The famous author, Edgar Allan Poe, lived with a series of unfortunate deaths until he faced his own. Poe's death is still a mystery that everyone has their own input of. Some say he drank himself to death right before he got remarried. Others believe he was infected with rabies without even knowing. However, Poe died of rabies because of his actions and the evidence right before his death.
Many people believe Poe died of alcoholism, however he couldn't have because of the following reasons. "The writer was so sensitive to alcohol that a glass of wine would make him violently ill for days" (Jerome 188). Poe couldn’t have died of alcoholism, which troubled him before, because he turned his life around and almost completely stopped by the age of forty. Joseph Evans Snodgrass, editor and physician of Baltimore, stated Poe was witnessed in poorly fitted clothes that did not belong to him (184). The slobber, hair, or dirt from the rabid animal could've got on his clothes; so, Poe knowingly changed his clothes in attempt to get away from the
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Dr. Benitez proclaimed in his study in the September issue of The Maryland Medical Journal that Poe experienced hydrophobia. While awake and alert, Poe refused alcohol and could only drink water but he had to deal with a great deal of pain to do so. Jeff Jerome, curator of the Edgar Allan Poe House and Museum, explained that Poe gave up alcohol by the age of 40 (188). His body wasn’t used to the alcohol intake like before and if any was consumed he would become sick for several days to serveral weeks. Dr. R. Michael benitez wrote that Edgar was afraid to drink any type of liquid, even water, because it was unbarable. Poe was diagnosed with hydrophobia after his case was reevaluated. Hydrophobia is a clear sign of rabies in many situations; and there no chance Poe drank himself to death if he couldn’t even drink water without