THE KING’S EVIL

New Zealand Listener, Volume 7, Issue 159, 10 July 1942, Page 14

THE KING’S EVIL

‘Written for "The Listener" by DR.

H. B

TURBOTT

Director of

the Division of School Hygiene, Health Department )

UBERCULOSIS of the glands was formerly a very widespread dissase. It used to be called scrofula, and was in the Middle Ages the particular prerogative of English Kings. The royal touch was used, to obtain cures. It was a medieval form of faith healing. According to tradition the practice of the king’s touch originated with Edward the Confessor, in England. "A young =

woman had married a husband of her own age, but having no issue by the union, the tumours collected abundantly about her neck, she contracted a sore disorder, and the glands swelling in a dreadful manner. Admonished in a dream to have the part affected washed by the king, she entered the palace, and the king himself fulfilled this labour of love by rubbing the woman’s neck with his fingers dipped in water. Joyous —

health followed his healing hand; the lurid skin opened, so that worms flowed out with the purulent matter, and the tumour subsided. But as the orifice of the ulcer was large and unsightly, he commanded her to be supported at royal expense until she should be perfectly cured. However, before a week had expired, a fair new skin returned, and hid the scars so completely that nothing of the original wound could be discovered; and within a year, becoming the mother of twins, she increased the admiration of Edward’s holiness."