The suffering of Heinrich Heine

The analysis of clinical neurological symptoms on the basis of available letters and other documents confirms beyond a doubt the long standing diagnosis of neurosyphilis in the form of chronic meningitis with cranial polyneuritis and wide spread polyradiculitis, formerly called Lues cerebro-spinalis. The symptoms which recurred over 25 years include multiple severe paralysis of cranial nerves, dramatic radicular neuralgias and radicular paralysis in addition to a partial transverse lesion of the spinal cord and terminal coughing and regurgation fits in the absence of symptoms in the cerebrum and brain stem, these symptoms hardly permit different diagnosis. Tuberculosis, lead poisoning, multiple sclerosis or even a myatrophic lateral sclerosis do not explain his neurological symptoms or the cause of his death.