ITALY

ITALY: Farinelli was a famed 18th-century castrato, castrated at a young age to preserve his legendary voice (his voice spanned three octaves and he could hold a note for a full minute). According to anatomists who exhumed his bones, the procedure caused hyperostosis frontalis interna, or a thickening of the cranial vault, usually associated with postmenopausal women, that can cause behavioral and psychiatric problems. Historical accounts, however, indicate that Farinelli was lucid and sane—and singing—until his death at 78.