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The Death of the Queen.
276
The Death of the Queen. inexpressible grief of her subjects Queen Victoria has passed away. The ruler for over 60 years To the
;
of
inheritance which under her sway became the largest empire the world has ever seen, her life is an integral part of the history of modern civilisation ; so that even to give the briefest sketch of its salient an
recurrent symptoms of apathy and somnolence with aphasic indications and increasing feebleness gave great uneasiness to her physician. On Wednesday, Jan. 16th, the Queen showed in. creasing symptoms of cerebral exhaustion. By an effort of will, however, Her Majesty would for a time, as it were, command her brain to work and the visitor of a few minutes would fail to observe the signs of
cerebral exhaustion. On Thursday the exhaustion was more marked with considerable drowsiness ; and a slight flattening was observed on the right side of the face. From this time the aphasia and facial paresis although incomplete
points would be far beyond the scope of THE LANCET. We only here desire to record the profound regret of were permanent. On Friday the Queen was a little brighter, but on the profession which we strive to represent at the loss Saturday evening, 19th, there was a relapse of the of our good and great Queen. graver symptoms which with remissions continued until THE LAST ILLNESS OF THE QUEEN. From information with which we have been favoured we append the following authoritative account of the last illness of the Queen :-
the end. It is important to note that notwithstanding the great bodily weakness and cerebral exhaustion the heart’s action was steadily maintained to the last; the pulse at times evincing increased tension, but being always regular and of normal frequency. The temperature was normal throughout. In the last few hours of life paresis of the pulmonary nerves set in, the heart beating steadily to the end. Beyond the slight right facial flattening there was never any motor paralysis, and except for the occasional lapses mentioned the mind cannot be said to have been clouded. Within a few minutes of death the Queen recognised the several members of her family.
Ossosxs, Jan. 23rd, 1901. The Queen’s health for the past 12 months had been failing, with symptoms mainly of a dyspeptic kind accompanied by impaired general nutrition, periods of insomnia, and later by occasional slight and transitory attacks of aphasia, the latter suggesting that the cerebral vessels had become damaged, although Her Majesty’s general arterial system showed remarkably few signs of age. The constant brain work through a long life of Royal responsibilities, and the Imperial events, - domestic A BRIEF BIOGRAPHICAL SKETOH. sorrows, and anxieties which have crowded into her Her Majesty Queen Victoria was the daughter and later years, may no doubt be held in some measure to. only child of Edward, Duke of Kent, fourth son of account for this discrepancy between the cerebral and III. (whom he predeceased) by his wife the general vessel nutrition. The thoracic and abdominal George Princess Victoria Mary Louisa of Saxe-Coburg, widow organs showed no signs of disease. of Charles, Prince of Leiningen. The death of the The dyspepsia which tended to lower Her Majesty’s Princess the child of George IV., Charlotte, only originally robust constitution was especially marked childless, and the subsequent deaths of Frederick during her last visit to Balmoral. It was there that Duke of York and of King William IV. without issue, the Queen first manifested distinct symptoms of brain brought Her Majesty to the throne as heiress of her fatigue and lost notably in weight. uncle when only a few days -over 18 years of age. These symptoms continued at Windsor where in It had been evident for some years what her high November and December slight aphasic symptoms were destiny would be, and she was educated by her mother, first observed, always of an ephemeral kind and un- the Duchess of Kent, with a special eye towards her attended by any motor paralysis. fateful future. Although it was judged best to continue the negotiaIn 1837, on the death of William IV., she ascended tions for Her Majesty’s proposed visit to the continent the throne. The times were critical, as all know. in the spring, it was distinctly recognised by her phy- A great Reform Bill had just become law and pleased sicians and by those in closest personal attendance upon nobody, for while it curtailed the privileges of the her that these arrangements were purely provisional, landowners it did not seem to be sufficiently sweeping it being particularly desired not to discourage Her to benefit the working man. An iniquitous measure Majesty in regard to her own health by suggesting prohibited the introduction into the land of foreign doubts as to the feasibility of the change abroad to corn until wheat had reached the astounding price of which she had been looking forward. 80s. a quarter, and it is not too much to say that in The Queen suffered unusual fatigue from the journey 1837 the poor of the land were kept by law at the to Osborne on Dec. 18th, showing symptoms of nervous verge of starvation. Chartism, a movement which agitation and restlessness which lasted for two days. aimed at drastic changes in the Constitution, had Her Majesty afterwards improved for a time both ic assumed proportions indistinguishable from rebellion.’ appetite and nerve tone in response to more complete At this juncture a girl in her teens, sufficiently well quietude than she had hitherto consented to observe. grounded in public affairs to understand the enormous A few days before the final illness transient but responsibilities that fate was placing upon her, was
QLTEEN VICTORIA.
279
called to the head of the State, and came unfalteringly. century, which the Crown had to struggle for in the From the first Council over which she presided the eighteenth century, and which the educated nation of Queen gave evidence of courage, devotion to duty, and Great Britain would never for one moment have an intention to understand the rights and the wrongs granted in the nineteenth century. As decade after of all great questions arising in her realm. She did decade went by under her firm and gentle rule the not, most happily for her, remain long without a nation became permeated with the sense that they confidant to share her tremendous responsibilities. were governed by a woman not only of wide personal Three years after her accession, that is, in 1840, she sympathies and of a sweet and religious nature married her cousin, His Royal Highness F. Albert but also of extraordinary mental endowments. They A. C. E. Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and Duke saw that instinctively she ruled upon right evoluof Saxony. By him she had nine children, of whom t-e e tionary principles, not seeking for novelty or eldest son now succeeds as King Edward VII. In 1861 blindly wedded to the tradition of an ancient the Prince Consort died, to the irreparable grief of his ’I’égime, but taking for her scheme what was widow, who during the next 10 years remained in good in the past and adding to it what was of seclusion as far as devotion to the affairs of the nation promise in the future. She was prompt to recognise her true position and to would allow her to do so. For 20 years of wedded life the Queen enjoyed the support of a lover and realise both its possibilities and its limitations. There husband who was also a wise and faithful friend, and can be no doubt that our nation would never have no one can doubt that the deep affection which she had enjoyed its extraordinary era of prosperity beneath a for the Prince Consort and the unbounded confidence monarch content to rule in name only and willing, which she rightly placed in his judgment greatly because certain attributes of mediaeval royalty had to be lightened the burden of State affairs for her. Through- surrendered, to waive all personal responsibility and to out the dark days of the Crimean war, and the still sit behind her Councils a figure-head, the nominal fount of honour and nothing more. The Queen was no less i more terrible season of the Indian mutiny, the Queen had her husband beside her to share her grief and judicious in the assertion of her personality than she confirm her resolution. It is no wonder that the death was j nst in her sense of what was due to the progress of such a consort should have remained with her as an of the nation committed to her charge, and as a con, sequence her people as they came to know her loved ever-abiding sense of loss. The Queen emerged from the semi-seclusion of her her. The increasing affection in which the Queen was I mourning under circumstances which ensured her the held underwent remarkable demonstration in 1887 upon sympathy of a people who were loyal to her and the occasion of the Jubilee of her reign, from which cognisant of her many deep claims upon their respect time forward, as we have said elsewhere, personal love and admiration, but who had at the time not the inti- for the sovereign became a quality common to the mate knowledge of her which it has since been their whole nation. To medicine the Queen was always a good friend. privilege to obtain. In 1872 the Prince of Wales reShe chose her medical advisers with discrimination and covered from typhoid fever after passing through a honoured with her deep personal friendship more than stage of the disease during which medical opinion held out but small hope of the fortunate issue. The Qaeen one of them. During her reign the enormous developreturned public thanksgiving in St. Paul’s Cathedral ments of science have been freely recognised as one of for the recovery of her son and from that time forward the great factors in British progress, and in no branch of science has more progress been made than in those lived much more in the sight of her people. How far the personal history of our dead Queen is departments of medicine where the introduction of the also the constitutional history of her people cannot be use of anaesthetics and the discoveries of the antiseptic Her Majesty showed her treatment are available. even guessed at, but when the scientific historians of of our profession by the admirable selecthe future come to tell the history of the reign of Queen appreciation and surgeons, tions which she made of her physicians the we certain that estimate of her Victoria are present as a wise monarch will be completely justified. She and by the faith which she put in their advice. It is came to the throne the child of kings who were only noteworthy that the Queen was early inducted into deterred from exercising their absolutism by a recollec- orthodox medicine, for she was the first member of our tion of the fate of the House of Stuart. Fortunate in Royal Family to be vaccinated. There were until shortly before the commenceher early advisers she determined to take a part at once in her own Councils when the thought of her ment of her fatal illness few premonitory signs of real responsibilities might well have appalled her. Happy, danger to her life. To the grave public anxieties and extraordinarily happy, in the choice of a husband private griefs of the last 18 months of her reign her she was able almost from the first to share these death may possibly be attributable in a secondary responsibilities with a good man. And so it was degree, but the end came as a peaceful and natural that doubly fortified against timidity and strong conclusion of a long, full, and beautiful life. Her in the knowledge that she possessed a well-informed Majesty died at half-past six o’clock in the afternoon mind, a mind open equally to the principles of Tuesday, Jan. 22nd, in the eighty-second year of of justice and the sentiments of mercy, Queen her age, the immediate cause of death being cerebral The authoritative statement which we Victoria was able to maintain the best parts of failure. her prerogative and to yield without any sense of publish above tells the story of the last illness so weakness claims that might have been universally clearly to the medical man, that we need not enlarge acknowledged as due to the Crown in the seventeenth upon it.
The Death of the Queen. inexpressible grief of her subjects Queen Victoria has passed away. The ruler for over 60 years To the
;
of
inheritance which under her sway became the largest empire the world has ever seen, her life is an integral part of the history of modern civilisation ; so that even to give the briefest sketch of its salient an
recurrent symptoms of apathy and somnolence with aphasic indications and increasing feebleness gave great uneasiness to her physician. On Wednesday, Jan. 16th, the Queen showed in. creasing symptoms of cerebral exhaustion. By an effort of will, however, Her Majesty would for a time, as it were, command her brain to work and the visitor of a few minutes would fail to observe the signs of
cerebral exhaustion. On Thursday the exhaustion was more marked with considerable drowsiness ; and a slight flattening was observed on the right side of the face. From this time the aphasia and facial paresis although incomplete
points would be far beyond the scope of THE LANCET. We only here desire to record the profound regret of were permanent. On Friday the Queen was a little brighter, but on the profession which we strive to represent at the loss Saturday evening, 19th, there was a relapse of the of our good and great Queen. graver symptoms which with remissions continued until THE LAST ILLNESS OF THE QUEEN. From information with which we have been favoured we append the following authoritative account of the last illness of the Queen :-
the end. It is important to note that notwithstanding the great bodily weakness and cerebral exhaustion the heart’s action was steadily maintained to the last; the pulse at times evincing increased tension, but being always regular and of normal frequency. The temperature was normal throughout. In the last few hours of life paresis of the pulmonary nerves set in, the heart beating steadily to the end. Beyond the slight right facial flattening there was never any motor paralysis, and except for the occasional lapses mentioned the mind cannot be said to have been clouded. Within a few minutes of death the Queen recognised the several members of her family.
Ossosxs, Jan. 23rd, 1901. The Queen’s health for the past 12 months had been failing, with symptoms mainly of a dyspeptic kind accompanied by impaired general nutrition, periods of insomnia, and later by occasional slight and transitory attacks of aphasia, the latter suggesting that the cerebral vessels had become damaged, although Her Majesty’s general arterial system showed remarkably few signs of age. The constant brain work through a long life of Royal responsibilities, and the Imperial events, - domestic A BRIEF BIOGRAPHICAL SKETOH. sorrows, and anxieties which have crowded into her Her Majesty Queen Victoria was the daughter and later years, may no doubt be held in some measure to. only child of Edward, Duke of Kent, fourth son of account for this discrepancy between the cerebral and III. (whom he predeceased) by his wife the general vessel nutrition. The thoracic and abdominal George Princess Victoria Mary Louisa of Saxe-Coburg, widow organs showed no signs of disease. of Charles, Prince of Leiningen. The death of the The dyspepsia which tended to lower Her Majesty’s Princess the child of George IV., Charlotte, only originally robust constitution was especially marked childless, and the subsequent deaths of Frederick during her last visit to Balmoral. It was there that Duke of York and of King William IV. without issue, the Queen first manifested distinct symptoms of brain brought Her Majesty to the throne as heiress of her fatigue and lost notably in weight. uncle when only a few days -over 18 years of age. These symptoms continued at Windsor where in It had been evident for some years what her high November and December slight aphasic symptoms were destiny would be, and she was educated by her mother, first observed, always of an ephemeral kind and un- the Duchess of Kent, with a special eye towards her attended by any motor paralysis. fateful future. Although it was judged best to continue the negotiaIn 1837, on the death of William IV., she ascended tions for Her Majesty’s proposed visit to the continent the throne. The times were critical, as all know. in the spring, it was distinctly recognised by her phy- A great Reform Bill had just become law and pleased sicians and by those in closest personal attendance upon nobody, for while it curtailed the privileges of the her that these arrangements were purely provisional, landowners it did not seem to be sufficiently sweeping it being particularly desired not to discourage Her to benefit the working man. An iniquitous measure Majesty in regard to her own health by suggesting prohibited the introduction into the land of foreign doubts as to the feasibility of the change abroad to corn until wheat had reached the astounding price of which she had been looking forward. 80s. a quarter, and it is not too much to say that in The Queen suffered unusual fatigue from the journey 1837 the poor of the land were kept by law at the to Osborne on Dec. 18th, showing symptoms of nervous verge of starvation. Chartism, a movement which agitation and restlessness which lasted for two days. aimed at drastic changes in the Constitution, had Her Majesty afterwards improved for a time both ic assumed proportions indistinguishable from rebellion.’ appetite and nerve tone in response to more complete At this juncture a girl in her teens, sufficiently well quietude than she had hitherto consented to observe. grounded in public affairs to understand the enormous A few days before the final illness transient but responsibilities that fate was placing upon her, was
QLTEEN VICTORIA.
279
called to the head of the State, and came unfalteringly. century, which the Crown had to struggle for in the From the first Council over which she presided the eighteenth century, and which the educated nation of Queen gave evidence of courage, devotion to duty, and Great Britain would never for one moment have an intention to understand the rights and the wrongs granted in the nineteenth century. As decade after of all great questions arising in her realm. She did decade went by under her firm and gentle rule the not, most happily for her, remain long without a nation became permeated with the sense that they confidant to share her tremendous responsibilities. were governed by a woman not only of wide personal Three years after her accession, that is, in 1840, she sympathies and of a sweet and religious nature married her cousin, His Royal Highness F. Albert but also of extraordinary mental endowments. They A. C. E. Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and Duke saw that instinctively she ruled upon right evoluof Saxony. By him she had nine children, of whom t-e e tionary principles, not seeking for novelty or eldest son now succeeds as King Edward VII. In 1861 blindly wedded to the tradition of an ancient the Prince Consort died, to the irreparable grief of his ’I’égime, but taking for her scheme what was widow, who during the next 10 years remained in good in the past and adding to it what was of seclusion as far as devotion to the affairs of the nation promise in the future. She was prompt to recognise her true position and to would allow her to do so. For 20 years of wedded life the Queen enjoyed the support of a lover and realise both its possibilities and its limitations. There husband who was also a wise and faithful friend, and can be no doubt that our nation would never have no one can doubt that the deep affection which she had enjoyed its extraordinary era of prosperity beneath a for the Prince Consort and the unbounded confidence monarch content to rule in name only and willing, which she rightly placed in his judgment greatly because certain attributes of mediaeval royalty had to be lightened the burden of State affairs for her. Through- surrendered, to waive all personal responsibility and to out the dark days of the Crimean war, and the still sit behind her Councils a figure-head, the nominal fount of honour and nothing more. The Queen was no less i more terrible season of the Indian mutiny, the Queen had her husband beside her to share her grief and judicious in the assertion of her personality than she confirm her resolution. It is no wonder that the death was j nst in her sense of what was due to the progress of such a consort should have remained with her as an of the nation committed to her charge, and as a con, sequence her people as they came to know her loved ever-abiding sense of loss. The Queen emerged from the semi-seclusion of her her. The increasing affection in which the Queen was I mourning under circumstances which ensured her the held underwent remarkable demonstration in 1887 upon sympathy of a people who were loyal to her and the occasion of the Jubilee of her reign, from which cognisant of her many deep claims upon their respect time forward, as we have said elsewhere, personal love and admiration, but who had at the time not the inti- for the sovereign became a quality common to the mate knowledge of her which it has since been their whole nation. To medicine the Queen was always a good friend. privilege to obtain. In 1872 the Prince of Wales reShe chose her medical advisers with discrimination and covered from typhoid fever after passing through a honoured with her deep personal friendship more than stage of the disease during which medical opinion held out but small hope of the fortunate issue. The Qaeen one of them. During her reign the enormous developreturned public thanksgiving in St. Paul’s Cathedral ments of science have been freely recognised as one of for the recovery of her son and from that time forward the great factors in British progress, and in no branch of science has more progress been made than in those lived much more in the sight of her people. How far the personal history of our dead Queen is departments of medicine where the introduction of the also the constitutional history of her people cannot be use of anaesthetics and the discoveries of the antiseptic Her Majesty showed her treatment are available. even guessed at, but when the scientific historians of of our profession by the admirable selecthe future come to tell the history of the reign of Queen appreciation and surgeons, tions which she made of her physicians the we certain that estimate of her Victoria are present as a wise monarch will be completely justified. She and by the faith which she put in their advice. It is came to the throne the child of kings who were only noteworthy that the Queen was early inducted into deterred from exercising their absolutism by a recollec- orthodox medicine, for she was the first member of our tion of the fate of the House of Stuart. Fortunate in Royal Family to be vaccinated. There were until shortly before the commenceher early advisers she determined to take a part at once in her own Councils when the thought of her ment of her fatal illness few premonitory signs of real responsibilities might well have appalled her. Happy, danger to her life. To the grave public anxieties and extraordinarily happy, in the choice of a husband private griefs of the last 18 months of her reign her she was able almost from the first to share these death may possibly be attributable in a secondary responsibilities with a good man. And so it was degree, but the end came as a peaceful and natural that doubly fortified against timidity and strong conclusion of a long, full, and beautiful life. Her in the knowledge that she possessed a well-informed Majesty died at half-past six o’clock in the afternoon mind, a mind open equally to the principles of Tuesday, Jan. 22nd, in the eighty-second year of of justice and the sentiments of mercy, Queen her age, the immediate cause of death being cerebral The authoritative statement which we Victoria was able to maintain the best parts of failure. her prerogative and to yield without any sense of publish above tells the story of the last illness so weakness claims that might have been universally clearly to the medical man, that we need not enlarge acknowledged as due to the Crown in the seventeenth upon it.