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Sunday 16 November 2014

Dysentery

King Edward III began showing signs of madness in 1376 bought on by grief over the loss of his son Edward the Black Prince to dysentery. He believed his loss was God’s punishment for usurping his father's crown.

During the Crimean War the British Army lost ten times more troops to dysentery than to battle wounds.

General Ulysses Grant believed that onions would prevent dysentery and other physical ailments among his Union Civil War soldiers. He wired the following message to the War Department: "I will not move my army without onions." In response the US government immediately sent three trainloads of onions to the front.

During the filming of Raiders of the Lost Ark in Tunisia, Harrison Ford was suffering from dysentery, which resulted in frequent toilet trips. This lead to the fight scene between him and the Arabian swordsman ending in the single gun shot so he could finish the scene and return to the bathroom.

While filming Raiders of the Lost Ark, Stephen Spielberg avoided the dysentery that afflicted Harrison Ford and most of the other cast and crew. The director attributed this to the suitcases full of SpaghettiOs that he brought with him on the shoot.


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