Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1879-11-07
A Royal Gift Of Healing.

In days when many believed that a
certain divinity doth hedge a King, it
was natural that in the first place the
imaginations of those folks of feeble
vitality and often of deficient mental
power, who were brought to Kings to
be touched, should be so far affected as
to cause such bodily changes as we now
know to be produced by a strongly
excited imagination, and that in the
second place the persons thus cured
and those who heard of such cures
should attribute the effect to the virtue
of the kingly touch, not to the influence
of mere mental processes. DIR. Todd,
in his Influence of the Mind on the
Body" quotes singular passage from
book by Browne, of Norwich, surgeon
to King Charles ia book rejoicing
in the title " Adenochoiradelogia; or, a
Treatise of Glandules, and the Royal
Gift of Healing them" GA Noncon-
formist child, in Norfolk" says Browne
in the passage referred to, being
troubled with scrofulous swellings, the
late deceased Sir Thomas Browne, of
Norwich, being consulted about the
same, His Majesty being then at Breda
or Bruges, he advised the parents of
the child to have it carried over to the
King, (his own method being used
ineffectually0 the father seemed very
strange at his advice, and utterly denied
it, saying. the touch of the King was of
no greater efficacy than any other
mans. The mother of the child, adher-
ing to the Doctors advice, studied all
imaginable means to have it over, and
of los Of tryith hn fp,
let it change the air for three weeks or
month"; this being granted, the friends
of the child that went with it, unknown
to the father, carried it to Breda, where
the King touched it, and she returned
home perfectly healed" The worthy
doctor is careful that the moral of the
story should not be overlooked: "The
child being come to its fathers house,
and he finding so great an alteration,
inquiries how his daughter arrived at
this health. The friends thereof assured
him, that if he would not be angry with
them they would relate the whole truth (;
they having his promise for the same,
assured him they had the child to be
touched at Breda, whereby they appar-
emily let him see the great benefit his
child received thereby. Hereupon the
father became so amazed that he threw
off his Nonconformity, and expressed
his thanks in this manner: Farewell
to all dissenters, and to all Noncon-
formists; if God can put so much virtue
into the Kings hand as to heal my
child, I'll serve that God and that King
so long as l live, with all thankful
ness. 1t was found later that Han
overian Kings had the same power as
the Stuart, even as old Aubrey had
noted of the Yorkist and Lancastrian
Kings. "The curing of the Kings
evil" he said, "by the touch of the
King, does much puzzle our philoso-
pliers, for whether our Kings were of
the house of York or Lancaster. it did
the cure for the most part" And so
no doubt it would if the patient had
been touched by one of the Gentlemen
of the Bedchamber, or by the valet of
such one, or, in fine, by Tom Hoakes
or John Styles, so only that the patient
was fully persuaded he had been touched
by the rightful monarch. Cor'lhiLI
Magazine.