A ROYAL GLUTTON.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVI, Issue 4813, 20 February 1925, Page 4

A ROYAL GLUTTON.

THE APPETITE OF LORIS XIV. OLD CONTROVERSY REVIVED. After more than two centuries (Louis XIV. of France died in 1715) a very old controversy has been revived. For many years before his death “Le Roi Soleil” was a martyr to some mysterious illness, although when one thinks of the stories that have come down to us of his abnormal appetite there would seem to be reason to doubt that his health could ever havfl been seriously affected. All this would not now matter very much except that in a recent contribution on the controversy to the Paris journal ‘T.e Temps,” a well-known French writer, M. G. Lenotre, has repeated the legend—-and perhaps it may be more than a legend—that the British National Anthem, “God Save the King,” was originally borrowed from a song written to commemorate the monaich’s recovery from a stage of his supposed malady.

In spite of excesses of all descriptions, the King reached the age of 77. That a very curious phase of a question, which can never be solved is now proving of renewed interest to students of history is indicated in the fact that it was lately chosen by Dr. J. Noir, a medical celebrity, as the theme for his thesis for selection for one of "the highest honours in the French scientific world. Tne Monarch is described as having been a very difficult patient. M'oliere. in ‘‘Le ' Medicin Malgre Lui,” wrote that the trouble with kings was that they insisted upon being cured. Such is said to have been the pretension of Louis. From his birth his appetite bad M. Lenotre explains, been voincious; Saint-Simon wrote on his memoirs that it was impossible to realise what Louis ate. Then a letter is quoted of the Duchess of Orleans, in which she related having seen the King consume feur plates of soup, an entire pheasant, a partridee, a dish of salad, a quantity of ham, finishing with a dish of .pastry, and, more marvellous than all this, a number of hard-boiled eggs. At nearly 70 years of age, feeling indisposed, he yielded to the advice of his doctors, and decided one evening to content himself with a simple meal. This took the shape of a pigeon, poup, and three roasted chickG’’.' As a consequence of such gluttony it is not surprising to learn that besides the illnesses which were attributed tb him he really suffered from gout, winch u.is considered,an aristocratic Jlness. lie was advised by his physician to drink Burgundy instead of champagne. This led to loud pm'ests from the vzinegrowers of Rheims,. and to a war of pamphlets which lasted 40 years.

After thus came the famous, difference of opinion among the physicians of the time about what really ailed the King. In 1686 it was decided that he was suffering from a fistula, and then followed endless discussion about the treatment to be adopted. Appeal '■• is n.ade to persons r-uitm-ing I rem that disease to submit thonnselves experimentally to a vast number of supposed remedies. The Court was deeply interested, and the experiments were also closely followed by the King. Finally it was determined that the knife Was the only remedy, and then the foremost, surgeon of the time, Dr. Felix, after having experimented upon all the patients who could be found, successfully operated upon the King. His services were recompensed by the gift of an estate and £5OOO (an immense sum in those days), while one assistant was paid £4OOO and another £3OOO. Immediately, according to M. Lenotre, it becatne fashionable to suffer from a fistula. Surgeons were besieged by patients, many of whom were angry when assured that there was nothing the matter with them. The King's recovery was feted a’l over France. Paris wais magnificently decorated, and, after a “Te Denin” had been celebrated at Notre Dame, dinner of Titanic proportions was given at the Hotel de Ville(town hall). The dishes served numbered 236, enough, as the Frencn writer remarks, to have killed any ordinary convalescent, but the King sf . \ived the regicidal repast. At Saint-Cyr, the conveni where all. that was highest among the daughters of France were educated, j. y at the King’s recovery is desw» Died as having been manifested in a more delicate fash Job. Yielding to a prayer that he should attend at Saint-Cyr, he was received by the demoiselles with a song composed by Lulli', with words by the Mother Superior, Madame de Brinon. It is averred that an Englishman visiting Paris was so much impressed with the melody that he took it back with him to England, where it was so much liked that it was adopted as the National Anthem. England, it is related, owes to the “Le Roi Soleil’s” illness its great National Anthem. “God Save the King.”