Via Mirabilis: This article from Discovery.com:
Charles Dickens was so good at describing neurological disease in his characters that the symptoms were used word-for-word in medical text books of the day, says an Australian neurologist.
The 19th century novelist’s interpretations of diseases of the nervous system even predated formal medical classification, some by more than a century.
One of my favorite stories about Darwin is the story of the hawk moth of Madagascar. Darwin was given a Star of Bethlehem orchid to examine. This flower has a 12″ neck. Darwin hypothesized that there must be a moth out there with a 12″ tongue that had evolved alongside this flower. He was ridiculed.
Fifty years later, it was discovered. You can see a picture of it here.
And this relates to Dickens… how?
It doesn’t, not even a little bit.
This post is wonderful. I am always amazed by Dickens characters. They are so like holograms. Totally there, just cannot be touched.
This post is wonderful. I am always amazed by Dickens characters. They are so like holograms. Totally there, just cannot be touched.