title: [Jonathan Swift's scientific contribution on his "Gulliver's Travels"].
abstract: Jonathan Swift is one of the most celebrated satirist writers in literature. His well-known "Gulliver's Travels", apart from being a serious human being criticism, contains many interesting ana unrecognized comments about medical and other scientific facts. Swift made what seems to be the first account of a dementing illness in the elderly; his description fits well with what we now know as Alzheimer's disease. He also described a condition now called synaesthesia, a very interesting phenomenon that may contribute to creativity. In this paper, we review aspects of his life and reveal these amazing descriptions as samples of Swift's extraordinary power of observation.
authors: Departamento Neurología, Clínica Las Condes, Santiago, Chile.
authors: Marcelo
authors: M
authors: Miranda C
authors: Carolina
authors: C
authors: Pérez J
authors: Andrea
authors: A
authors: Slachevsky Ch
mesh_terms: D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000266:history*; D005197:Famous Persons; D049670:History, 17th Century; D049671:History, 18th Century; D007494:Ireland; D008093:Literature, Modern / Q000266:history*; D008513:Medicine in Literature