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Blackwell , LtdOxford, UKBJUBJU International1464-410XBJU InternationalJanuary 2005 951

Original Article ISAAC OSTAD and WISE

Celestial bodies and urinary stones: (1641–1727) – health and urological problems

EDWARD OSTAD and GILBERT J. WISE The Division of Urology, Maimonides Medical Center, Brooklyn, New York, USA Accepted for publication 12 October 2004

INTRODUCTION became a ‘subsisar’, which provided and discusses the path of planets in relation to pay for his expenses. He had enough mathematical concepts. Newton began work Isaac Newton was a remarkable and resources for his immediate needs, i.e. a on his Principia, a treatise of , of the 17th century. He chamber pot, candles for long nights and and from 1686 through to 1687 he wrote and overcame significant urological ailments, notebooks with blank pages [2]. presented to the Royal Society three volumes including possible nephrotic syndrome, of the Principia. urinary calculi and BOO while establishing his By 28 April 1664 Newton was elected a scientific genius. We assessed publications scholar and he began making mathematical In 1689 Newton sat for a portrait by Sir about Newton, and review his work and entries. In 1665, Newton received his (1646/1649?-1723), the medical problems Bachelor’s but had to leave Cambridge leading portraitist in during the late because of the plague epidemic. It is during 17th and early 18th centuries [3]. Isaac these years that Newton began questioning Newton and the noted philosopher John CHRONOLOGY OF NEWTON’S LIFE and exploring issues of . Locke (1632–1704) engaged in a prolific correspondence dealing with ‘corruptions of Isaac Newton was born on Christmas From 1666 to 1667 Newton remained at the scriptures’. 1642 in Woolsthorpe, Lincolnshire, England. Cambridge, where on 2 October he became a His father died before his birth, hence he was minor Fellow of Trinity College. His work In 1696 Newton was appointed Warden of the known as a ‘posthumous’ baby. Isaac Newton entitled Enumeratio curvarum deals with the Mint and moved to Jermyn Street House in was presumably premature, as he was small earth’s curvature. He continued work in . The next year Newton provided a enough to fit into a ‘quart pot’ [1]. Four years mathematics and . By 23 solution to the ‘Lion’s Paw’ problem presented later, his mother married a 63-year-old man February 1669, Newton described his first by Bernoulli, and his solution was read named Barnabas Smith, a wealthy rector from in a letter to Oldenburg, first anonymously to the Royal Society. By the end nearby North Witham. For 7 years young Isaac Secretary of the Royal Society. On October 29 of the 17th century Newton had numerous was entrusted to the care of his grandmother. of that year, Newton became the Lucasian achievements; he was elected as a Foreign He was small for his age, lonely and Professor of Mathematics. Associate of the Academie des Science (Paris) abandoned. He attended the local school, and became a council member of the Royal where he studied the Bible and arithmetic In the Newton became a Fellow of The Society, and on 26 November 1701 he was tables. At an early age he became aware of Royal Society, based on his work in developing elected as a Member of Parliament from changing shadows in relation to the sun’s the reflecting telescope. In 1675 he attended Cambridge. positions and . Later, in Woolsthorpe, he his first meeting of the Royal Society, where constructed sundials that became a source of he met (1627–1691), a British Newton’s interest in astronomy was time-keeping [2]. natural philosopher and theological writer, heightened by his visit in 1704 to John a pre-eminent figure of 17th century Flamsteed, the , at Following his step-father’s death in 1653, his intellectual culture, whose scientific work (1646–1719). It is during this mother returned to Woolsthorpe, but Newton covered many including , period that Newton published his first edition did not return to her domicile until he was , medicine, earth , natural of . On 16 April 1705 Newton was 17 years old. During that interval, he studied history and alchemy [3]. knighted by Queen Anne (1665–1714), who in Grantham, a town 8 miles (11 km) distant, reigned from 1702 to 1714. and boarded with an apothecary. He Newton presented his hypotheses on subsequently returned to Woolsthorpe and before the Royal Society. In 1679, Newton’s He was very productive from 1707 to 1711, studied at the King’s School, the headmaster mother died and he spent much of the year in publishing universalis, another of which, Mr John Stokes, provided courses in Woolsthorpe. During the he observed edition of the Principia, De natura acidorum, Latin, Greek, Hebrew, theology and practical Halley’s , and in August 1684 he met Enumeratio, De quadratura Lexicon technicum arithmetic that included algorithms for with (1656–1742), an English and Analysis per quantititatum. surveying and measuring fields. astronomer and mathematician who was the first to calculate the of the comet later Newton maintained his correspondence with On 5 June 5 1661 Newton matriculated at named after him. He is also noted for his role other eminent of his era. In 1715 he Trinity College Cambridge. His financial in the publication of Newton’s Philosophiae began correspondence with Gottfried Leibniz resources were limited and he therefore Naturalis Principia Mathematica which (1646–1716), a German philosopher and

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ISAAC NEWTON

mathematician, which was curtailed because foundation of physical since his time quantifying the concept of , the Leibniz died in 1716. During 1717–1722, [3]. law completed the exact quantitative Newton had numerous publications, including that has been the paradigm of his Second Edition of Opticks (1719), first ASTRONOMY natural science ever since. English edition of Universal Arithmetic (1720), the third English edition of Opticks, Newton originally applied the idea of The quantitative mechanics of the Principia is and second edition of Commercium attraction and repulsion solely to the range of not to be confused with the mechanical epistolicum. terrestrial phenomena. In 1679, not long after philosophy. The latter was a philosophy of he had embraced the concept, another nature that attempted to explain natural It was during 1722 (aged 81 years) that application was suggested in a letter from phenomena by means of imagined Newton experienced urinary stone problems, (1635–1703), who suggested mechanisms among invisible particles of discussed in greater detail later. A third that the force of could be measured by matter. The mechanics of the Principia was an edition of Principia was published in 1726, using the motion of a (1666), and exact quantitative description of the but his heath began to fail and Newton died attempted to show that the Earth and Moon of visible bodies. It rested on Newton’s three on 20 March 1727, in Kensington, London. follow an elliptical path around the Sun. In laws of motion: (i) that a body remains in its 1672 Hooke discovered the phenomenon of state of rest unless it is compelled to change diffraction (the bending of light rays around by a force impressed on it; (ii) that the change NEWTON’S ACHIEVEMENTS corners); to explain it, he offered the wave of motion (the change of the theory of light. He stated the inverse square of the body) is proportional to the force PHYSICS – ANALYSIS OF LIGHT law to describe planetary motions in 1678, a impressed; and (iii) that to every there law that Newton later used in modified form. is an equal and opposite reaction. The analysis The core of Newton’s contribution was Hooke complained that he was not given of in terms of these laws concerned with the physics of colour; an sufficient credit for the law and became yielded a formula of the quantitative measure, ancient theory extending back at least to involved in bitter controversy with Newton in terms of a body’s velocity and mass, of the Aristotle held that a certain class of ‘colour’ [3]. centripetal force necessary to divert a body phenomena, e.g. the rainbow, arose from the from its rectilinear path into a given circle. modification of light, which appears white in Newton demonstrated the rotation of the When Newton substituted this formula into its pristine form. Descartes had generalized Earth with an experiment where a body was Kepler’s third law, he found that the this theory for all colours and translated it dropped from a tower; as the tangential centripetal force holding the planets in their into mechanical imagery. Through a series of velocity at the top of the tower is greater than given about the Sun must decrease experiments in 1665 and 1666, in which the that at the he predicted the body should with the square of the planets’ distances from spectrum of a narrow beam was projected fall slightly to the east. He sketched the path the Sun. Because the satellites of also onto the wall of a darkened chamber, Newton of fall as part of a spiral ending at the centre obey Kepler’s third law, an inverse-square denied the concept of modification and of the earth. Nearly 5 years later, in August of centripetal force must also attract them to replaced it with that of analysis. Basically, he 1684, Newton was visited by the British the centre of their orbits. Newton was able to denied that light is simple and homogeneous, astronomer Edmond Halley, who was also show that a similar relation holds between the stating instead that it is complex and troubled by the problem of orbital . Earth and its Moon, with the help of the heterogeneous, and that the phenomena of Upon learning that Newton had solved the . colour arises from the separation of the problem, Halley extracted Newton’s promise heterogeneous mixture into its simple to send the demonstration and 3 months later POLITICAL components. Newton’s concept of ‘Of Colours’ received a short tract entitled De Motu (‘On was published in Book One of Optiks, wherein Motion’). In 2.5 years, the tract De Motu grew MASTER OF THE MINT he discarded the previous concepts of into Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Aristotle and Descartes. Mathematica, which is not only Newton’s In 1696 Newton was appointed warden of masterpiece but also a fundamental work for the mint; although he did not resign his He held that individual rays (that is, particles the whole of modern science. Cambridge appointments until 1701, he of given ) excite sensations of individual moved to London and henceforth centred his colours when they strike the retina of the eye. Significantly, De Motu did not state the law of life there. As warden and then Master of the He also concluded that rays refract at distinct universal gravitation. For that matter, even Mint, Newton drew a large income, as much angles; hence, the prismatic spectrum, a beam though it was a treatise on planetary as £2000 per annum. Added to his personal of heterogeneous rays, i.e. incident on one dynamics, it contained none of the three estate, the income left him a rich man at his face of a prism, separated or analysed by the Newtonian laws of motion. Only when death. The , regarded as a sinecure, refraction into its component parts, and that revising De Motu did Newton embrace the was treated otherwise by Newton. During the phenomena such as the rainbow are produced principle of (the first law) and arrive at great re-issue of coins, there was need for him by refractive analysis. Because he believed the second law of motion. The second law, the to be actively in command; afterwards, that could never be force law, proved to be a precise quantitative however, he chose to exercise himself in the eliminated from lenses, Newton developed statement of the action of the between office. Above all, he was interested in the reflecting telescope, constructing the first. bodies, which had become the central counterfeiting. He became the terror of The heterogeneity of light has been the members of his system of nature. By London counterfeiters, sending a goodly

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to the gallows and finding in them a Mercury poisoning is associated with as a stone in the bladder for which his socially acceptable target. On 26 November ‘. . . morbid irritability, insomnia, and mental physician offered ‘. . . no hope of recovery.’ His 1701 Newton was elected to Parliament by hyperactivity’ [8], all the features that Newton pain was so severe that it was described that the Cambridge Senate. displayed throughout his life. Modern studies ‘. . . the pain rose to such a height that the bed of Newton’s hair at Cambridge University under him, and the very room shook with his INTEREST IN RELIGION AND THEOLOGY showed high levels of mercury [7]. Also, agony, to the wonder of those that were mercury poisoning is known to cause present’ [10]. Newton found time to explore other interests, nephrotic syndrome [9]; did this occur to such as religion and theology. In the early Newton? 1690s he had sent Locke a copy of a CONFLICT OF INTEREST manuscript attempting to prove that However, mercury poisoning alone does not Trinitarian passages in the Bible were latter- account for Newton’s bipolar affect. He had None declared. Source of funding: day corruptions of the original text. When evidence of hypomania and depression in his Maimonides and Development Fund. Locke made moves to publish it, Newton childhood (before his work with mercury), withdrew in fear that his anti-Trinitarian where he was known to be withdrawn, views would become known. In his later years playing little with his peers. He also displayed REFERENCES he devoted much time to interpreting the significant bouts of by constructing prophecies of Daniel and St. John, and to a complex mechanical devices and by painting 1 Anonymous. Sir Isaac Newton. closely related study of ancient chronology. the walls of his room [6]. In the years that Enclopaedia Britannica. London: Both works were published after his death [3]. followed at Cambridge, he was recalled as Encyclopaedia Britannica Premium having few personal contacts. He was noted Services, 2003 NEWTON’S HEALTH PROBLEMS later in 1693 to suffer from considerable 2 Broad WJ. Sir Isaac Newton: mad mood swings during a 2-week period, where as a hatter. Science 1981; 213: 1341– Isaac Newton’s physical and mental health he slept only 9 h. 44 were issues in his life from the moment he 3 Keynes M. Sir Isaac Newton and his was born prematurely on 25 December 1642. He also suffered from significant paranoia, madness of 1692–93. Lancet 1980; 1: His plight was further compromised when his being unable to maintain long-term 529–30 mother abandoned him to his grandmother at relationships. He continuously sought 4 Gleick J. Isaac Newton. New York: 3 years old. Such early difficulties may have enemies and villains in his life, from Robert Pantheon Books, 2003 contributed to his mental ailments that Hooke to the French Academicians. One 5 Hatch RA. Newton Time Line. A troubled him later in his life. acquaintance stated that Newton was ‘…the Chronology of Isaac Newton’s Life-Work- most fearful, cautious, and suspicious temper Publication. University of Florida 2003 Newton was seen in his adult life to manifest that I ever knew’ [6]. 6 Lieb J, Heshman D. Isaac Newton: both bipolar and schizoid traits [5,6]. Some mercury poisoning or manic depression? have suggested that he always had an From a urological perspective, Newton’s life Lancet 1983; 2: 1479–80 ‘uneasy’ sense, as his father died before he was plagued by urolithiasis and urinary 7 More LT. Isaac Newton – a Biography. was born and his mother abandoned him. incontinence. ‘In August, 1724, the presence New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1934: From this it is construed that this sense of of a dreaded disease declared itself by his 662 loneliness drove him to establish his voiding without any pain, a stone, about 8 Soo YO, Chow KM, Lam CW et al. A intellectual superiority and notoriety through the size of a pea, which passed in two pieces’ whitened face woman with nephrotic his work [6]. However, despite his cerebral [4]. Possible evidence of his urolithiasis was syndrome. Am J Kidney Dis 2003; 41: 250– genius, he had mental shortcomings as well. seen in 1725, when an attack of gout forced 3 Even (1633–1703), the English him to step down from the Royal Society, 9 Storr A. Isaac Newton. Br Med J 1985; diarist, and , both his friends, suggesting that his stones may have been uric 291: 1779–84 commented in 1692 that ‘. . . Newton’s mind acid. 10 Westfall RS. Never at Rest: a Biography of was deranged’ [7]. Isaac Newton. Cambridge: University Newton’s final years were marked with Press 1980, : 865–70 There is a suggestion that this mental recurrent illnesses and deteriorating health. affliction was attributable to mercury He was noted in this period to suffer from Correspondence: Gilbert J. Wise, The Division poisoning from his chemical experiments. ‘. . . weakness of the sphincter, and of Urology, Maimonides Medical Center, Indeed, Newton was known to experiment incontinence” [10]. On 4 March 1727 he Brooklyn, New York 11219, USA. widely in his laboratory with mercury [7]. experienced severe pain, which was diagnosed e-mail: [email protected]

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