(2/2011) Book Review: The Case Of The Telltale Toes: Marfan Syndrome

Entertaining Way to Learn the Telltale Signs of a Genetic Disorder

Marfan Syndrome is a disease so unknown that few doctors have even heard of it. It’s common enough to have afflicted many celebrities including Abraham Lincoln, T.S. Eliot, Howard Hughes, General William Tecumseh Sherman, Marcel Proust, philosopher Bergson (who during his life was as popular a lecturer as Billy Graham) and others including Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who was trained as a medical doctor and describes the symptoms perfectly in his story about his character Jefferson Hope. He wrote the detailed description a full decade before “this body image was pictured in a medical journal.”

The best part of this new book by Robert Cabitt, deals with Howard Hughes because his symptoms are so well documented. The other character’s cases are more difficult to absolutely confirm, but there is plenty of circumstantial evidence that they suffered from Marfan syndrome. The disease is named after French pediatrician Antone Marfan who in 1896 reported a five-year-old girl with “spidery toes” just like Howard Hughes. It was later determined his young patient wasn’t a victim of that disease, but the name of the actual disease still bears the name of Dr. Marfan.

The Howard Hughes sections of the book are probably the most interesting because Howard Hughes’ very, very eccentric, bazaar lifestyle was the subject of so much gossip and publicity. The author says that he originally intended this book to be exclusively about Hughes, but that as he researched it, he came across obscure clues that led him to the other six famous celebrities described in his medical mystery book for laymen.

All the personalities discussed fit the profile of a Marfa sufferer. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was the only subject whose photographs don’t show the telltale physique, (El Greco elongated figure), of the typical sufferer. However, his father died of the disease. Most of these people born with fully developed Marfan Syndrome die at a very young age. Even those reaching adulthood such as both of Howard Hughes parents died prematurely.

This is a fascinating case study of a little known medical disorder. The author tells the story in a manner that is so entertaining that the book is a page-turner. It’s the kind of easy-to-read and understand book that medical sources such as the National Marfan Foundation should consider listing as recommended reading for every patient diagnosed with the genetic disease. The families of those patients would find the short book helpful for understanding the syndrome affecting their family member(s).

By the time the reader has finished this engaging mystery, non-fiction tome they may suspect that they know of possible suffers of this genetic disorder. Several famous movie and music celebrities and even some of our current political leaders seem to exhibit the early symptoms of Marfan Syndrome. None of them may actually be afflicted with it, or at least they haven’t been diagnosed with it as yet. But it will be interesting to see if it eventually turns out that they indeed were suffering from the little known disorder and didn’t know it or simply preferred to keep the malady a secret.  

James R. Holland is a film editor, producer, and author–most recently of Adventure Photographer (A Bit of Boston Books/ 2009).  He reviews movies exclusively for Basil & Spice.  Visit James R. Holland’s Writer’s Page.

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