Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1896-09-05
ROYAL HYPOCHONDRIACs.
The Crown Princess of Sweden's Inn.
aginary Consumption.

The Crown Princess of Sweden's Inn.
aginnry Consumption.
From the New York Tribune.
Much has been heard about the delicate
state of health Of the Crown Princess of
Sweden, who for three years has been re-
ported In the last stage Of consumption. It
has even been proclaimed a the beginning
OF each winter that she could not possibly
live through it. 1t Is somewhat startling,
therefore, to learn that a consultation of
the most eminent German. Swedish and
French specialists, assembled for the pur-
pose at BadenBaden. has resulted in a
definite decision that there is nothing on
earth the matter with the princess save a
nervous ailment of hypochondriac charac-
ter, almost identical with that from which
her mother-in-law, the Queen of Sweden. Is
suffering. These great medical authorities
have at length decided that her throat and
her lungs are in an absolutely healthy con-
dttion that the physicians who have been
humorfng her firm convictions that she was
dying of tuberculosis and treating her for
that ailment have been culpable of prefer
ring to court the favor of their royal pa
tient rather than to give an honest dag
nosfs. and that there was no reason what
soever for her passing her winters in a hot
climate such as that of Cairo, Biskra in AL
Giers and in Sicily. as she has hitherto been
in the habit Of doing.
All this must be exceedingly notifying
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 railway carriage in litter
apparently in an almost unconscious condi-
ton. 1t remains 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 Of her
1rrpcy at Il 20
Married In 1881, she has scarcely spent
more than eight months in Sweden in as
many years, and inasmuch as the queen
like herself. tmagines herself to he dying
the Swedish court has remained to all in
tents and purposes without any lady at its
head. the only other one Of King Oscars
sons who Is married being his second, who
contracted a morganatic alliance The
worst feature of the whole affair is that the
crown princess has been content to live al
| most permanently apart from her three
little boys, the eldest twelve and the young
est six years old, who stay permanently
with their father, the crown prince. in Syye-
den among the people over whom the eld-
est OF them Is eventually to reign.
The funny point in all this Is that the
Swedes have undergone almost identically
the same experience with their queen, who
has been a confirmed hypochondriac for
years. and has imagined herself into a
state of debility from which she will prob
ably never recover For years she con-
suited the leading specialists Of Europe, but
only two. Dr. Metzger of Amsterdam and
Wiesbaden and DR.. Friedericns of Heidel-
berg, had the courage to tell her that her
malady was of a purely imaginary charac-
ter, and that if she was suffering from any,
thing it was merely from the medicines
given to her by her complaisant ply
scfans. who had found it worth their
while to humor her belief that she was
consumptive.
There are. of course. many hypochondri-
acs of this kind-people who are convinced
That they are suffering from every malady
under the sun-and one of the most emil
nent and famous specialists in diseases of
the chest in London openly confessed on
one occasion that at least so per cent of the
great ladies thror ging his waiting room
were afflicted with purely imaginary COM
plants. ut would not do, however to tell
them so. If I were to do this they would
merely go to some other physician and
complain everywhere of me as Incapable
of understanding their case"
1t Is all the more astonishing that the
Crown Princess of Sweden should have
turned out thus, as she has received most
thorough and sensible education, her moth
er. the Grand Duchess Of Baden, only
daughter of old Emperor William, being
one of the most shrewd, unaffected and
kind-hearted women In Europe, and most
deservedly popular.