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the balance, as even the exclusive readers of Court History are not 
very familiar with, He may trip at a French word, and call a 
thing “‘oultrageous,” but he is sounder on his legs than the 
Prince was on his noddle. Erysipelas came on. Christians, Jews, 
and Infidels came in with their charms. Regular practitioners 
made the sad matter sadder. The King, expecting his son’s 
death, was ready to gallop off from a defunct body. Every soul 
was busy with his mourning and the fashion of it. All at once 
the infallible doctor was thought of and sent for. The corpse of 
a dead friar, now for his miracles accounted a saint, Don Diego 
de Alcala, was brought to the Prince and laid all night in bed with 
him. We “axe” if the idea of such an “oultrageous” style of 
practice would now enter anybody’s noddle? ‘Three centuries 
ago the Spanish Prince was restored from undergoing it, but how 
far the propter is in relation to the post, we leave to doctor’s to 
determine. 
The other case shows the skill of Spanish physicians in an 
equally favourable light. In August, 1564, Philip’s third wife, 
Elizabeth of France, unfortunately for herself, had need of medical 
attendance. Fever arose. The doctors bled her in both arms; 
they bled her in both feet ; and when spasms and paroxysms came 
on, they cupped her and left her to die. She was houselled, and 
the King, to comfort her, was houselled with her for company, and 
when Chaloner was writing to England she was lying abandoned 
of her physicians, at the mercy of God. The palace gates were 
shut, the lamentations in the Court both of men and women very 
tender and piteous; the chapel was filled with noblemen all 
praying on their knees for her, and great and unfeigned moans in 
all parts. Nature eventually proved too strong for Spanish doctors. 
She rallied, and they flew at her once more; they administered 
strong doses of agaricum, and, amazing to relate, she recovered. 
Now it is a very old saying, that truth is stranger than fiction. 
Every one of you that has read “Gil Blas” will have laughed at 
what you must have thought the ridiculously exaggerated instruc- 
tions which Dr. Sangrado gave for the treatment of his patient : 
“First, six porringers of blood were to be taken from him as a 
