Scrofula historical perspective
|
Scrofula Microchapters |
|
Diagnosis |
|---|
|
Treatment |
|
Case Studies |
|
Scrofula historical perspective On the Web |
|
American Roentgen Ray Society Images of Scrofula historical perspective |
|
Risk calculators and risk factors for Scrofula historical perspective |
Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]
Historical Perspective
In the Middle Ages it was believed that "royal touch", the touch of the sovereign of England or France, could cure the disease. Scrofula was therefore also known as the King's Evil. The kings were thought to have received this power from descent from Edward the Confessor, who, according to some legends, received it from Saint Remigius. From 1633, the Book of Common Prayer of the Anglican Church contained a ceremony for this, and it was traditional for the monarch(king or queen) to present to the touched person a coin — usually an Angel, a gold coin the value of which varied from about 6 shillings to about 10 shillings. King Henry IV of France is reported as often touching and healing as many as 1,500 individuals at a time.
Queen Anne touched the Infant Dr. Samuel Johnson in 1712 [1], but King George I put an end to the practice as being "too Catholic." The kings of France continued the custom until Louis XV stopped in the 1700s, though it was briefly revived to universal derision in 1825.
In 1768 the Englishman John Morley produced a handbook "Essay on the nature and cure of scrophulous disorders, commonly called the King's Evil". The book starts by listing the typical symptoms and indications of how far the disease had progressed. It then goes into detail with a number of case studies, describing the specific case of the patient, the various treatments used and their effectiveness. The forty-second edition was printed in 1824.
In 1924, the French historian Marc Bloch wrote a book on the history of the royal touch: The royal touch: sacred monarchy and scrofula in England and France (original in French).
References
- ↑ Henry Hitchings “Dr Johnson's Dictionary:The extraordinary story of the book that defined the World” Pub. John Murray 2005 P.11