Why did Vincent Van Gough cut off his ear? Did King Henry VIII really have syphilis?

Most of us just wonder about the ilnesses of famous figures like Van Gough and Henry VIII.

Jock Murray, a neurologist and medical historical has spent the last 35 years answering these kinds of questions. He has investigated artists like Thomas Eakins, musicians like Robert Schumann, politicians like Thomas Jefferson, and philosophers like Fredrick Nietzsche.

He says he’s at the “intersection of a number of different fields” and that’s where he likes to be: combining his love of medicine, history, and the arts.

Murray will speak at Dalhousie University on Friday morning at 10:30 a.m. in the Scotiabank Auditorium of the McCain Building.