Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1889-02-01
AN ElLPEROR'S TROUBLES.
GERMANY's RULER AFFECTED By
DEFoRMITY AND DISEASE.
A Combination of Circumstances &C
His Birth Sent Him Through
Life With a Withered Arm

n SohHpiht1iOu Oh CiESNS ~
His Birth Sent Him Through
Life With a Withered Arm.
In Paris two days ago, says cable
gram to the New York Sun, talked
about Emperor William with friend
whose fame rs a medical man is world
wide and obtained for your readers most
interesting and definite information as
to the young rulers physical condition.
The information may be relied upon as
exact beyond any question.
"Young William was unlucky in the
first place, said my friend, Sin having a
Princess for a mother, and equally so in
having been born Prince. Those two
circumstances account for his unhappy
deformity. The usually accepted &C.
counts of its nature and origin are mag
NATIVE rubbish. The Crown Princess
Frederick was, as is generally known,
travelling in an out-of-way place at a
very indiscreet period The birth of the
present German Emperor was unex-
pected and he was helped into the world
by some obscure little doctor with an
awe for royalty far in excess of his
knowledge of surgery. If he had been
allowed to think that his patient was
simply an ordinary woman of strong
physique, all would probably have been
well; but the fact was carefully i'm
pressed upon him that he had in his
hands the life of the future Queen, and
the child would, perhaps, be heir to the
Prussian throne. This so demoralized
the little doctor that he added the
strength of his own muscles to the forces
of nature and so severed all the muscles
of the infants left arm.
"When | was called to Windsor by
Queen Victoria to attend the little boy
/ saw at once that his case was hopeless.
If he had been grocer's son, some good
doctor would have been called in, and
some sound method of cure adopted and
followed. AS Prince, however, he had
to be seen by every good doctor, no
system was followed out, aud the worst
possible result of the accident ensued,
namely, complete atrophy of the arm.
1T is wasted completely away, and is
probably smaller than when l examined
HIM as a boy at Windsor. Fortunately
such wonderful skill has been shown by
the German surgeons as to save him from
the modification of having it plainly
seen that one of his arms is simply the
withered arm of a child. The withered
limb is padded out in most lifelike
fashion, and not only that, but within
the padding is most wonderfully clever
machine, a series of strings and cords
acting like the muscles of the arm. These
artificial muscles are connected with the
good muscles of the shoulder most
adroitly, so that while in a natural con.
dition he would be incapable of moving
his withered arm. This most ingenious
mechanism enables him to impart to it
movements that are almost lifelike. He
can raise or lower his artificial hand and
use it sufficiently we'll TO guide carefully
trained and broken chargers which are
selected for him."
The readers of this letter will remem-
Der that | have frequently insisted upon
the great gravity of the disease concen-
trated in the unlucky Emperors head,
and which is officially described as q
slight affection of the ear. My state
ments as to the seriousness of this trouble
were based upon authentic information
from the Berlin court and are confirmed
by the comment of the physician quoted
above.
"The Emperor's deformity," said he,
lis nothing, except as it mortities and
irritates an extremely proud and sensi-
tive man; but the disease in his head is
one which may have most serious con-
sequences for all Europe. 1t may drive
the Emperor to the most extravagant
acts, or suddenly, by killing him. end
the speculation as to what his career
may be.
81 can tell you positively that it
already makes him insane at intervals.
He was insane when he delivered certain
speeches which his advisers were com
PEELED to revise and interpret officially.
lie was mentally deranged by his suffer-
ing and the direct effect of his malady
upon the brain. All the skill of the
doctors about him is concentrated to
fight the disease that is growing in his
head. Once already it has gone beyond
the control of the doctors, and the En-
peror suffered most dreadful attack, all
knowledge of which was carefully kept
from the public. When the disease
reaches certain point, there will come
an explosion, and the Emperor will
either die or become hopelessly insane.
"Just what the disease is / will not
say. Its nature may be described as
that of tumor and an abnormal growth
within the brain. The skill of his ply
sicians may fight off the final stages of
the disease for longer period than at
present seems probable, but there is very
little hope that they will be able to
cure it.
"The young Emperor is decidedly an
unlucky man. Old Emperor William
suffered, which is not generally known,
from form of epilepsy, and his grand
son, who has inherited the trouble, is
also afflicted with fits epileptic in char