Andrew McConnell Stott catalogs the unusual diets of the romantic poets. On Percy Bysshe Shelley:
He liked to test the inspirational qualities of various foods, and once badly poisoned himself by eating laurel leaves. Laurel is the garland of the poets, and also contains prussic acid. He also liked to lick tree sap.
Philosophers' stomach troubles were more commonplace:
Charles Darwin’s friends understood that his uncontrollable retching and farting seriously limited his public life. In 1838 Darwin announced that ‘I find the noodle & the stomach are antagonistic powers … What thought has to do with digesting roast beef, – I cannot say, but they are brother faculties.
The Dish 