The Sun.
London, England, 1830-07-03 00:00:00

TILE LATE KING'S ILLNESS.

(From the Lancet.)
Some allowance may, with justice, be made fbr the medical
attendants, acting, as they did, under the immediate direction of
Sir William Knighton whose conduct was well calculated to
chill their ardour, as lie does not scruple to hold himself up as
one of the first doctors of the age. The late King took no midi-
tine for several years past, without the approbation of this ob.
stetric doctor ; and no medical practitioner was ever admitted
into the lkyal bed-chamber without his sanction and especial
permission. In fact, the same rigorous espiaturge which, he
exercised over the footmen and chamber-maids, was visited un
the Royal Physicians; but Sir Wm. Knighton, to the great joy,
we believe, of the inmates of the Palace, no longer holds the
office of Privy Purse, Ills dismissal upon the immediate demise
of the Crown speaks volumes for the character of his long, flourish.
hug, " invisible" tactics. The removal of, this person from office.
has created some speculation in the political world. In the urn..
mediate circle of the Court it bile excited 1 the astonishment, as,
it was a looked-for event. Sir Herbert Taylor is now Privy
Purse, and his appointment has produced much gratification. As
his late Majesty's medical attendants no longer tremble beneath
the wand of the enchanter, it may be presumed that they will
of to the public some sort of apology. or attempt to justify
their singular official conduct, their present position being by no
means respectable. But we are bound to believe that under " in.
visible" influence they possessed the full confidence of their
Royal Master, who, up to the end of December last, had appa.
rently, for some months, enjoyed uninterrupted good health,
and so far needed little of their assistance. In the beginning of
January his Majesty suffbred from a severe attack of catarrh,
which, as was usual with him, speedily assumed an inflamma.
tory type, and rendered the abstraction of blood necessary. In
consequence of altercations between Sir 'William Knighton and
Mr. O'Reilly, one of his Majesty's apothecaries, Sir W. Knighton
always assuming to himself the right to controul the medical at-
tendants, Mr. O'Reilly did not act with his usual decision, but
deferred bleeding the King until the arrival of Sir 11. Raiford
from London. -Time King's complaint, in consequence of his Ma-
jesty's
irregularities in food, did not receive that relief from bleed-
ing which was anticipated, and it was necessary to repeat the ope.
ration on several occasions, before the more violent infiamma.
tory symptoms were subdued. In the mean time Sir W.
Knighton, who was absent from the Castle, was brought front
his " seat" at Horndean, tin Hampshire, and as he thought,
i
his Majesty's illness was of such severity that t might require
a Bulletin, the signer of those documents was accordingly sent
for frorn Brighton with all the mystical secrecy which has ever
characterised Sir Nihilist-Ws deeds at the Castle. Sir Matthew
Tierney did not reach Windsor until the symptoms of his Majesty's
disorder were so far mitigated as to render on that occasion the
important flinction of attaching a signature to a Bulletin untie.
cessary. 'Though the more urgent inflammatory symptoms of his
Majesty's disorder were now subdued, the King was considerably
reduced in strength, having lost at four bleedings, which were
performed at sliest intervals, nearly live pounds of blood; and
the inflammatory attack left behind it a troublesome, dry, hard
cough. It may hero be noticed, that his Majesty for many years
had been scarcely ever free from some symptom which indicated
the presence, more or less severe, of gout in the extremities ;
but in January, during the existence of the catarrhal afft.ction,
the extremities were entirely free from every sign of gout. At
the latter end of February, and even in the beginning of March,
his Majesty was well enough, to take his customary rides in an
open carriage, and occasionally visited the dillbrent parts of the
royal demesne in which his various improvements and altera-
tions were going forward. On Monday, the 12th of April, he
rode in the parks for the last time, and passed some time in the
menagerie, a place in which he took great delight. While there,
he complained of pain and faintness, and inquired of the keeper
if he had any brandy iu the house. The man, an old servant of
the Duke of York, said he had something which he thought his
Majesty would like better than brandy. " What is it ?" said
his Majesty. " Cherry,gin," was the reply : it was made by
my old woman, Sire," The King seemed much pleased by this
mark of attention, and expressed a wish to taste the " old girl's
cordial." On its being handed to his Majesty, he appeared to
relish exceedingly the (to bins novel) compound, and finished
the remainder of the bottle.

•••••••••••
The harassing dry cough and wheezing respiration still conti.
trued, notwithstanding the remedies that were employed, and
his hlidesty at the same time was much distressed by a painful
imitation in the urinary passages. It was ou the filth of this
month (March), that Mr. Wardrop, on visiting the King, first
called the attention of Sir W. Knighton to the existence of an
alarming disease going on in his Majesty's heart. From the at.
tentive examination of the circulating and respiratory organs
which Mr. Wardrop then made by means of the stetliosctqw, it
was quite evident that the 4. embarrassment" in the King's
breathing arose from a disordered state of the heart's action, the
blood not being propelled with its natural regularity and velocity
Worrier the lungs. The rale ereehearing sound, was attributed
to an injected sunbsed state of the mucous membrane lining the
alr.ceils, and was independent of that disturbance of the respi.
ration produced by the irregularity in the action of the heart..—
The circumstance of the extremities, which had been so long
envied by gout, being now entirely tree from every symptom of
that disease and the well.known strongly.marked gouty consti.
tutlon of his Majesty. indicated the precise character of the
disease which existed in the cavity of the thorax, and led to the
hope that, by an effbrt of nature, or by the aid of art, a revul.
slots or trans alien of the gout from the chest to the extremities
might remove the more dangerous inflammatory affbction of the
vital organs. Time, however, has shown that this salutary ter.
urination of his Majesty disorder was not to be realized. Like
many persons subject to gout, his Majesty had, occasionally, and
more particularly before a paroxysm, an intermittent pulse anti
a corresponding Irregularity of the heart's action.
• • • ••
The post mortan appearances demonstrate, in the most ult.
equivocal manner, the accuracy of the diagnosis formed by Mr.
Wardrop, at en early period of his Majesty's disease; and, hom
the active and determined character of the long.continued in.
ftarstmatory action, we are unavoidably impressed with the opi.
Mon, that a judiciously regulated system of depletion might
have proved highly benefitial, and even prolonged life. This
method of treating Million irtto the Berme cavities has been
commended by several eminent writers, and it is now adopted by
all the best-informed members of the profession. The King
himself thought that the dropsy was caused by the bleedings to
which he had been subjected in January last. It is, however,
but an act of justice towards his medical attendants to declare,
that, in our opinion, this supposition had not the slightest fours.
dation in truth.

A BLUE JACKET KING.—On the day ap-
pointed at Plymouth for the celebration of his present moat
gracious Maatorrvie accession to the Throne, the petty
officers of his Majesty's ship Kent in Simone, came aft
to the commanding officer, and in the name of the ship's
company requested, that, de as the new KiNo wsc the
first blue jacket what had ever came to be King of Eng-
land, an extra allowance of grog might be allowed them to
drink to his health and prospelous reign." Such a claim
it was impossible to refuse !

One of our contemporaries has given an ac-
count, no doubt extremely authentic, of the reception
given by his present Alaaarry to the members of Admi-
nistration. We believe we may state, from a source
equally entitled to credit, that when the CHANCILLOIL of
duo laxctr►trauxa approached the Kixo, his MAJESTY,
giading his eyes, according to his habit, with his band,
said, in a style sufficiently brittque,—.4 Well, Sir, who
are you,--ch-4 don't know you—who are you
Aforniny chronicle.