Curious Tales.
King Charles II of England (iatrogenic regicide)
Feburary 1, 1965 King Charles went to bed with a sore foot and in the morning he had a fever and suffered a stroke later that evening. His physician, Sir Edmund King immediately let (withdrew) 16 ounces of blood. Sir Edmund took a big risk, and could have been charged with treason. The protocol was to get permission from the Privy Council prior to a bloodletting. For the remainder of his days the King's pysicans tried to remove his "toxic humours".
The King was given “enemas of rock salt and syrup of buckthorn, and ‘orange infusion of metals in white wine’. The king was treated with a horrific cabinet of potions: white hellebore root; Peruvian bark; white vitriol of peony water; distillation of cowslip flowers; sal ammoniac; julep of black cherry water (an antispasmodic); oriental bezoar stone from the stomach of a goat and boiled spirits from a human skull.”
February 6, 1685 “the exhausted king, his body raw and aching with the burns and inflammation caused by his treatment, was given heart tonics, to no avail. He lapsed into a coma and died at noon on February 7.”
The Executioner
Procured as fresh as possible while it still contained vitality of the body, Ger-Swiss physican Paracelsus believed blood was good for drinking. While is was hard to acquire fresh blood, the poor, would stand by executions, paying a small amount for a cup of still warm blood fromt he condemend.
"The executioner was considered a big healer in Germanic countries. He was a social leaper with almost magical powers."
Plaque Doctors (Europe)
The garments which the plaque doctors wore were invented by Charles de L'Orme in 1619. The protective suit consisted of a heavy fabric overcoat that was waxed, a mask with glass eye openings and a cone nose shaped like a beak to hold scented substances and straw.