Danielo Perez, an Austin resident and a member of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, enjoys reading in his free time. At his home in Austin, Danielo Perez often reads the classic works of authors such as Edgar Allan Poe.
The circumstances of Edgar Allan Poe's demise remain shrouded in mystery nearly two hundred years after his death. He was found delirious in a gutter in October 1849, and he never recovered sufficient consciousness to explain how he ended up in soiled clothing on a Baltimore street.
Common theories include a beating, an illness, and a poisoning, though these have been discredited due to contrary evidence. While alcohol is often thought to have played a role, possibly as the result of a relapse into alcoholism, modern science has indicated that Poe remained sober in the years leading to his death.
The attending physician recorded phrenitis (an inflammation of the brain) as the cause of Poe's death, which suggests that encephalitis or meningitis was involved. A more recent theory suggests, however, that Poe's death could have been the result of a brain tumor.
When moving Poe’s decayed body three decades later, one worker reported a small mass inside Poe's skull that could have been a calcified tumor. With new theories emerging even as old ones are disproved by modern medicine, Poe's death is likely to remain one of literature's great mysteries.
