Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1896-10-03
ROYAL
TWO Women Who imagine They Are
Dying of Consumption

Dying OF NohHhmthAN"
Much has been heard about the oell-
cate state of health of the crown
princess Of Sweden, who for three
Years has been reported in the iast
stage of consumption. II has even zee
proclaimed at the beginning of each
winter that she could not possibly i've
| brouch il. II is somewhat startllng'
therefore. to learn that a consultation
of The most eminent German, SWeulsh
and French specialists, assembled Tor
,bc nurrosc at Baden-lladen, has re-
suited in a definite decision that there
is nothing on earth the matter WIN
the princess save a nervous aIii'eh' VI
y hypochondriac character, almost
identical with that from when her
mother-in-law, the queen ot sweuen' Is
suffering. These great medical author
tiles have mt length decided that hei
throat and lungs are in an absolutely
healthy condition; that the physicians
who have been humoring her firm con-
yictions that she was dying of tubercU-
losis and treating her for that allmei''
have been culpahle of prcferring to
court the favor of their royal patient
rather than to give an honest diagnosis,
and that there was no reason whatever
for her passing her winters in n hot cit
mate, such rs that of Cairo, Blskra IN
Algiers, and in Sicily, as she has hithcr'
to been in the habit of doing.
All this must he exceedingly mortify'
ing to the relatives of the princess, all
the more when they recall to mind the
fuss made about her, especially when
travelling. The young lady has insisted
on being conveyed TO and from her rail
way carriage in Il litter, apparently in
an almost unconscious condition. 1t re-
mains to be seen what the worthy
Swedes will say to this. They have
hitherto been content to dispense with
the princess presence at Stockholm on
the understanding that the condition Gt
her lungs did not admit of her living
there. Married in 1881, she has scarcely
spent more than eight months in
Sweden in as many years, and inasmnc'i
as the queen. like herself, imngines her
self to be dying, the Swedish court has
remained to all intents and purposes
without any lady at its head, the only
other one of King Oscars sons who IS
married being his second, who contract
ed a m%organatic alliance. The worst
feature of the whole affair is that the
crown princess has been content to live
almost permanently apart from hcl
three little boys, the eldest IL and the
youngest six years old, who stays per.
manently with their father, the crown
prince, in Sweden, among the people
over whom the eldest of them is eyentu.
ally to reign.
The funny point in all this is that the
Swedes have undergone almost identic,
ally the same experience with their
queen, who has been a confirmed hypo.
c|hondriac for years, and has imagined
herself into a state of debility from
which she will probably never recover.
For years she consulted the leading spe.
cialists of Europe, but only two, DR..
Metzgar. of Amsterdam and Wicsbadcn
and DIR. Friederichs, of Heidelberg, hal
the courage to tell her tina, her malady
was of a purely imaginary character,
and that if she was suffering from any.
thing it was merely from the medicines
given her by hercomplaisant physicians
who had found it worth their while tc
humor her belief that she was a con.
sumptive.
There are, of course, many hypochon.
driacs of this ~kind-people who are
convinced that they are suffering from
every malady under the sun-and on,
Of the most eminent and famous special.
lists in diseases Of the chest in London
openly confessed on one occasion Tim,
at least so per cent. of the great ladies
%thronging his waiting-room were AT.
iilcted with purely imaginary con.
plants. 1T would not do, however. tc
tell them so. II | were to do this they
would merely so to some other physi.
clan and complain everywhere of me a,
incapable of undertaking their case"
1t is all the more astonishing that til,
crown princess of Sweden should have
turned out thus. as she has received =
most thorough and sensible education
her mother, the grand duchess of Ba
den, only daughter of old Emperor vii.
nam, being one of the most shrewd, ur.
affected and kind-hcarted women in
Europe and most deserved!y popular.
Y v T,;l,.