Letter to the Editor

What did King Tut, Columbus and Washington have in common?

Friday, January 2, 2015

Dear Editor,

King Tut, Christopher Columbus and George Washington all achieved fame while suffering physical problems.

According to National Geographic Magize, pp. 34-65 published in September 2010, King Tut had a partial cleft palate and a left foot that was clubbed.

Royal Egyptian families married close relatives so they could claim the right to rule Tut's parents were brother and sister. This caused his physical deformaties (He walked using a crutch.)

"Christopher Columbus" by Clark B. Hinkley, published in 2014 by Deseret Book Co., states that for most of this explorer's adult life he had Reiter's syndrome.

It caused him to have severe arthritis and inflamation and swelling of his eyes.

"The Return of George Washington 1783-1789" by Edward J. Larson, published in 2014 by Harper, points out that our first president had many health issues.

Badly infected teeth, arthritis in his shoulder and a hearing loss haunted him by the time he was 50 years old.

He consulted Dr. Jean Pierre Lemoyer, a French dentist. LeMoyer extracted good teeth from plantation slaves. Then, he implanted them in the jaws of his patients. He paid 13 pence for each tooth.

When Washington traveled from Mount Vernon to Philadelphia in 1787, heavy spring rains turned the roads into deep mud.

Washington developed a violent headache, a high fever and was nauseated. (He had to attend the meeting.)

(Most of us probably don't know that floods, heavy rain and muddy roads almost prevented the 13 colonies from becoming the 13 United States.)

Delegates from Delaware, Georgia and the Carolinas were late arriving at the Constitutional Convention by nearly two weeks. Some of them had to travel by boat.

Benjamin Franklin had gout and kidney stones. He was much older than Washington. His mind was alert and he and Washington solved many problems while they waited for representatives to arrive in Philadelphia.

Helen Ruth Arnold,

Trenton, Nebraska

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