The first illness that befell Queen Mary, so far as I have been able to ascertain, was not in her childish days when she played at Linlithgow or at Inchmahome, nor in the days of her girlish study, or young married life in France, but when the first cloud of sorrow had broken over her, and she had seen her father-in-law and her youthful husband die, and when her own mother had passed away. Rather reluctantly she had decided to return to Scotland, and was making her way thither when she was taken by fever, evidently au ague of a tertian type, from which she suffered for some time, and which led to a delay of her return. From Blackwood's Magazine. poraries suffered; second, I shall say NOTES ON SCOTTISH MEDICINE IN THE something of the careers of some of DAYS OF QUEEN MARY. the medical men who treated these EVERYTHING is of interest to Scot-cases; and third, I shall select an illustish people, and indeed to many of other tration or two of the observations they lands, that throws additional light upon made, the theories which they held as the history of the career and times of to the nature of the morbid processes Mary Stuart. Her career fascinates; which came under their observation, and every fact in it has been amply and the lines of treatment which they discussed from many points of view. adopted. Her times were among the most important that our country has known. The days of Columba were great; those of Queen Margaret and the first David were of no little importance; those of the heroic struggle against English aggression have always thrilled the heart of Scotland and the world, but for fascination, none can compare with those of Mary. Her own great personality, with its perplexing problems -those of Knox and Moray, and Darnley and Bothwell—of Maitland of Lethington, of Morton, of the Hamiltons, and among them, above all, the vigorous-minded John, Archbishop of St. Andrews — with Glencairn, Argyle, Huntly, Ruthven, and Rizzio with Elizabeth and her great minister Cecil, and her astute representative at the Scottish court, Randolph — with Catherine de Medicis, the Duke of Guise, the Cardinal Lorraine - with Philip of Spain, and Alva, and many more, crowd the stage, and make the period attractive beyond any other historical epoch. It may be interesting, both to medical men and to readers in general, to gather up some of the medical facts which are to be discovered among the records of the great political events of the day. Some may ask what we can really get to know of medical matters in that period, but it is surprising how many points of interest emerge when one is on the lookout for them. We rely not so much upon stated medical works as upon incidental references. But every here and there references do occur, and I have gathered a few of them, and shall here present them in groups. First, I shall give a short account of various illnesses from which Queen Mary herself and some of her contem Two years later she suffered, towards the end of November, 1562, an attack of what I think every one will agree must have been influenza. Thomas Randolph or Randall, who was one of the most zealous and able of Queen Elizabeth's agents, and was long employed in Scotland in that capacity, writes to Cecil : May it please your honor, immediately upon the queen's arrival here she fell acquainted with a new disease that is common in this town, called here the New Acquaintance, which passed through her whole Court, neither sparing lord, lady, nor damoiselle- - not so much as either French or English. It is a pain in their heads that have it, and a soreness in their stomachs, with a great cough that remaineth with some longer, with others shorter time, as it findeth apt bodies for the nature of the disease. The queen kept her bed six days : there was no appearance of danger, nor many that die of the disease except some old folks. My Lord of Murray is now presently in it, the Lord of Liddington hath had it, and I am ashamed to say that I have been free of it, seeing it seeketh acquaint ance at all men's hands. By reason of these | as a witch, and as such was able to occasions I have not seen her Grace since transfer the pains of labor to another she came to town. -sometimes to a woman, or sometimes even to the husband, sometimes to a cat or a dog; and if Andrew Lundie's information was correct, she had obliged queen on this occasion by transferring her pains to one of her court ladies. Chloroform is a great improve the ment upon this method. Queen Mary seems to have made a good recovery, for within three months we find her able to do things that few now could achieve. One of the most curious of all the She had It can scarcely be doubted that this disease was influenza. It had appeared suddenly; it was common in the town ; it passed through the whole court, sparing neither lord, lady, nor damoiselte, and affecting alike the Scots, English, and French. It was characterized by a pain in the head, by soreness in the stomach, and by cough. And it lasted longer or shorter time, according to the constitution of the individual patient. In the queen's case it lasted six days. It was unattended by danger, illnesses which befell Queen Mary was for few died of it except old folks. that which happened in Jedburgh in Our ancestors seem to have been as the end of October, 1566. much impressed with the novelty of given birth to her son in Edinburgh the malady as others have been in more Castle on the 19th June, and in October was so well as to be able to hold “jusrecent times, and the name they gave tice airs," or circuit courts, in some of it-the New Acquaintance — is She reached Jedsuggestive as the name of influenza, by the Border towns. which it has come to be known in mod-burgh on the 9th of October. Various ern days. It is interesting to notice matters of business were transacted On the how this courtier misses his opportunity during the following week. of basking in the smiles of royalty, and 15th, Le Croc, the French ambassador, feels a polite regret that he has not arrived, and on the 16th, Mary made her famous ride to Hermitage Castle in been able in this particular to be enorder to visit the Earl of Bothwell, her tirely in the fashion. The dislieutenant of the Marches. tance is twenty-three miles in a direct line, and she showed her vigor by riding on horseback there and back in a single day, a distance in all which must have been at least sixty miles. The mere bodily fatigue involved in such an expedition was enough to induce ill as I have not heard of any other illness till those interesting days when Queen Mary had taken up her quarters in those apartments in the Castle with which we are familiar, and was looking forward to the birth of her son. ard Bannatyne, who belonged to the household of our great reformer, states, under date of July 3, 1571, that Rich Andro Lundie beand at dener with my maister, in a place of the lard of Abbotthalls, called Falsyde, openlie affirmet for treuth, that when the quene was lying in leasing of the king, the Ladie Athole, lying thair lykwayis, bayth within the castell of Elinburgh, that he come thair for sum busines, and called for the Ladie Reirres, whome he fand in hir chalmer, lying bedfast, and he asking hir of hir disease, scho answrit that scho was never so trubled with no barne that ever scho bair, ffor the Ladie Athole had cassin all the pyne of her childbirth vpon hir. Now it was well known at that time that the Countess of Athole possessed power ness; Some authorities are of opinion that with that kindliness of heart which was one of the leading features of the beautiful queen, she hastened as soon as her official duties permitted to pay a visit of sympathy to her wounded lieutenant. Bothwell was among the foremost of her nobles. He was seven years her senior, and, like her, had lived much abroad. He was familiar with Italy, and especially with Venice, and, like every leading Scotsman of his day, knew France well, and was well known to its statesmen. He held sway over the queen's brother, the Earl of Mogreat territories of the Borderland.ray; and Nau roundly asserts that when From his castle at Dunbar to that of things were at their worst that nobleHailes, close by East Linton, on to Borthwick and thence along to Hermitage, the country was studded with fortresses of which he was master, and in her service this great noble had been wounded. What, say many, was more natural and more characteristic than that this gracious queen should pay him a visit of sympathy and condolence? man laid hands on her most precious articles, such as her silver plate and jewels. Her condition was considered so hopeless that mourning dresses were ordered and arrangements were made for the funeral; some even declared that she was actually dead. On one occasion she lost the power of speeck and had a severe fit of convulsions; all But others, reading the history by her limbs were drawn together, her the light of subsequent events, aver face was distorted, and her whole body that the queen's heart was already became cold. Her surgeon, Arnault, touched, and that, wife and mother however, refused to believe her dead, though she was, love had sprung up for having perceived some tokens of life in this strong, able, and accomplished her arms, and he adopted what is justly man who was destined to wreck her described as an extreme remedy in her fame. They point out how the weak, extreme case. He bandaged very vain, vicious Darnley, on whom she tightly her great toes and her legs, from had lavished her wealth of love some the ankles upwards, and her arms; and eighteen months before, had become he opened her mouth by force and hateful to her, and assert that tokens poured some wine into it. When she are not wanting that Bothwell had had recovered a little, he administered taken the place of which Darnley had other remedies, and pronounced the proved unworthy. They picture to results produced by them to be very themselves the struggle between duty suspicious; but under this treatment and passion, and represent the queen she improved. One day during her as having at last yielded to the dictates illness she called together the lords that of her feelings—given the rein to folly, were in attendance upon her, and reand galloped off, regardless of appear-minded them of the importance of their ances and of every other deterring mutual union and agreement for the consideration. If this view be correct, we can well understand what share the tumultuous emotions of that day might have had in the production of her ill ness. good of the country and the safety of her son. She specially recommended him to their care, and to that of the king of France. She caused prayers to be read, and disposed of herself as one near to death. We have various accounts of the events of these anxious days, and it appears that although she was never in such extreme danger, yet she had for a week recurrences of vomitings and of nervous seizures; and even after she had sufficiently recovered to make her way to Edinburgh by Teviotdale and Berwickshire, she vomited a quantity of corrupt blood, and then seemed to convalesce decidedly. With regard to the illness itself we have the record in considerable detail. On the 17th, the day after her famous ride, she was taken ill. The "Diurnal of Occurrents says she was so heavily vexed with hot fevers that no one thought she would live. The illness set in with severe pain in the side, and confined her to bed. As it was referred to the spleen, we may infer it was in the left side. It was attended by very severe and often repeated vomiting. Nau says she vomited more than sixty All the narratives leave us in some times; this gave rise to a suspicion doubt as to the details of this formidaof poisoning, and some writers have ble illness, but certain of its features plainly said not only that poisoning had are unmistakably portrayed. She unoccurred, but that it was the work of doubtedly had hematemesis, but its Six years before | tried by the events of her escape, by the tertian ague, and hasty ride to Niddry Tower and to Hamilton, and still more by the miserable and lonely gallop over the moorland On cause is not so clear. she had suffered from the spleen might have been permanently enlarged in consequence; but this would not explain such a hemor- hills of Lanarkshire and Dumfriesshire rhage. The hypothesis of irritant that followed the hopeless defeat at poisoning seems to have suggested it- Langside; but I find no authentic acself almost of necessity in every case of count of failing health till March, 1569, sudden death in those days, and one when Shrewsbury writes to Cecil: "She cannot wonder, considering the symp- hath complained this fortnight of the toms of this illness, that it was sus- grief of the spleen, which my physician, pected here; but what irritant poison Leveret, informeth me is obstructio is there which could lead to such hæ- splenis cum flatu hyponcondrico," matemesis and not prove fatal? I do wherewith by times . . . she is ready not believe that such a poison exists. to swoon." A month later her health Even if it were referable to poisoning, was evidently suffering on account of I should reject as utterly groundless her perplexities and anxieties. the suspicion against the Earl of Moray Tuesday, May 10, she had an attack which finds favor in certain quarters. which she described both to the Bishop But what was the cause of her uncon- of Ross and to the French ambassador scious attacks, her blindness, her vio- as being similar to the one which nearly lent convulsions? They could not proved fatal at Jedburgh. Shrewsbury, result from organic disease, for they writing to Cecil about that attack, says: soon and completely disappeared; they "This queen, on receipt of pills by her were therefore clearly functional, and physician for ease of her spleen, becertainly referable to the category of came very sick, and swounded divers hysterical complaints. And who that times vehemently, so as they were knows hysteria can wonder that a driven to give her to drink aqua vitæ young woman, not three months after in good quantity, but she escaped the her confinement, whose heart was broken at the thought of her miserable folly in marrying a man so utterly beneath her and unworthy of her in every respect; who had during her pregnancy is clear that she had a recurrence of seen her faithful servant dragged from her supper-table to be murdered in an adjoining room; who had ridden for sixty miles in one day to see a favored nobleman; who was striving with all her might to re-establish the old religion in which she believed, and undo the work of her people in the direction of Reformation; and perhaps who felt in her heart the tumult of rising passion for him whose bedside she visited, -who can wonder that with these conditions and the exhaustion due to hæmatemesis together, her nervous system broke down, and she took hysteria ? danger. Her body remains yet very much distempered. Her recovery was as sudden as her attack, and she had various convulsions." Here, again, it her nervous and hysterical symptoms. She was seen by Dr. Francis and by Drs. Atslowe and Good. In the long years of her captivity the queen seems often to have suffered from rheumatic and gouty complaints, and asked permission of Elizabeth to visit Buxton for their relief. This was refused. In the summer of 1573 the English authorities were again hard pressed by Mary herself and by the French ambassador, and the Earl of Shrewsbury reported that she was complaining of a hardness in her side. This hardness may have been an enlarged spleen due to her old malarious I find no sufficient evidence in sup- disease; and Lord Burleigh, after a port of vague stories about illnesses, good deal of delay, was intrusted by and utterly reject the rumor of the birth Elizabeth with the duty of telling of a child in Lochleven Castle. Her Shrewsbury that he might go with system must have been tremendously Mary to Buxton. About August 21 Buxtona, quæ calidæ celebraris nomine Forte mihi posthac non adeunda, Vale. ness. the party left Chatsworth, and they | when she left it she seems to have said seem to have spent at the utmost five farewell with special sadness; for she weeks at Buxton. Buxton Wells had wrote with a diamond, upon a windowbeen known to the Romans, and had pane, the words: been used by them during the Roman occupation of our island, but had fallen into neglect. Just about Mary's time they were again coming into favor. A certain Dr. Jones was the fashionable A few years more, and she was freed physician of the place, and wrote about forever from the trials of bodily sickits merits. He recommended not only the baths but regular exercises: for gentlemen, bowling, butts, and tossing Many illnesses are recorded as occurthe windball; for ladies, a kind of ring among Mary's contemporaries, and game which consisted in trolling bowls one might be glad to know details of of lead or other material into a set of fevers from which Queen Elizabeth holes made in the end of a bench or suffered. What was the particular otherwise. I have seen on the floor of lesion, which was called an aposthume the room in Linlithgow Palace in which (an old name for abscess), and which Mary as a child used to play, a set of came on so suddenly when Mary's first holes, each about the size of a wine- husband, King Francis, was hearing glass, and evidently intended for some mass one day? Was it really a ceregame very possibly this same one bral abscess, or was it thrombosis of that Dr. Jones was in the habit of rec- the sinus, or was it a septic meningitis ommending his lady patients to play that followed upon his disease of the at Buxton. She took her baths, and, mastoid cells - his rotten ear, as the according to tradition, explored some plain-spoken historians of the day called of the places of interest, and particu- it? One would like to know the nature larly the caverns in the neighborhood. of the temporary paralysis with aphasia She derived some relief, and said that from which John Knox suffered so sudif she had had a better season of year denly; of that chronic spinal malady and more time she would have got more which so long beset the acute and masgood. She was frequently suffering terful Maitland of Lethington; whether from rheumatic, gouty, and other com- it was Bright's disease, or a cardiac plaints in the years which followed, trouble, or a tumor, of which Mary of and in 1580 she again visited Buxton Guise died in Edinburgh Castle; of the and took the baths regularly. About kind of insanity which seized the Earl this time again there was an outbreak of influenza, but Mary seems to have escaped. of Arran in St. Andrews, and led to his being brought to Edinburgh in the queen's coach, guarded by thirty-three attendants on horseback, and accompanied by Bothwell, and one of his In 1582 two eminent physicians, Dr. Smith and Dr. Barronsdale, were sent to treat the queen, and they again rec-kinsfolk, the Hamiltons. But for this ommended Buxton. She went on the 13th of June, and stayed there some weeks. In 1584 Shrewsbury reports that she had been much crippled in her hand, and after another visit to Buxton she herself writes: "It is incredible how this cure has soothed my nerves, and dried my body of the phlegmatic humors with which, by reason of feeble health, it was so abundantly filled." She probably remained there for a month or six weeks that season, and incident we should scarcely have known that the queen possessed a coach, or that the country possessed roads along which a coach could travel. One would like to know particulars of the strange malady which simultaneously affected almost all the Scottish commissioners who had been sent to France on the occasion of the marriage of Mary to the dauphin. It proved fatal to Robert Reid, Bishop of Orkney, the first man who left money to found the University |