Xavier Mertz’s final illness during the Australasian Antarctic Expedition

Record summary

Xavier Mertz became critically ill during the return journey with Douglas Mawson after the loss of the sledging team’s supplies and companion Belgrave Ninnis. The episode is relevant to altered consciousness because later accounts discuss delirium, behavioral change, starvation and possible hypervitaminosis A from consuming sledging dogs. It offers a useful control case against supernatural explanations of polar visions or anomalous behavior. The diagnosis remains historically debated, and the evidential base consists of expedition records, retrospective testimony and later medical interpretation.