title: Huygens' headache.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Christiaan Huygens (1629-1695) was a Dutch mathematician, physicist, and astronomer. He became well-known as inventor of the pendulum clock and described light as a wave phenomenon. He became Fellow of the Royal Society (London) and member of the Académie des Sciences (Paris). From the correspondence with family members and famous scientists, we learn that he suffered from frequent headaches.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To study Huygens' 22-volume Oeuvres Complètes (1888-1950) to find letters in which his headaches are mentioned and translate pertinent sections into English.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Although a posthumous diagnosis of Huygens' headaches is somewhat hazardous, the recurrent episodes with incapacitating headache and family history over two generations are suggestive for migraine. It becomes clear that it impeded his writing, reading, and research. From the letters we get an impression of the impact of the headache upon his life and the treatments that were applied in the 17th century.
authors: Department of Neurology Atrium Medical Centre,The Netherlands pkoehler@neurohistory.nl.
authors: Peter J
authors: PJ
authors: Koehler
mesh_terms: D015709:Correspondence as Topic / Q000266:history*; D006261:Headache / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000266:history / Q000628:therapy; D049669:History, 16th Century; D049670:History, 17th Century; D006801:Humans; D008881:Migraine Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000266:history* / Q000628:therapy; D010825:Physics / Q000266:history; D013662:Tea
chemical_list: D013662:Tea
keywords: 17th century; History of medicine; migraine