Profile of Jean-Laurent Casanova

In January 1972, weeks before she turned four, Marie-Dominique Martin was rushed to a clinic in Nevers, a manufacturing town that sits plumb in the middle of France in the picturesque Burgundy region. For more than two months, Martin had suffered a bewildering array of symptoms, including fever, fatigue, hip and abdominal pain, and difficulty walking. Blood tests indicated inflammation, and X-rays revealed a lesion in the right thigh bone. As her condition worsened, she was admitted to Claude Bernard Hospital in Paris, where a biopsy and a battery of tests revealed multiple bone lesions reminiscent of microbial infection.