Was Darwin killed by the very travels that helped him conjure theory of evolution?

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
Updated: 11:26 EST, 7 May 2011

New theory: The travels that inspired Charles Darwin to discover his theory of evolution may have led to his death

The observations and theories he gleaned from travelling the globe shaped modern biology.

But the very travels that inspired Charles Darwin to discover his theory of evolution may also have led to one of the many illnesses that plagued him for decades and ultimately led to his death, researchers have discovered.

The British naturalist's ailments were the topic of an annual conference in the University of Maryland School of Medicine and Veterans Administration's Maryland Health Care System in Baltimore on Friday.

In the lecture medical practitioners and even an actor dressed up as Darwin's father offered a modern medical diagnoses for Darwin's illnesses.

Throughout his life, Darwin sought help for multiple health problems, which included vomiting stomach acids after every meal when the symptoms were at their worst.

He was diagnosed with dozens of conditions by latter day physicians including appendicitis, lactose intolerance and even schizophrenia.

Illness: Darwin may have contracted Chagas disease, a parasitic illness that can lie dormant for years, during a five-year trip around the globe on the HMS Beagle

Modern research: An actor playing Darwin's father speaks during the annual conference at the University of Maryland, where Darwin's ailments were explored

'It is particularly poignant that the scientists and physicians of his time could not provide Darwin, the father of modern life sciences, with relief from the ailments that affected so much of his life,' Philip A Mackowiak, VA Maryland medical care clinical center chief and UM medical school professor, said.

Gastroenterologist Dr Sidney Cohen, a Thomas Jefferson University medical college professor of medicine and research director, assessed Darwin's ailments for the conference and identified three illnesses.

Going on Darwin's documented symptoms Dr Cohen concluded that he had suffered from cyclic vomiting syndrome early in his life.

Darwin's weight and nutrition remained normal since he rarely vomited food, just stomach acid and other secretions.

The gastroenterologist also believes Darwin contracted Chagas disease, a parasitic illness that can lie dormant for years, during a five-year trip around the globe on the HMS Beagle in his 20s.

That illness would describe the heart disease that Darwin contracted later in life and eventually caused his death, Cohen said.

He believes Darwin also suffered from Helicobacter pylori, the bacteria that cause peptic ulcer disease and often occurs with Chagas.

The information used to evaluate Darwin's case came from several sources, Mr Mackowiak said, including the naturalist's own letters, in which he wrote extensively about his complaints and his worries that he had passed on his illnesses to his children.

'It's hard to know how it affected his work,' Mr Mackowiak added.

Darwin lived from 1809 to 1882, travelled the world in his 20s cataloguing and observing wildlife and later published On the Origin of Species.

The lecture series has looked at Alexander the Great, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Booker T Washington.

Guest speakers included Darwin's great-great-granddaughter, poet Ruth Padel, who penned the book, "Darwin: A Life in Poems."