Last update:
14-Jan-2006

Emmanuel Roides (1836-1904), the famous novelist, journalist, critic, columnist and commentator served various and different kinds of literature, founding a personal style which gradually developed to be a fashion, although without imitators. The author of the novel "Pope Joan", condemned by the Church, was involved in many activities, among them medicine, and the fruit of this interest was a great number of short chronicles, newspaper columns and comments of medical content. This interest appears to derive from his personal experiences: (a) his impaired hearing beginning from his school years and worsening until his complete deafness, and (b) the serious accident at the age of 49 caused by a carriage and producing a bone fracture of the upper jaw, for which many physicians were involved and many therapeutic techniques used, lasting for some months. Expressing his knowledge as well as his experience, he was inspired by medical matters and gave evidence of his interests. The collection, study and analysis of all these extracts apart from illuminating Roides' personality (e.g., his eccentricity is partially explained) offers a panorama of Athenian medicine towards the end of the 19th century, including theories, methods, books and portraits of some of the most famous doctors and university teachers. On the 100th anniversary of his death this paper focuses on the medical side of his writings, reinforced by his personal medical problems.

Key words: Bone fracture of the upper jaw, Deafness, Emmanuel Roides, Medical literature, Road accident.