Having spent a few decades practicing medicine in the part of California
that time forgot,(Ventura County) I recall that our definition of an
"expert"was someone from out of town with a slide presentation on porphyria.
The vague, imitative nature of the symptomatology makes it a ripe
subject for imaginative and improvisational speculation.
Since "history" seems determined to rid itself of drama which
cannot be supported by,at least, a royal urinalysis -- I suppose that the
metabolic satisfaction of explaining George3's peculiarity by an inborn
error of a physical nature will have to await exhumation.
Peter L. McDermott, M.D.
University of California at Santa Barbara
History Department, Graduate Studies