[President F.W. Reitz and his health problem]

Francis William Reitz, the second last President of the Republic of the Orange Free State, resigned his office on 16 November 1895 for health reasons. He died 39 years later at the age of 89. An analysis of this health history shows his resignation to have been caused by a symptom complex quite characteristic of endogenous depression, probably precipitated by virus hepatitis, During 1896 he recovered fully, but in 1903, as an embittered man at the end of the Anglo-Boer War, he experienced a severe recurrence of depression which lasted 18 months, despite the best therapy available in Europe at the time.