Edgar Allan Poe’s attending physician, John Joseph Moran, listed phrenitis as the cause of death. The obsolete term referred broadly to inflammation or congestion of the brain, often accompanied by fever and delirium.
Poe was found seriously ill in Baltimore on October 3, 1849, and taken to Washington Medical College. He died there four days later, on October 7, aged 40. He was delirious and never gave a reliable explanation of what had happened to him or why he was wearing clothes that apparently belonged to someone else.
Phrenitis describes the historical diagnosis, not a confirmed modern medical cause. Poe’s medical records and death certificate have been lost, so his actual cause of death remains unknown. Proposed explanations include rabies, alcoholism, epilepsy, heart disease, tuberculosis, poisoning, and election-related “cooping,” but none is proven. “Congestion of the brain” and “cerebral inflammation” also appeared in contemporary reports.