MEDICAL QUACKS AND QUACKERIES. 147 



some, peculiarly English in its origin, was exercised in England for 

 nearly seven hundred years. Edward the Confessor was the first who 

 touched for the king's-evil, and transmitted the gift to all his success- 

 ors. His power was attributed not to his royalty but to his sanctity, 

 and there " seemed little reason why his successors, who were, as a 

 rule, no saints, should be so specially favored." The kings of France 

 also claimed the right to dispense the gift of healing, and traced their 

 right to Clovis. Queen Anne was the last to exercise this gift in Eng- 

 land, and it is well known that she touched, among others, the cele- 

 brated Dr. Johnson, who was brought to the King by his mother on 

 the recommendation of Sir John Floyer, a distinguished physician of 

 Litchfield.* William III had too much sense to pander to the su- 

 perstitious feelings of many of his subjects, and never employed 

 the touch but once, and then he said, on laying his hands on the 

 patient, " May God give you better health and more sense ! " Queen 

 Elizabeth was averse to the ]Dractice, but extensively performed it. 

 Charles II excelled all his predecessors and successors in this cere- 

 mony. During his reign he touched nearly one hundred thousand 

 persons for the evil. One year (1682) over eight thousand suffer- 

 ers were subjected to his sacred touch. The patients were first 

 examined by the King's surgeons, and, if thought to be fitting ob- 

 jects of relief, they were given tickets to admit them to the royal 

 presence. When admitted, the patient knelt and was touched by the 

 King. The clei'k of the closet now handed his Majesty a gold coin, 

 to which was attached a piece of white ribbon, and, while the King 

 hung this round the neck of the patient, others read the prayers and 

 ceremonies specially appointed for this purpose. We are told that the 

 gold was a token of good-will, and not necessary to the cure, as many 

 were healed without it, or with silver employed instead. Evidences 

 of the efficacy of the royal touch are not wanting : Jeremy Collier says 

 of Edward the Confessor : " That this prince cured king's-evil is be- 

 yond dispute, and, since the credit of this miracle is unquestionable, I 

 see no reason why we should not believe the rest." John Browne, sur- 

 geon to Charles II, and a man of eminence and reputation in his 

 profession, wrote an " Anatomick-Chirurgical Treatise on Glandules 

 and Struma?, together with the Royal Gift of Healing or Cure thereof 

 by Contact or Imposition of Hands," etc. In this treatise he gives 

 " many wonderful examples of cures by the sacred touch " of Charles 

 II ; he also relates several cases of scrofulous tumor and sore cured 

 by being touched with handkerchiefs which had been dipped in the 

 blood of the martyr Charles I, and asserts that the usurper Cromwell 

 tried in vain to exercise this royal prerogative, "he having no more 

 right to the healing power than he had to regal jurisdiction." Wise- 

 man, in his work on surgery, which was the best book on the subject 



* The gold coin presented to Dr. Johnson by the Queen is at the present time in the 

 British Museum. 



