The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1913-03-06
KINGS EVILS.
Oueer Diseases Which Attack People
of Royal Blood.

The royal family of Russia have
lately returned thanks for the recov-
ery of the tsarevitch from serious
illness. There has been deal of un-
necessary mystery about this illness,
but the fact has now been made pub
lie that the boy is "hoemophilic, or
in common medical slang, "bleed-
err
So was the late Duke of Albany, OF
whom it was said that he had only
two skins instead of three. That was
all nonsense. He and other hoemo-
philes had or have just as many
skins as other people. The trouble IS
with the blood itself.
If you or 1 cut finger the wound
bleeds for a time, then clot is
formed, and the flow stops of itself.
In the case of the young heir to the
Russian throne and others afflicted
with this curious complaint, the blood
is of a different consistency, and has
not that quality of clotting. Conse-
ouently, even the smallest cut is dan
gerous, for it may drain all the blood
out of the body.
There is one very strange point
about this malady. 1t is handed down
in the female line, yet only occurs IN
men. The second son of the king Of
Spain is said to be affected by it, and
so are several other lesser royalties.
Blue blood has it's penalties. Every
one will remember the case of the
late Duke of Portland, who suffered
from a strange skin disease of a very
rare nature, and who for this reason
became an absolute recluse. Royal
families intermarry so largely that
hardly any of them are free from GER
tain complaints.
The tsar himself, although his
general health is good, used to suf-
fer from a. mild form of epileptic
fits, and there is consumption in the
family. 1t was consumption that
killed the tsar's brother who, during
all the latter years of his life, lived
in the comparatively warm climate OF
Caucasus.
The king of Spain, who was most
delicate baby, grew up strong and
athletic owing to careful physical
training. But he has troublesome
malady of the bronchial and nasal
passages which forces him to undergo
slight operation about once year.
Many people imagine that the
kaiser's withered left hand is due to
some .congenital disease, but this is
not the case. 1t was due to an un-
fortunate accident at his birth. The
result is that the arm is some four
inches shorter than the other. His
right hand, however, is prodigiously
powerful.
The only trace of trouble about the
kaiser, dating from birth, is a thick
ening of the drum of one ear, which
gives him a certain amount of pain
at times. There was great anxiety
some years ago when his throat went
wrong, for it was remembered that
both his father and his mother died
of that terrible disease, cancer. In
the case of the Emperor Frederick,
the disease attacked the throat.
There is lunacy in more than one
royal family. In 1911 Bavaria cele-
brated the silver jubilee of her king,
| Otto l. Otto ascended the throne in
1886, and even then had been hope
lessly insane for IA years. He went
off his head at the age of 29.
His brother, Ludwig II, friend and
patron of Wagner, was also mad, and
ended his own life by drowning HIM
self in the lake in front of the palace.
The disease from which Otto suffers
is technically known as "paransia.
Poor Carlotta, sister of the late
king of the Belgians, and once en-
press of Mexico, is also hopelessly
insane, but in her case the madness
was caused by the shock Of her hus-
bands death.
Several members of the house of
Hapsburg, which rules Austria, are
subject to fits of passion which are
near akin to insanity. The unfortu-
nate Rudolf, who killed himself in
Meyerling, was subject to fits of this
kind.-Pearson's Weekly.