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Home , The Assayer

Gerald Weissmann, M.D.

The author (AΩA, New York University, 1965) is Research ice-capped poles, one of those , Europa, seems the best ’sGProfessora ofl Medicineile ando director’s of theggout Biotechnologyou t candidate yet as a habitat for extraterrestrial life.1 Earlier that Study Center at New York University School of Medicine. In year, Europe—the continent—filed its answer to the American 2002 he was elected to the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei Global Positioning system; it shot a satellite into orbit and called as the sole American physician member. He is a previous it Galileo.2 Galileo’s own stock rose when physicists ranked two contributor to The Pharos. of Galileo’s experiments among “science’s 0 most beautiful experiments.”3 The year 2003 marked the four hundredth an- he first three years of our new millennium have niversary of the (established in Rome beenbeen bannerbanner yearsyears forfor GalileoGalileo (Galileo(,Galilei, 564–564– in 603), the world’s oldest scholarly society, of which, Galileo 642).642). IInn NNovemberovember 22002,002, oonene ooff NNASA’sASA’s llongest-ongest- was, dare we say, the star. To mark the occasion, a magisterial running missions came to an end when the Galileo spacecraft, volume by Columbia’s David Freedberg, The Eye of the Lynx launched in 989, made its final orbit of Jupiter, the planet showed how the new world view of Galileo and his Linceians whose four moons Galileo first described in 60. With its was an impetus for London’s Royal Society (660) and Colbert’s T Académie des Sciences (666).4 Finally, a definitive exhibition Above: Galileo presenting his telescope to the Doge, by Luigi on Albert Einstein at the American Museum of Natural History Sabatelli (1772–1850). Tribuno di Galileo, Museo della Scienza, credited Galileo with anticipating the notion of space/time in Florence, Italy. Photo credit: Scala/Art Resource, New York. The Assayer (623):(623):

4 The Pharos/Autumn 2004 whenever I conceive any material or corporeal substance, I Sobel agree that (a) Galileo was indeed hobbled by “gouty” immediately feel the need to think of it as bounded, and as arthritis most of his days; (b) he suffered from frequent kidney having this or that shape; as being large or small in relation stones, bloody urine, and renal infections, of which he eventu- to other things, and in some specific place at any given time; ally died; (c) he suffered since mid-life from abdominal pains, as being in motion or at rest; as touching or not touching usually ascribed to a hernia for which he wore a heavy iron some other body; and as being one in number, or few, or truss; and finally, (d) not only was he a lifelong heavy drinker, many.5p274 but he presided over his own cottage winery, where metal- bound casks of wine often turned to vinegar. Physical proof? Galileo has affected the broader culture of our new mil- Although there are about half a dozen contemporary portraits lenium as well. Philip Glass and Mary Zimmerman premiered of Galileo extant, only one shows his hands. Painted late in their opera Galileo in Chicago, London, and New York. This Galileo’s life by his neighbor, Domenico Cresti, “il Passignano,” downtown version of the seventeenth-century face-off between the left hand shows tophi, interosseal atrophy, and flexion con- obstinate fact and adamant church gave British critics the last tractures. word: “Glass and Zimmermann not only insult the intelligence of their audience with their profoundly banal efforts, but also trivialise one of the greatest minds of the Renaissance.”6 In its own version of the fall classic, PBS’s “NOVA” featured the sev- enteenth- century World Series as “Galileo’s Battle for the Heavens.”7 The Cardinals won handily, presum- ably because of home-field advan- tage. As the Boston Globe delicately put it, “Galileo hobbles around his study, laments his illnesses, and ruminates on how he can open the eyes of the Church to the true nature of the universe.”8 Galileo had the last word on this matter in his famous letter to Castelli:

Thus it appears that physical effects placed before our eyes by sensible The Gout. James Gillray (1757 - 1815). Courtesy of the National Library of Medicine. experience or concluded by neces- sary demonstrations should not in any circumstances be called in doubt by passages in Scripture that verbally have a different appearance. Not everything in Galileo was only one of many comfortable, wine- swilling Scripture is linked to such severe obligations as is every sages of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries who came physical effect.4p129 down with stones, podagra, or both: Saturnine gout.12 Among statesmen afflicted by gout were Philip II of Spain, Charles I suspect that current interest in the old match-up of V of the Holy Roman Empire, and all the Medicis. Giovanni, Scripture v. has less to do with Galileo than with more father of the great Cosimo, was crippled by the disease, while recent contests such as Falwell v. Darwin or Scalia v. Freud, Cosimo himself became crippled later in life. His son Piero, Marx, and Einstein. But count me out. I’ve considered the father of Lorenzo the Magnificent, was called “il Gottoso.” issue moot ever since Pope John Paul II “forgave” Galileo in Lorenzo’s own son, Pope Leo X (a satyr if ever there was 992. I’m more interested in why Galileo was hobbling. one), suffered from swollen joints and kidney stones. Gout Prompted by The Eye of the Lynx and Dava Sobel’s deserv- struck the period’s greatest artists (Michelangelo, Peter Paul edly popular Galileo’s Daughter,10 I’ve concluded that Galileo Rubens, Claude Lorrain),11 poets, and scientists alike. Gouty was not only a victim of the Inquisition, but also of Saturnine John Milton is said to have sipped local wine with Galileo on (lead- induced) gout. His biographers, from Stillman Drake to a visit to Arcetri. Gout killed William Harvey, who in 602 had

The Pharos/Autumn 2004 5 Galileo’s gout

received his medical degree in Padua with 4 June 633: I am sorry that your Galileo’s doctor. Podagra tormented Isaac pains give you no respite, although it Newton and felled Wilhelm Leibniz, who seems almost requisite for the pleasure died of gout after a week of stomach “col- you take in drinking those excellent ick” (known as lead colic in later years). It’s wines to be counterbalanced by some probably no accident that this first wave of pain, so that, if you refrain from imbib- gout among the rich and famous prompted ing large quantities, you may avoid some Guillaume de Baillou in the early 600s to greater injury that could be incurred by draw the first distinction between “rheuma- drinking. tism” (rheumatic fever) and true gout.12,13 Good wine for the classes, strep throats During his detention, for the masses, or, as Lord Chesterfield managed his home and wine cellar in quipped “Gout is the distemper of a gentle- Arcetri, from which much of Maria man, whereas the rheumatism is the dis- Suor Maria Celeste, daughter of Celeste’s own wine supply was derived: temper of a hackney coachman.”14 Galileo Galilei, by an unknown artist, 16th century. Torre del Gallo, Villa 8 October 633: Meanwhile, we have While Saturnine gout caused by lead- Galletti, Arcetri, Florence, Italy. laced wine or aqueduct water has been Photo credit: Alinari/Art Resource, New York. recovered one barrel from the farmers around since classical times,10 its greatest here, and had it put into the cask which epidemic followed the wholesale export of formerly held that spoiled wine; . . . at fortified Mediterranean wines to England and its colonies in my behest, Signor Rondinelli had a word with the black- the eighteenth century.15 Whatever the century, gout was only smith about the 3 barrels that he owes us, and brought back one consequence of chronic lead intoxication, or plumbism.16 his solemn promise on that score. Others are renal disease, abdominal pain (“lead colic”), con- stipation, headache, fatigue due to anemia, and early, severe I also have a hunch that poor Maria Celeste was herself a dental caries (the “lead line” on teeth).17–21 victim of plumbism. Her letters spell out a litany of chronic How does lead get into wine? While natural variations in headache, anguishing tooth pain, and recurrent bouts of in- the lead levels of ground water and irrigation systems con- testinal “obstructions” or “blockages.” In the years between tribute to the lead content of grapes, the major source is from 623 and March 634, when she succumbed to a bloody bout the winery itself. Lead from solder (the cooper’s work) leaches of explosive diarrhea, she was “so accustomed to poor health from the barrel, a process hastened when wine is spoiled or that I hardly think about it, seeing how it pleases the Lord acidified; lead seeps from bottle foils through wet corks, lead to keep testing me always with some little pain or other.” [23 leaches from soldered distillation tubes used to “fortify” wines November 623] such as grappa, brandy, or port.22 At age 28 (!) she wrote her father: Direct evidence for the origin of Galileo’s gout comes from his daughter, Suor Maria Celeste (600–634). Thanks to Dava 25 March 628: I tell you that I am following the doctor’s Sobel and Rice University’s “,” his daughter’s orders by not observing Lent, and that, being already mostly letters to Galileo are available on-line.23 toothless at my age. From 623 to 633, through triumph and trial, honors and recantation, Maria Celeste commiserated with her father’s These troubles continued most of her short, devoted life; she gouty aches and pains: hoped that:

7 August 623: This morning I learned from our steward 0 September 633: headache and toothaches, which I that you find yourself ill in Florence, Sire: and because it endure at the moment, will ease enough, for now they force sounds to me like something outside your normal behavior me to leave off writing. to leave home when you are troubled by your pains, I am filled with apprehension, and fear that you are in much But her main problems were abdominal, and recalcitrant to worse condition than usual. herbal treatments or a “pleasant purgative, in order to try to remove an obstruction that has troubled me (aside from my It is only late in the game, as Galileo was detained by the Inquisition usual ailments) for the past six months.” [2 January 630] She in Rome and Siena, that we learn how those pains arose: was still blocked by May and remained blocked in February of 63: 2 May 633: I implore you not to confuse yourself with drink, as I hear you have been doing. 23 May 630: I feel reasonably, but not entirely well, since

6 The Pharos/Autumn 2004 I am still taking the purgative on account of my blockage. 5. Drake S, translator. Discoveries and Opinions of Galileo: In- 8 February 63: as far as my long- standing blockage, cluding The Starry Messenger (60), Letter to the Grand Duchess however, I believe that will require an effective cure at a Christina (65), and Excerpts from (63), The better time. Assayer (623). New York: Anchor Books; 957. 6. Clements A. Philip Glass’s embarrassing opera: Galileo. More GI distress, more wine: Guardian 2002 Nov 4: 6. 7. NOVA. Galileo’s Battle for the Heavens. Aired October 29, July 63: I am returning two empty flasks, and truly, in 2002. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/galileo. this slump I have had, were it not for your white wine, Sire, 8. Walsh T. Exploring a mind—and the heavens. Boston Globe things would have gone much worse, since I sustain myself 2002 Oct 27: 4. on pap and soup, which have not hurt me for being made 9. Sobel D. Galileo’s Daughter: A Historical Memoir of Science, with such good wine. Faith, and Love. New York: Penguin Books; 2000. 0. Porter R, Rousseau GS. Gout: The Patrician Malady. New More of her father’s wine was needed for her fellow nuns, who Haven (CT): Yale University Press; 998. were themselves unusually prone to colic and stoppages: . Espinel CH. Michelangelo’s gout in a fresco by Raphael. Lan- cet 999; 354: 249–5. 4 January 630: If you would be so kind, Sire, as to send 2. de Baillou G. Liber de rheumatismo et pleuridie dorsali. a flask of well aged red wine for her, I would be most grate- Paris: J. Quesnal; 642. Bernard CC, translator. Br J Rheumatism ful, because our wine is very harsh, and I want to try, in any 940; 2: 4–62. small way I can, to help her to the last. 3. de Baillou G. Opuscula medica, de arthritide, de calculo et de urinarum hypostasi. Thevart MJ, editor. Paris: J. Quesnel; 643. The abdominal epidemic in her convent waxed and waned 4. Rogers P. The rise and fall of gout. Times Literary Suppl 98 for several years: Mar 20: 35–6. 5. Weissmann G. A Fashion in Metals. In: The Woods Hole 30 April 633: We are all feeling fine, except Suor Luisa, Cantata: Essays on Science and Society. New York: Dodd, Mead; who for the past three days has been suffering on account of 985: 9–00. her stomach, although not as severely as at other times.” 6. Antonello A, Rippa Bonati M, D’Angelo A, et al. Gout and kidney during XVII and XIX centuries. Reumatismo 2002; 54: Maria Celeste tells us that her fellow nuns got their wine—and 65–7. perhaps their symptoms—from Galileo’s Arcetri casks: 7. Kotagal S. Episodic headache as a manifestation of lead en- cephalopathy. Headache 982; 22: 89. 3 August 633: As for the wine that was decanted . . . we 8. Ling S, Chow C, Chan A, et al. Lead poisoning in new im- have finally found willing takers for the 3 barrels worth that migrant children from the mainland of China. Chin Med J 2002; we must give away . . . Suor Arcangela will not have to be 5: 7–20. begged to help them along. 9. Jongnarangsin K, Mukherjee S, Bauer MA. An unusual cause of recurrent abdominal pain. Am J Gastroenterol 999; 94: Poor Maria Celeste succumbed to her disease a half 3620–22. year later. She didn’t live long enough to suffer from gout: 20. Curzon MEJ, Bibby BG. Effect of heavy metals on dental car- Hippocrates taught us that women do not get the gout until ies and tooth eruption. ASDC J Dent Child 970; 37: 463–65. their menses be stopped. It’s my feeling that they ought to make 2. Kolb S, Domschke S, Konig HJ, Domschke W. Lead poison- Maria Celeste the patron saint of wineries the world over. As for ing—also today still current. Fortschr Med 98; 99: 464–69. Galileo, he was no saint, but he’s still up there in the sky. 22. Roggi C, Minoia C, Ronchi A, et al. Epidemiological study on alcohol consumption trends and on the effects of alcohol consump- References tion on the human body. Note 2: Levels of lead in red wine from a . Spotts PN. For Galileo, one last voyage of discovery. Chris- northern Italian region. Ann Ig 993; 5: 97–95. tian Science Monitor 2002 Nov 8: 3. 23. Galileo’s daughter Maria Celeste: the Letters of Maria Ce- 2. Eppur si muove—or maybe not. Economist 2002 Jun ; 363: leste. http://es.rice.edu/ES/humsoc/Galileo/MariaCeleste. 47. 3. Johnson G. Here they are, science’s 0 most beautiful experi- The author’s address is: ments. New York Times 2002 Sep 24: F3. New York University School of Medicine 4. Freedberg D. The Eye of the Lynx: Galileo, His Friends, and 550 First Avenue, Medicine BCD 686 the Beginnings of Modern Natural History. Chicago: University of New York, New York 10016 Chicago Press; 2002. E-mail: [email protected]

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