Go to the The Museum of Edgar Allan Poe - Assignment Example

The death of Edgar Allan Poe may be due to a kind of encephalitis. The disease has symptoms similar to rabies virus infection. The illness is may be caused by a virus, bacteria and sometimes fungi. Viral encephalitis kinds are usually transmitted through mosquitoes. Most types of encephalitis were discovered past Poe’s death thus the attending physician had no knowledge on the various types of encephalitis. Poe’s symptoms of slipping into a coma, tremors, confusion, hallucinations and memory lapse or amnesia (Ahuja 444) are very much similar to the symptoms of encephalitis.

These symptoms are also similar to rabies infection. Although a study has pointed rabies as the cause of the author’s death, there were no records that Poe had any bite mark or traces of bite marks. Some types of encephalitis that Edgar Allan Poe may have contracted are La Crosse encephalitis or St. Louis encephalitis which are both transmitted by mosquitoes. Cases of the two types of encephalitis were also prevalent in parts of Virginia and Maryland, places where Poe had stayed during the last days of his life.

It is also notable that the two kind of encephalitis occur mostly between summer and autumn. Since Poe died in October which is after summer season and in the middle of autumn, it is possible that he had contracted the encephalitis in summer and his condition worsened which resulted to his demise.CITED WORKSAhuja, Vyas. Textbook of Postgraduate Psychiatry. New Delhi: Jaypee Brothers Publishers, 1999. Print.“Edgar Allan Poe-Full Episode.” The Biography Channel website. 1 April 2013 http://www.biography.com/people/edgar-allan-poe-9443160/videos/edgar-allan-poe-full-episode-2104513528.