Cultural References
The fictional Hunchback of Notre Dame had a gibbous deformity (humpback) similar to the type caused by tuberculosis. In Henrik Ibsen's play "A Doll's House," Dr. Rank suffers from "consumption of the spine." Furthermore, Jocelin, the Dean who wanted a spire on his cathedral in William Golding's "The Spire" probably suffered and died as a result of this disease. English poets Alexander Pope and William Ernest Henley both suffered from Pott's disease. Anna Roosevelt Cowles, sister of president Theodore Roosevelt, suffered from Pott's Disease. Chick Webb, swing era drummer and band leader, was afflicted with tuberculosis of the spine as a child, which left him hunchbacked. The Sicilian mafia boss Luciano Leggio had Pott's disease and wore a brace. Morton, the railroad magnate in Once Upon a Time in the West, suffers from the disease and needs crutches to walk. Writer Max Blecher also had Pott's Disease. Marxist thinker and Communist leader Antonio Gramsci suffered from Pott's disease, probably due to the bad conditions of his incarceration in fascist Italy during the 1930s. Italian writer, poet and philosopher Giacomo Leopardi suffered from this disease. It also features prominently in the book This Is a Soul, which chronicles the work of American physician Rick Hodes in Ethiopia.
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