Edgar Allen Poe was known for writing mysterious horror literature works, but his biggest mystery seems to be how he died. We believe the theory of him dying from cholera and mercury poisoning is the most believable for many reasons. To start off, we believe Poe died from cholera and mercury poisoning because Edgar Allan Poe himself claimed, in numerous letters he wrote in 1849, to have cholera, which is a deadly bacterial disease, typically contracted from contaminated water. In his letter Poe stated, “I have been so ill-have had the cholera, and spasms quite as bad, and can now hardly hold the pen…” This excerpt from a letter from Poe to his mother-in-law, just months before he died, says exactly that he had been suffering from cholera. Edgar …show more content…
Back around Poe’s time, cholera was treated by bloodletting and by using a substance called calomel. Calomel is a mercury chloride, which can be extremely poisonous. Just like Poe stated he had cholera, he also stated that that he took calomel. He writes, “I have suffered worse than death — not so much from the Cholera as from its long-continued consequences in debility and congestion of the brain — the latter, possibly, attributable to the calomel taken” Although various forms of mercury can cause some different symptoms, the effects that are most toxic occur in the brain and the nervous system. In the quotation above, Poe claims to have a “congestion of the brain”, and he also is not sure as to why he feels like this, because he thought being treated for his cholera would make him feel better. Medicine dosages around Poe’s were inexact, so Poe could have received a deadly amount of mercury, from the calomel, without even realizing it. After hundreds of years after his death, nobody's entirely sure how he died. We believe cholera and mercury poisoning makes the most sense because he stated himself that he had it and he showed a lot of symptoms of