HISTORY OF :\IEDICINE EXHIBITS WHITEBEEAD. 



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ceeding kings and queens of England, with occasional exceptions, 

 down to Queen Anne. (i6G4-lT14.) A register of persons touched 

 by King Charles II, from May, 1GG2, to April, 1682, gives the num- 

 ber at 92,107. Healing by touch was also practiced by the French 

 kings, and it is claimed by some French historians that the custom 

 originated in France. Until the time of Henry VII no peculiar 

 ceremonies attended the practice of healing by touch. This monarch 

 established a special religious service to be employed at the heal- 

 ings, during which a piece of gold (touchpiece) was presented to 

 the patient, to be worn as an amulet suspended from the neck. 



Fig. 10. — Layixg ox of Hands. 



The ceremony of touching for scrofula, or King's evil, as prac- 

 ticed by Charles II, is described by Evelyn in his memoirs as follows : 



" July 6, 1660. His majestie sitting under his state in ye ban- 

 quetting house, the chirurgeons cause the sick to be brought, or led 

 up to the throne, where they kneeling, ye king strokes their faces 

 or cheeks with both his hands at once, at which time a chaplaine 

 in his formalities says : ' He put his hands upon them and he healed 

 them.' This is said to everyone in particular. When they have all 

 been touched they come up againe in the same order, and the other 

 chaplaine kneeling, and having angel gold strung on white ribbon 



