The Quest for Cortisone

Chapter 11. Transitions and Travels

87 Chapter 11 Transitions and Travels Work is the best antidote to sorrow. —sherLoCK hoLMes, THE ADVENTURE OF THE EMPTY HOUSE The end of the 1930s was a time of transition and travel. Albert szent-Györgyi was immersed in transition and travel—all of it distinctly unwanted. he spent the early part of the decade on the faculty of szeged university in hungary, where he probed the fascinating mystery of muscle metabolism. But as the 1940s approached, the scientist became dangerously outspoken in his anti-nazi, antifascist politics. szent-Györgyi vigorously opposed hungary’s increasingly sinuous alliance with the Axis powers, and he took public, often unpopular, stands on behalf of his beliefs. Anti-semitism was growing in eastern europe, where even liberal academic campuses like szeged were not immune to the metastasizing politics of bigotry . risking his own safety, szent-Györgyi used whatever influence and connections he had to help scientists like hans Krebs (future 1953 nobel Prize winner in Physiology or Medicine) and other Jewish colleagues avoid persecution or, if necessary, escape the country.1 in 1943 Miklós Kállay, prime minister of wartime hungary, sent szentGy örgyi to Turkey; officially, he was supposed to deliver a series of scientific lectures in istanbul. in reality, Albert “spy”-György was initiating secret discussions with representatives of the Allied governments. When the Gestapo uncovered the scientist’s involvement with the enemy, Adolf hitler personally issued a warrant for his arrest. upon returning to hungary, szent-Györgyi 88| Chapter 11 was placed under house arrest, but he managed to escape to the swedish embassy in Budapest.2 he was given refuge there and eventually received swedish citizenship. When the opportunity arose, szent-Györgyi was folded into the tiny trunk of a rust-eaten eastern european automobile and smuggled out of the embassy.3 he moved for months between various safe houses in several hungarian cities, hiding until russian troops eventually liberated the country. once his exploits during the war became known to his compatriots , szent-Györgyi was transformed into a national hero.4 There was even a short-lived movement to have him run for president of hungary.5 szent-Györgyi’s wartime sacrifices extended beyond the physical inconveniences he suffered, or the dangers he faced on behalf of his friends, colleagues, and country. he paid for his antiwar stance in other ways, some of which involved serious financial repercussions. Lots of people are all talk. But szent-Györgyi backed up his soapbox spiels with his pocketbook: “When i received the nobel Prize,” wrote szent-Györgyi, “the only big lump sum of money i have ever seen, i had to do something with it. The easiest way to drop this hot potato was to invest it, to buy shares. i knew that World War ii was coming and i was afraid that if i had shares which rise in case of war, i would wish for war. so i asked my agent to buy shares which go down in the event of war. . . . i lost my money and saved my soul.”6 John f. Kennedy was also dealing with transition and travel. Between 1938 and 1940, while he was a student at harvard, the future president’s problematic digestive tract still wasn’t behaving itself.7 he returned to the Mayo Clinic, but no cure was forthcoming. A subsequent two-week stay in new england Baptist hospital was likewise not helpful. in february 1939, despite his intense and growing hatred of hospitals, Kennedy agreed yet again to return to the Mayo Clinic for follow-up evaluations. it turned out to involve more of the same: rest, bad food, and a thick proctoscope. one can only marvel at the charm and confidence Dr. Alvarez must have exuded to persuade the young Bostonian to keep returning to rochester—especially when JfK seemingly received so little that was helpful in return.8 if Kennedy was indeed taking DoCA at this time, the drug didn’t seem to be soothing his colitis appreciably—worse, it was probably contributing to new problems. for example, it is classically taught (although still somewhat controversial) that steroids like DoCA can acutely produce or aggravate stomach and duodenal ulcers. Although JfK was not diagnosed as having gastroduodenal ulcers until the fall of 1943, it’s probable that his Transitions and Travels| 89 ulcers were beginning to arise...