Science and Medicine

Causes of Jane Austen's death

The causes of Jane Austen's death, which occurred on July 18, 1817 when she was 41 years old, following an undetermined illness that lasted about a year, have been discussed retrospectively by doctors whose conclusions have subsequently been taken up and analyzed by biographers of Jane Austen, one of the most widely read and acclaimed English writers. The two main hypotheses are that of Addison's disease, put forward in 1964 by the English surgeon Zachary Cope (1881–1974), and that of Hodgkin's disease, first mentioned concisely the same year by Dr. F. A. Bevan, then developed and argued in 2005 by the Australian Annette Upfal, professor of British literature at the University of Queensland. In the 2010s, the British Library speculated she died of arsenic poisoning based on 3 pairs of eyeglasses owned by Austen. The discussion is based primarily on Jane Austen's writings on her own clinical case. It does not rule out the possibility of tuberculosis, which was the usual etiology of Addison's disease in the 19th century.

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See also

• ▸1916 New York City polio epidemic
• ▸Boxgrove Palaeolithic site
• ▸Artiodactyla

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