Was Snow White poisoned by Listeria monocytogenes? And are the Mad Hatter’s antics a result of chronic mercurial poisoning?

These are the questions a Melbourne-based respiratory paediatrician has been asking as he plunges down the rabbit hole of fairytales and folklore.

He has been on a quest to find out what recognisable medical conditions these stories might harbour.

“In a pre-modern medical world, authors often made astute observations of people and built them into their stories,” Associate Professor John Massie, from the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne, writes in the Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health.