[205] Strype's Annals, iv. p. 394.
[206] Davies, ii. 179.
[207] By a Proclamation, March 25, 1616, it appears that the Kings of England would not permit patients to approach them during the summer.
[208] The following interesting remarks on this subject were communicated to Mr. Nichols, in 1781, by the learned and very ingenious Dr. Aikin. "Though the superstitious notions respecting the cure of the King's Evil by the Touch of our English Kings are probably at present entirely eradicated, it is still a curious and not uninstructive object of enquiry, by what means they were so long supported, and by what kind of evidence they have been able to gain credit even in the dawning of a more enlightened period. The testimony of Richard Wiseman, Serjeant-Surgeon to King Charles I. has been alleged as one of the strongest and most unexceptionable in favour of the Touch. He was a man of the greatest eminence in his profession; and his Works (collected in a folio volume, intituled, "Several Chirurgical Treatises, by Richard Wiseman, Serjeant-Chirurgeon, 1676") bear all the marks of an honest and upright disposition in their author. On the subject of the Royal Touch he delivers himself in the following strong and unequivocal terms: 'I myself have been a frequent eye-witness of many hundreds of cures performed by his Majesty's Touch alone, without any assistance of Chirurgery; and those many of them such as had tired out the endeavours of able Chirurgeons before they came thither. It were endless to recite what I myself have seen, and what I have received acknowledgments of by letter, not only from the several parts of the Nation, but also from Ireland, Scotland, Jersey, and Guernsey.' The question which will naturally arise upon this passage is, Did Wiseman really believe what he asserted, or was he knowingly promoting an imposture? Both suppositions have their difficulties; yet both are in some degree probable. His warm attachment to the Royal Family, and early prejudices, might in some measure make his faith preponderate against his judgment; and, on the other hand, certain passages in his treatise necessarily shew a consciousness of collusion and fraudulent pretensions. It was his business, as Serjeant-surgeon, to select such afflicted objects as were proper to be presented for the Royal Touch. In the history of the disease, relating its various states and appearances, he says, 'Those which we present to his Majesty are chiefly such as have this kind of tumour about the musculus mastoideus, or neck, with whatever other circumstances they are accompanied; nor are we difficult in admitting the thick-chapped upper lips, and eyes affected with a lippitudo; in other cases we give our judgment more warily.' Here is a selection of the slightest cases, and a manifest doubt expressed concerning the success in more inveterate ones. A little below, observing that the strumæ will often be suppurated, or resolved unexpectedly from accidental ferments, he says, 'In case of the King's Touch, the resolution doth often happen where our endeavours have signified nothing; yea, the very gummata; insomuch that I am cautious of predicting concerning them (though they appear never so bad) till 14 days be over.' From this we learn, that the Touch was by no means infallible, and that the pretence of its succeeding was not given up till a fortnight had passed without any change for the better. Indeed it appears very plain, that the worst kind of cases were seldom or never offered the Touch; for in no disease does Wiseman produce more observations from his practice of difficult and dangerous chirurgical treatment, and in not one of these did he call in the assistance of the Royal Hand. It was indeed proposed in a single instance, but under such circumstances as furnish a stronger proof of imposture than any thing hitherto related. A young gentlewoman had an obstinate scrophulous tumour in the right side of the neck, under the maxilla. Wiseman applied a large caustic to it, brought it to suppuration, treated it with escharotics, and cured it. 'About a year after,' he says, 'I saw her again in town, and felt a small gland, of the bigness of a lupin, lying lower on that side of the neck. I would have persuaded her to admit of a resolvent emplaster, and to be touched; but she did not, as she said, believe it to be the King's Evil.' Here, after allowing his patient to undergo a course of very severe surgery, he is willing to trust the relics of the disease to the Royal Touch, assisted by a resolving plaster; but the complaint was now too trifling to engage her attention. Surely the greatest opponent of the Touch will not place it in a more contemptible light!"
[209] By a Proclamation, June 18, 1626, it is ordered, that no one shall apply for this purpose, who does not bring a certificate that he was never touched before; a regulation which undoubtedly arose from some supposed patients, who had attempted to receive the bit of gold more than once.
[210] Rymer, tom, xviii. p. 118.
[211] Id. p. 1023.
[212] Browne, book iii. p. 135.
[213] Sir Kenelm Digby informed Mons. Monconys, that if the person had lost the piece of gold, the complaint immediately returned.
[214] Browne, book iii. p. 109.