The question for today: was Meriwether Lewis of Lewis & Clark fame a man suffering from bipolar disorder (manic-depression)? Or did he commit suicide because he had syphilis, and it made him crazy?

This is not a made-up question, but one of some historical and medico-historical interest. Some biographers (including Stephen Ambrose and filmmaker Ken Burns) have said that it is most likely Lewis’s suicide five years after his return from the great expedition was due to a long-standing...