SIR MORELL MACKENZIE'S BOOK.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1818, 20 November 1888, Page 3

SIR MORELL MACKENZIE'S BOOK.

Sir Morell Mackenzie's book concerning the last illueas aud death of Frederick 111, was given to the pnHic on October 16th. The German booksellers ordered 17,000

copies, but the American newspapers, who contracted for exclusive publication of the work in their localities, declared ther agreement void in view of the fact that the extracts published in advance impaired the value of the matter and abrogated the stipulation of exclusiveness, thefoundatior 1 of the coutract. This .-ind Other causes have thrown Dr Mackenzie, accoiding to the London Sunday Times, into a condition of great mental excitement. The New York Sun published the fn'l text of the bonk, on which the n o ctor c b'ed to the p:<per that the abstracts from his book distributed to the New York Herald, and such other journals us were willing to take them, by the London Central News Company,had been stolen by unscrupulous ruffians and were quite unintelligible without the numerous illustrations which

they had no opportunity to file!). Br. Mackenzie will sue the News Company and th 6 papers subscribing to it. Summarised, the book p ! ain)y charges the Qerman physicians with both incapacity and brutality. Professor Gi-r----hardt is charged with causing the cancerous complication, and Bergmann is held responsible for the Emperor's death by hie clumsiness when, in the operation on the invalid's throat, he forced a fabe passage through the'trachea, from which fatal symptoms soon developed. But for this blunder' Sir Mon 11 Mackenzie asserts that the Emperor would have lived at least ten months longer. The doctor also accused Bismarck of efforts to entrap him. Interesting details are given of the fortitude with which the Crown Prince bore

his suffering. After the first consuliaMon Dr. Mackenzie learned that the Prince always attribute'! the origin of his illness to a cold contracted in 1886, while driving one evening with the King; and Queen of Italy. The coachman !o3t his way the Crown Prince had no coat with him,and felt chilly ; in fact, felt as if he had taken cold. He told Dr. Mackenzie that he never was quita well after that evening. The London Daily Telegraph of Oct. 14th prints an interview with Dr. Bergmann, in which he says he will take no notice of the charges Dr Mackenzie makes against himself and the other German surgeons who attended the Emperor. The official report published condemns Mackenzie's work, and a copy of this, translated into English, will be published throughout England. Bergmann considers the defence arrant nonsense, ->nd the physician did not hesitate to say his treatmect of the F.mperor amounted to malpractice, inasmuch as both his diagnosis and treatment displayed ignorance of medic'ne in general. He declares that Mackenzie's whole knowledge of anatomy and pathology begins and ends iu the larnyx. Virchow'a post mortem clearly established the f'aci that Gerhardt, another German surgeon, and himself were correct in their diagnose!', and that Mackenzie allowed the opportunity of arresting disease to slip away. Had an operation been made on the Prince in the way he (Bergmann) wished, the Emperor might; be alive. The misplaced confidence of the Emperor brought him to his grave. In regard to Dr Mackenzie's statement that Bergmann' opened the patient's trachea three millimetres to the right of the line, the German doctor said emphatically "It is a lie," adding that the cut was made exactly in the middle and that Mackenzie himself pronounced the operation a good one. Bergmann concludes with the remark that, " Dr. Mackenzie's lies have short legs." Forty thoasand copies of the book were seized by the police in Leipsig by the police. The book is not allowed to be sold in Berlin, The police seized all the copies expcued for Bale. Three semiofficial German papers abuse Mackenzie's book in unmeasured termw, but no attempt is made to refute its statements.

The book was placed on suits in London on October 15th, and inapy thousands were sold in a few hours. Th» publishers assert that the ex-Empress Victoria read all the proof sheets of the book before it was printed. Virchow and Waldeyer have signed a

document declaring that the protocol after the post mortem on the remains of Frederick did not mention an abscess in the cavity of the trachea, and that none existed. The tissues in which Alaokenzie asserts Bergmann made a false passage n ere normal and not cicatrised. Professor Bargmann does not object to fighting a duel with Mackenzie.