[A remembrance of Clarín's illnesses in his centenary]

The Spanish famous writer Leopoldo Alas, also known by the pseudonymous of "Clarín" suffered from two main kind of illnesses: nervous and digestives. Both began early, when he was only thirty two. At that moment, and during all his thirties, nervous ailments were conspicuous, but digestive problems were growing up slow but steadily and became the most serious and even menacing during his forties. Nervous pathology was double: on the one hand, some attacks of migraine with visual disturbances (scotoma), dysphasia and other "indescribable nervous oddities", which happened about 4-5 times per year; on the other, several emotional and vague symptoms, such as melancholia, dejected mood, anxiety, nervousness, etc. Digestive symptomatology, consisting of atonic constipation, intestinal dyspepsia, febricula, and a feeling of being "as a blocked drain", is due--no doubt--to tuberculous peritonitis diagnosed by his young nephew Dr. Martínez. This serious illness was the cause of his death on the 13th June 1901, when he was only 49.