of the nineteenth century. It has
also been suggested that her so-called neurotic or depressive
illnesses which only occurred after she married Louis were related
to the conflicts in her relationship with him. However a review
of her biography reveals that she was unhappy with her former
husband, and very happy with her relationship with Louis.
There have been suggestions that Fanny Stevenson was a hypochondriac
who would become ill whenever Louis became ill because she was
a neurotic sympathy seeker. However, the illnesses which Louis
contracted were related to his travels through many exotic countries
at a time when immunisations and antibiotics were not available,
and as Louis had poor health due to his chronic tuberculosis
he also contracted many other infections. These were contagious
and were commonly passed on to close family members because of
body contact etc. Furthermore, when Louis became ill, his infections
would have had an incubation period of days or weeks, and Fanny
had to nurse him, so it would be expected that during or shortly
after that period she would succumb to the illness herself. Also,
often when Louis and Fanny were ill, the maid, servants, or visitors
also became ill, indicating the highly contagious nature of these
The Fanny Stevenson
temporary insanity and spectacular mental breakdown controversy
Fanny Stevenson has been described as having an 18 month period
of temporary insanity which terminated in a spectacular mental
breakdown in 1893, and which she suddenly snapped out of. However,
she probably had a severe relapsing fever, such as typhoid or
typhus, or a series of different opportunistic feverish illnesses.
Each of these infections, or relapses of the same infection,
can spread to the brain to cause the delirium of meningitis in
which people can become quite belligerent and have fits and hallucinations,
and meningitis characteristically ends abruptly in death or rapid
The Alexander Leeper Hypochondria Controversy
The ancient Greeks coined the word hypochondria because of their assessment that the many and varied symptoms
were caused by a disorder originating beneath the cartilages
of the lower ribs, however throughout the twentieth century the
prevailing view was that the set of symptoms were related to
a fear of imaginary illnesses which produced an unwarranted and
irrational interest in health. Nevertheless in my assessment
the primary factor which generated an interest in health was
the fact that doctors were unable to provide a plausible explanation
for a persons symptoms and because the person had not achieved
a cure despite the fact that they had diligently followed medical
advice and taken the prescribed treatment for many years.
This page contains two primary quotes. The first quote represents the medical opinion about hypochondria which prevailed
throughout the twentieth century with some minor variations on
the general theme, and which was generated by the medical literature
and is evident from the newspaper, radio, and television portrayal
of the complaint, and which generated the common public understanding
(misconception) of the condition. This specific medical opinion
was published in London in1928, during the lifetime of Alexander
Leeper, and was widely distributed as a medical reference book
for the general public. Thirteen doctors contributed to this
book which was called "The Modern Family Doctor".
The second quote gives an account of the actual life and achievements of Alexander
Leeper who was described as having "massive hypochondria".
He kept extensive diaries in which he recorded everything about
his life and his health.
By comparing these two quotes the extremes of the discrepancy
can be clearly seen, and are very easily found in the biographies
of other famous people such as Charles Darwin, the genius, Florence
Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing, Howard Hughes, the
American Billionaire, Napoleone, the French Emperor, and Moliere,
the French author of comedy plays.
At the end of this page I provide some other relevant quotes
which will be of interest to people who wish to study this subject.
account of hypochondria in the twentieth century
The stage of adolescence is the period of "man in the making"
and lasts about 10 years, during which time the higher mental
qualities are formed and character and conduct take their final
shape. "It is the critical period of life and the good or
evil habits now acquired remain until the end."
With the arrival of manhood there should be altruism which is
the quality that organised society is built upon, and as Martial
said long ago men should be able "To look on death with
placid eye, And neither fear nor wish to die."
"With the neurasthenic and hypochondriac it is quite the
opposite. "To both a morbid fear of death is ever present,
although usually not admitted, perhaps not even realised. This
obsession colours the entire outlook on life."
Most children develop into mature adults with courage and wisdom
but neurasthenics and hypochondriacs remain childlike, egoistic,
and self-centered, and they may be specious, plausible, and good
at making excuses.
If the minds of these patients is deeply probed they can be found
to have had all healthy inclinations starved and withered, and
to be like unweeded gardens "in which envy, hatred, malice,
and spite have been allowed to flourish", and they are so
self-absorbed that there is no room for outside interests.
These patients have "no kindliness of heart, no love of
country" and no generosities, and if they have any friends
at all they have no real affection for them. They vegetate in
selfishness and are usually moral and physical cowards. "Although
history for him has no meaning, and literature no existence,
and ignorant of his own ignorance, and most ignorant of what
he's most assured, yet he has very decided opinions, and is good
at making a platitude plausible by making it pompous, but he
never really thinks; he only thinks he thinks."
In vengeance for this nature might bring about what is politely
called a nervous breakdown, and the patient may whine that fate
has been unkind and that he has inherited weak nerves from his
parents or race. He may acquire a thorough knowledge of the latest
pseudo-scientific jargon but he cannot be persuaded to understand
"that his condition is the logical outcome of his wretched
scheme of existence, that having graduated in the school of selfishness,
he has simply educated and qualified himself for the misery which
now knocks at his door. Nature does not return good for evil;
she gives blow for blow."
The only hope for this type of person is to take up religion,
purge their souls, read the New Testament, pray to God, admit
to the sins of their wretched lives, and to start working to
improve their character.
Otherwise trying to convince these patients that their health
concerns are unfounded is like trying to reason with an ass.
The conclusion to be deduced is that the conditions of neurasthenia
and hypochondria are "the result of a process of wrong thinking,
wrong living, and wrong feeling."
Reference: The Modern Family Doctor (1928) p.157-158.
has been described as having "massive hypochondria".
He kept extensive diaries in which he recorded everything about
his life and his health.
The achievements of Alexander Leeper are too numerou to be
comprehensively covered in a brief essay but I will describe
some of them.
He showed signs of brilliance from the age of 5 and was first
educated by his father at home and then sent to private schools.
At the age of 13 he topped his class in Classics, French, and
He later sat for and passed an entrance exam for the Indian Civil
Service, but he did not pursue that course probably because he
would have been rejected on the grounds of his poor health.
In 1865 he won a scholarship to study at Trinity College Dublin
(University of Dublin), where he completed a degree in Classics.
In 1871 R.T. Tyrrell, professor of Greek, described him as
the best viva voce translator that he had ever met, and Arthur
Palmer, professor of Latin, described him as the best classic
he had ever examined and believed that he would eventually come
to be regarded as one of the most distinguished scholars produced
by the University of Dublin in modern times. The professor of
Greek at Queen's University in Galway praised his special aptitude
as a teacher.
In 1872 he sat for an open scholarship to St. John's college
of Oxford University, and was granted a special exhibition of
100 pounds a year for 5 years which was the equivalent value
of the scholarship. In 1874 he gained a "first" in
In Australia he became the Second Master of Melbourne Grammar
School, where he was also Senior Master of Classics, and he established
the school library, museum, and newspaper.
He was also appointed principal of Trinity College Melbourne,
and later changed the title to Warden, and developed the college
as a role model for other colleges associated with the Melbourne
He was on the Council of the Melbourne University where he recommended
reforms which were implemented, and he was on the state Council
of Public Education.
In 1880 he delivered the main speech, about university colleges,
at the Social Sciences Congress, which was a by-product of an
He was one of the Trustees of the Public Library, Museums, and
National Gallery from the 1880's, and was president from the
1920's until his retirement.
In 1896 Alexander Leeper drew up the draft constitution for the
Library Association of Australasia and became its new chairman
and delivered speeches at its Biennial Conferences.
He "was a lover of books and a firm believer in the educational
influence of the Public library", and he suggested that
there should be a closer relationship between libraries and educational
institutions. He insisted on the need for administrative ability
in librarians, and recommended that "Universities should
honour librarians more, giving them status as professors."
In 1908 he represented the Diocese of Melbourne at the Pan-Anglican
Congress which was held in London, and which was attended by
200 bishops. He was also chairman of the Central Church League,
and a lay canon at St. Paul's Cathedral.
He was involved in the production of plays and acted in some
of them, and was the director of a play called The Wasps by Aristophanes
which was presented by the combined colleges as the jubilee production
of the Melbourne University. He also represented the Melbourne
Shakespeare Society while in the U.K.
He was president of the Classical Association of Victoria which
had 300 members, which made it the largest Classical Association
in the British Empire.
He had many famous, wealthy, and influential friends, and for
a short time he was a member of the Melbourne Club and was involved
with the Navy League.
He traveled widely throughout the United Kingdom, Europe, the
Middle East, Norway, the United States, Australia, and New Zealand,
and he attended meetings of the Australian Institute of International
He was also a leader of patriotic causes, especially during World
War 1 when he argued against Home Rule for Ireland, in favour
of retaining it within the British Empire.
He also contributed to many charities especially the Society
to Assist Persons of Education, and he visited Old Colonists
Homes and was acquainted with Stanley Greg Smith who was secretary
of the Charity Organisation Society, and he distributed their
tickets to the needy.
Reference: Doubts and Certainties A Life of Alexander Leeper (1997).
Au Petit Papier
(The Malady of the Little Piece of Paper)
"Axel Munthe, describing his patients at his practice in
the Avenue de Villiers, says they would produce from their pockets
little pieces of paper and read out an interminable list of symptoms
and complaints - le malade au petit papier, as Charcot used to
From: Hysteria, Hypnosis & Healing: the work of J.M. Charcot (1971) p. 56
years of consulting physicians and of receiving various treatments,
all of which failed, and after seeking explanations for their
symptoms and not being given any, some 19th Century patients
methodically prepared detailed written descriptions of their
symptoms in an attempt to assist the doctor in making an accurate
diagnosis so that an effective remedy could be determined.
Such written accounts were referred to as 'le petit papier' (the
little piece of paper) and have since been used for diagnosing
hypochondria 'le malade au petit papier' on the basis of a misinterpretation
that they represented a morbid and unnecessary interest in health.
The confused facial
expression of a doctor talking to a hypochondriac as depicted
in The Marshall Cavendish Encyclopedia of Family Health (1988) p.772. (The patient has a considerable forward curve in
his upper spine and appears to be complaining about shoulder
pain which is often caused by sideways curvature of the spine.This
is a common form of postural pain where there is usually no x-ray
evidence of injury or disease.)
Doctors often shrug their shoulders
and present a facial expression of confusion and uncertainty
when dealing with patients who have the symptoms of hypochondria.
They also often ask for more detailed information about the severity
of symptoms, when they occur, what factors aggravate the symptoms
and what relieves them. Many patients write those details down
on paper so that they do not forget to mention them at the next
They assume that the doctor is giving their condition serious
Some quotes about preoccupation with health problems
Attention to too much detail??? for diseases that are not properly understood, diagnosed, or cured???
The difference between good science and bad science is that one considers every detail, and the other leaps to conclusions.
..."He constantly seeks medical aid and undergoes any treatment
recommended; he is a thoroughly good patient. Any new treatment
suits him, but never does any good; nevertheless he comes back
to his doctor to whom he is usually faithful . . . He is incurable,
but should be taken care of and humoured by doctors, or he may
fall into the hands of quacks and be fleeced."
From: The Common Neuroses 2nd Edition (1937) p.60
and autobiographies from earlier centuries reveal deep preoccupation
with matters of health and with attempts to plumb the sources
In fact "stethoscopes, ophthalmoscopes, and other gadgetry
were not introduced till after 1800" so doctors had no instruments
to aid in diagnosis, and, it was considered undignified to do
physical examinations by touching or exposing the patients body,
so the patients description of symptoms was the primary means
of determining the cause of disease.
"This was achieved through the sick person relating his
'history': when and how the complaint had started, what might
have precipitated it, the characteristic pains and symptoms,
and whether it was new or recurrent. The patient would also recite
the main features of his lifestyle - eating and sleeping habits,
bowel motions, details of emotional upsets, and so forth".
Treatment was usually only a matter of managing the disease with
rather ineffectual drugs and the placebo affect.
Reference: The Cambridge Illustrated History of Medicine (1996) p. 96-97
Cheyne, a well-known eighteenth century physician, considered
that one-third of his patients suffered from hypochondriasis,
in those days an all embracing term, and in 1807 Trotter was
of the opinion that it was two-thirds (Singer and Underwood)
Hypochondria is one of the most dreaded diseases in medical practice".
From: Health, Sickness, and Society (1976) p. 410 &
influence of emotions on body functions has been recognised doctors
have been less confused by many syndromes. "Although there
are no over-all reliable statistics to support the following
claim, many outstanding internists have estimated that as many
as 50 per cent to 60% per cent of the patients whom they see
suffer primarily from emotional disturbances." "This
observation has tended to cut down the number of fruitless laboratory
examinations" and the previous tendency to blame the symptoms
on some minor physical defect. It has also decreased the tendency
to overtreat the illnesses where all too often the procedure
had very serious damaging effects on the patient's life.
In fact these practical considerations were more important to
the doctor than the principles of psychiatry."
Reference: The Specialties In General Practice (1951)
The Bird Flu Epidemic © 24-10-05
My knowledge of epidemics relates
to The Black Plague of London, The Florence Nightingale methods
of treating infectious illness in the Crimean Military Hospitals,
and The Flu Epidemic of 1918 which contributed to the ending
of World War 1.
I also became interested in the
contrast between the health of Robert Louis Stevenson and his wife Fanny Stevenson.
Louis was reckless with his health. He was born in a city where
the air was thick with smog and the drinking water was contaminated
with sewerage and toxic chemicals, and he smoked and drank excessively,
and visited exotic countries and wandered through squalid suburbs,
and walked through leper colonies, and contracted many plagues.
His wife Fanny tended to his illnesses and contracted them after
an incubation period of 1 or 2 weeks, and read medical journals
to treat those conditions more effectively for Louis, herself,
and the members of her household in Samoa. Louis whole life was
disrupted by illness until he died of a stroke at age 44. After
his death Fanny returned to England where she seems to have had
perfect health until she died in her 70's. The following comments
relate to those matters which are indirectly, but importantly
relevant to the Bird Flu. M.B.
understand the bird flu is to understand the life of Robert Louis
Stevenson who survived the plagues of the nineteenth century
where others died in their tens of millions.
Robert Louis Stevenson lived in the nineteenth
century, before microscopes could confirm a patients infection,
and before x-rays could provide evidence of lung disease, and
before immunisation or antibiotics were available, and when people
had to survive by their power of observation and reason.
He lived in Edinburgh and visited London
where the fogs were black and yellow and blue from the soot which
rose from every house, train, and factory chimney, and a man
could not see his hand in front of his face, and the cobblestones
of the road, and the walls of buildings were black, indicating
the contaminated condition of the lungs of every citizen.
He lived at a time when 50% of the population
of industrial cities contracted pneumonia and most died from
it, and when 97% of the population had evidence of tuberculosis
antibodies in their blood, and when most of them contracted the
ailment in their teens and died from relapses in their twenties.
He lived when mice and rats, and bed bugs,
and lice and tics , and mosquito bread in the windowless houses,
and the piles of garbage, and the open sewer drains in the city
streets, and the rivers which provided domestic drinking water,
and when milk, vegetables and meat were transported by horse
and cart and became contaminated with horse dung dust, and when
vast numbers of children contracted summer diarrhea and other
infections and died in their infancy.
>He lived at a time when plagues started
in the poorer suburbs of Rome where food vendors lived in underground
dugouts full of mice, rats, tics, and bugs, and the contaminated
food was sold to the citizens of the wealthy suburbs, and was
transported by horse and cart along the coast of the Mediterranean
sea from town to town, spreading the plagues in its wake.
He lived at a time when one person with
a plague emptied their bowels and the contaminated feces found
its way into a city drinking water and killed tens of thousands
of its citizens.
He lived when Typhoid Mary, a carrier of
typhoid who showed no symptoms herself, worked as a cook for
wealthy families who lived in mansions, and whenever she changed
jobs, she transmitted typhoid to each new family.
He lived at a time when trains had spittoons
along the aisles and the majority of travelers contracted lung
diseases from the dried dust of the tuberculous spit. Such trains
stopped at remote hotels and restaurants where food was not fresh
or refrigerated and 50% of the passengers contracted food poisoning.
(One of Stevensons many infectious illnesses
was probably brucellosis caused by contact with infected goats,
or from drinking goat milk, or from inhaling goat dung dust which
blew in the wind on a goat farm in the mountains of California).
Robert Louis Stevenson lived at a time
when pacific islanders held feasts where every native dipped
his fingers into 50 bowls of food and soup. When one ship came
into port and one man with small pox attended the banquet 90%
of the population died of small pox because the condition was
completely foreign to their immune systems and they had no defense
He lived at a time when one person contracted
malaria, and then one at a time, each member of the family who
came into direct contact with them, or who attended to his nursing
needs and handled blood, vomit, and feces soiled bed sheets,
contracted the ailment in a sequence which was determined by
the incubation period of the bugs development, from contraction,
to latency, to symptoms, to delirium, and then death or recovery.
He lived when doctors were sceptical about
the germ theory and transmitted plagues as they coughed and sneezed
their way from patient to patient.
To survive the bird flu, is to understand
these things from the perspective of a full strategy of prevention,
interrupting the spread, escpecially in its early stages, (so
that their is time to develop immunisation and treatments programmes).
town planning, quarantining and housing of patients from the
public, and from other patients with other illnesses, and protection
of the treatment providers. A consideration of only one factor,
or to ignore any factor is doomed to failure.
Those who learn from history will be best
suited to avoid the mistakes of history and survive.
More information on this matter can be
gleaned from this web page about the health of Robert Louis Stevenson,
Additional notes on epidemic policy and history
In the nineteenth century Crimean Military
Hospitals Florence Nightingale reduced the death rate from 50% to 5% by cleaning bed sheets
and floors. Prior to her policies, soldiers with bayonet wounds
were put into beds which had been soiled by the sweat, urine,
feces, vomit, blood, and pus of the previous patients who had
died from infected wounds.
When AIDS was first discovered a policy of secrecy was introduced to prevent
public panic. In the meantime the epidemic spread rapidly and
globally and is still out of control nowadays.
The Three Wise Monkeys, the laughing
kookaburra, and The Bird Flu ©
I don't think that this is an original
story, but I will tell it in my own words anyway.
Three wise monkeys were sitting in a clearing
in the middle of an African jungle when a rogue elephant came
stampeding towards them.
The first monkey pretended that nothing
was happening in the hope that the elephant would ignore him
and go away, and he was trampled to death.
The elephant turned around and stampeded
again and the second monkey panicked and froze on the spot, and
he was trampled to death.
The third wise monkey had observed that
ignorance and fear didn't solve any problems so he decided to
do something, anything at all, because anything would have to
to be better than nothing, and he turned around, and luckily,
saw a river not far away with a rope bridge across it. He headed
off at a casual pace, hoping that the elephant would see that
he was no threat, and he reached the bridge and decided to walk
across it in the hope that the elephant couldn't swim, but he
kept planning ahead and thought to himself "If that ruddy
elephant jumps into the river and swims across, I will walk back
and forth across that bridge until the silly pachyderm wears
himself out and drowns".
Unfortunately, that monkey hasn't been
seen since, and as you know, ladies and gentlemen, not even the
best laid plans work as they should all the time, but we have
to do something or we will all be the hopeless victims of our
fate, so last week, with that in mind, an Australian kookaburra
who always laughed at everything, and lived in a big chookhouse
because he couldn't fly, decided, for reasons known only to himself,
to learn a bit about Avian Influenza. He paddled a row boat through
torrential storms and hurricanes across the seven seas, and traipsed
his way through a jungle on his way to the Central African Bird
Flu Conference, and found himself in that very same clearing
surrounded by a hundred man-eating lions.
They all attacked from every direction
at once and as they got close enough for the kookaburra to smell
their hungry breath, and then as their claws were at his belly,
and their teeth were at his throat, he wondered what to do. Just
then the earth began to tremble and shake, and he thought "Well
then, that is typical; things always seem to get worse before
they get better, and now I must be in the middle of a ruddy earthquake!!".
At that same instant every one of those lions fled in fear as
a thousand angry elephants came stampeding through the jungle,
and there he was, just an ordinary kookaburra, wondering "How
much worse can things get before they get any better?"
He didn't know what to do next, but he
knew that he had to do something so he watched carefully as the
strongest and mightiest of the elephants was leading the rest
toward him, It was the big rogue elephant, and as it came thundering
closer and closer the kookaburra thought to himself "I'm
not dead yet, but if I don't come up with a really good idea
quick, I soon will be."
Just then, he saw a monkey come out from
behind a bush where he had been hiding from the 100 hungry lions,
and as he rushed bye at break neck speed he yelled "Run
for the bridge." M.B.
The Health Biogeraphies Of Alexander Leeper, Robert Louis Stevenson, And Fanny Stevenson ©
Full color hardback cover with 18 pages
on Alexander Leeper, 90 pages on Robert Louis Stevenson, and
95 pages on Fanny Stevenson, and a 29 page index featuring more
than 3000 entries
A$19.99 within Australia, NZ$24.99
to New Zealand, U.S$22.99 to the United States, & EUD$17.99
to the United Kingdom (cost per book includes postage).
the books author: M.A.Banfield
Ph. +61 (08) 82635735
Alternatively this book is
available in many Australian Public Libraries.
ISBN 0 9585390 3 0
The book has been added to the Robert Louis Stevenson website here