HISTORY OF MEDICINE

MEDICAL HISTORIES FOUND IN MEMOIRS OF QUEEN MARY OF ROMANIA

Călin Bumbuluţ1, Andrei Bumbuluţ2, Alina Daniela Negru1, Rumelia Koren3

1SCM dr Bumbuluţ–dr Balaj, Satu Mare, România, 2Faculty of Medicine, Iuliu Haţieganu University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Cluj Napoca, România, 3Department of Pathology, Hasharon Hospital, Petah Tikva, and Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel-Aviv University, Israel

Address for correspondence: Bumbuluţ Călin, MD, FP Satu Mare, UK 30 Bobocului St, PO 440258 Email: [email protected]

Received: 27.08.2013 Accepted: 10.03.2014 Med Con June 2014 Vol 9, No 2, 49-54

Abstract was the second son of and Prince- consort Albert. Mary, Queen of Romania, born as Maria Alexandra On 10 January 1893, at Sigmaringen in Germany, Victoria of Saxa- and Gotha (, 1875, the marriage of His Marie of , , England, July 18, 1938, with His Royal Highness Ferdinand, Crown Prince of Pelişor, ), was princess of Great Romania was celebrated. Britain and Ireland and the consort of King Ferdinand. Her memoirs in three volumes, are an important Her memoirs are an important source of informations source for information about life in the royal and including medical ones, but also a surprising literature, princely courts of Europe by the end of the nineteenth which proves a writerly talent. Our approach aims at an century, as well as medical information, but also a incursion into the medical informations contained in surprising literature, the descriptions of people which the memoirs of Queen Marie of Romania, to our she encounters are full of flavor, seeing them with knowledge being the first attempt of its kind. complete naturalness, which proves a writerly talent, Keywords: Queen Mary, medicine, drugs, hygiene, cultivated to maturity. chloroform To our knowledge, the present approach is the first one of its kind with the aim to make an incursion into the medical information contained in the memoirs of Maria Alexandra Victoria of Saxa-Coburg and Queen Marie of Romania. Gotha (Figure 1) was born on October 29, 1875 at Eastwell Park, Kent, England, as the eldest daughter of About medicine and medical education, her parents, Alfred Ernest Albert of Saxa-Coburg and in 1880-1890 Gotha, and Maria Alexandrovna Romanov, Grand Duchess of Russia (Figure 2), the only “As to the code promulgated by mother, the man should living daughter from the marriage of Tsar Alexander II never moaned. He should never confess to someone a of Russia with Maria Alexandrovna of Hessa. His father headache or leave defeated by that; for a cold you should

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A B Figure 1. A. Maria Alexandra Victoria of Saxa-Coburg and Gotha, as teenager, B. Mary, Queen of Romania, at maturity

Figure 2. Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia (later Duchess of Edinburgh and Duchess of Saxa-Coburg and Gotha 17th October 1853–24th October 1920) not stay locked at home, for a fever access you do not have to “In our house we were not talking about medicine, and stay in bed” [1, p 38]. we walked in the way of life totally ignorant of the simplest “One of her quirks (our note – mother) was the lessons of it” [1, p 183]. contempt for medical science and for all in touch by “We had an innate fear of any description of the hospitals, doctors or professional nurses. She had a internal organs; it seemed like something slaughter and not constitution of iron and was never sick, so she considered too decorous; we almost got sick in a day when full of every descovery of medicine as a modern fiction; “I could enthusiasm, Dr. Heim (our note – professor of natural live very well without all these in my time.” (...) She simply history and botany) brought us a bull’s eye to show us the had mocked those who measured theirs temperature, blood wonders of optical composition. I, of course, was not from pressure, or had undergone an examination or a medical the modern school which boldly examines every detail of the regime.” human mechanism” [1, p 193].

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A B Figure 3. A. Tincture of opium, with indications for use in neonates from five days of life, B. Drops containing heroin, for the symptomatic treatment of cough in children

A B

Figure 4. A. Drops containing cocaine, a trademark from 1885, B. Dragees of cocaine for neck pain with a dose of 8-10 per day

About drugs these ricin dragees often dried it in their boxes, for that Russian health of the Mother do not justify such quantities Medication from those times, rather empirical and of supplies. But since the supplies had to walk a long way based on folklore and legend, contained a reduced and from Russia to us, it was more practical to send out once a limited pharmacological arsenal products and natural significant amount. (...) What we seem delightful (...) were extracts, many of them potential or downright the various pills for smoking-man: some tiny and in dangerous, as were opium tincture (Figure 3); the rainbow colours, others seems like roses and crescent-shaped, tincture Doveri was used for decades, representing a placed in small and flat boxes wearing an oriental name on thoroughfare known recipe prepared in pharmacies even cap and a gazelle. There were some heart-shaped violin until the mid twentieth century, and the situation was pills, taste of violets; I liked them more (...)” [1, p 39-40]. similar for the cocaine tablets, (Figure 4) so the Adverse drug reactions were less or not at all known. statement of that “medicines from Methamphetamine in combination with Phenobarbital England are much stronger than those on the continent had to be advertised to be sold, being used in overweight and called them “medicines good for horses” [1, p 38] was to “control the diet and the mood throughout the day” probably not exaggerated. (Figure 5). “However, no one had eyesight like Mother: she guessed Phenacetin, drug introduced in use in 1887, was the easiest ailment and was always ready to give you dragees antipyretic and analgesic, being the first non-opiate or potions” [1,p 38]. analgesic. It was withdrawn by the FDA only in 1983 “There were tremendous supplys of dragees, particularly because of the carcinogenic and renal damage caused by ricin, resembling with flimsy grapes in which were shaking him: “However, my mother liked very much to praise some liquid yellow. They were, by not known reasons, ordered to medicines such as phenacetin, aspirin, salipirine, and she was Petersburg, maybe for the fear that if they were prepared in bothered if someone tried to show that they are harmful when England, being not somehow “horse medicines”. I think they are not taken with measure” [1, p 183-184].

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Florence, where they made it” [1, p 40]. Queen Mother, at the residence of Rosenau introduces bathrooms, after her husband takes the Duchy of Saxa-Coburg and Gotha, but refuses to introduce the electric power “thinking that would be something wrong with the features of the old and strange castle.” “With closets full of Russian samurs, silks and atlases, priceless laces, lovely linen, she wore more gladly burlap hand woven and cheap furs, because all the treasures kept in camphor and lavender were part of Russian greatness, deserted now, and wich no longer took place in the life what she chose” [1, p 184].

About surgeries

“About surgeries, those were in her eyes (our note – mother) no more than a guilt resistance against nature as God had made it” [1, p 183]. Short medical histories The memoirs were written, according to claims made on two occasions, 36 years after the Queen’s Figure 5. Advertise at Ambar, one drug of that time containing engagement, which was held at 17, so probably in 1928, methamphetamine and phenobarbital because their wording does not explicitly mention the dates of events. We will illustrate the importance of temporal location of medical histories that we investigate About contagious diseases and asepsia in this paper, by describing Princess of Saxa-Meiningen, sister of Kaiser Wilhelm: “passionate smoker, always It was known or suspected that you can not get sick spreading around her a too pleasant aroma of fine cigarettes twice by measles, i.e. that measles causes immunity and delightful fragrance” [1, p246] and who “...died a throughout life. There was minimal knowledges on year before her, (our note – Queen Mother, so, in 1919), contagiousness: “A scene more clearly remained in my died in ordeals from cancer, a disease which killed with so mind from that night when my grandfather came (our many years before, her father and mother” [1, p 249]. The note – Russian Tsar Alexander II ) in our bedroom (this laconic description given by the Queen for the cause of was also in Tsarskoe-Selo), where all of us were lying in beds death of the Princess, we can attribute by the trauma from measles. I caught the disease after the others (our caused by the disappearance of King Ferdinand on 20 note- sisters) so that Grandpa could kiss me” [1, p 99]. July 1927, due to a cancer, the memoirs being written as “Thus, she didn’t approve the microbes’ theory our( note we said earlier, probably in 1928. Moreover, Queen’s – mother); the disinfectants were obnoxious for her and father had died of laryngeal cancer in 1900. But now we were not supported in her home. (...) She thought it will be know the real cause of death of Charlotte of Saxa- foolish to put iodine on a cutting, or to get injections against Meiningen, which is not the cancer: recent medical typhoid” [1, p 183]. Do not forget that the grandfather of tests, using samples taken from her and her daughter Queen Mary, Prince consort Albert, died of typhoid Feodora, who committed suicide in 1945 after a lifetime fever in 1861, while his wife and also his primary cousin, of physical suffering, revealed that both suffered from Queen Victoria, began a long mourning time until the Porphyria, a congenital disease which had her maternal end of her life, what affected not only the family, but also great-grandfather, King George III. An issue was also the entire society of the time. The second daughter of the raised inbreeding, Charlotte being married to her Queen Victoria, Alice, died of diphtheria in 1878. second cousin, but all princely and royal houses of Europe practiced this. About hygiene The portrait described of Queen Victoria of Great Britain (Figure 6) is impressive through the human “Sachets, resembling with the little mattresses, blue or aspects that are revealed. Let’s not forget that she is the rose, hung or placed amongst mother’s all dresses and linens, paternal grandmother of Queen Mary, the information were full of iris powder and were always coming from provided by her are unique: “...suddenly, turning to me,

52 Bumbuluţ et al MEDICAL CONNECTIONS • NUMBER 2 (34) • JUNE 2014 HISTORY OF MEDICINE she put an unexpected question: “Did you get chloroform physician Sir James Clarke. She would have been so when you gave birth to your children?” Oh, God, why she impressed by the pain relief from birth, that she would asks me this question? Maybe she was also among those who be used again in 1857, at the last birth, at the ninth’ do not admit to relieve the pain of a woman through the baby, Beatrice, it appears that despite opposition from progress of modern medicine? (...) Or she thought also, as the members of the clergy, which considered that it Carmen Sylva, that to give birth to a child is such a poetic would be against the biblical teaching, and against rapture, that something ought not to diminish the ecstasy of some doctors who believed that it was dangerous. We such pain? (...) Courage!... I must confess that I had to believe, however, that the informations provided by breathe chloroform for a moment, that my mother and the Queen Mary is more accurate, and it would be English doctor insisted to do so, although the Romanian considered as primary source. Leopold was born in doctors were just as opposed to this idea as their Queen, the 1853 and Beatrice in 1857, the chloroform was poetess. With low voice, I confessed, therefore, that, without discovered in 1831, its use in obstetrics begin since being truly asleep, on the end, I had sweetened a little the Much later, in the early twentieth century, the cruel pain, through this blessed narcotic... And now I was carcinogenic effects and its tendency to cause fatal expecting a reprimand, a sermon or any evidence of cardiac arrhythmia were noted. It is questionable contempt of royal grandparent, because Queen Victoria whether the use on Queen Victoria would have been was, undoubtedly, a Spartan and she would heartily despise tempted at such a short time after the start of the me for my lack of bravery. But great was my surprise when experiments in obstetrics by James Young Simpson, I heard her laughter, sweet and crystalline. Grandmother, professor at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland shrugged lightly her shoulders, after her habit through (1811-1870), although it is claimed that Prince consort which seems like she asked forgiveness for what she was Albert himself would have insisted on using it [2]. We going to tell, says: “Very well, my dear! They didn’t give me can not exclude, however, that Queen Mary would be chloroform, just at the ninth and the last child, because, as romanced her encounter with her grandmother, Queen shame, it was not discovered until then, and I assure you, Victoria, or she had forgotten the events that happened girl, I felt bad that I had to give birth to eight children at least 50 years before, although this are unlikely. On without the invaluable help” [1, p 276-7]. May 14, 1857, the influential journal The Lancet It is less known now, but was known to Queen’s criticized Dr. Snow, but not on his name, togheter with contemporaries, the fact that she used chloroform at the Queen’s physicians for using chloroform during the least in one of the births. In the literature, some authors birth of Prince Leopold [2]. This information must be state that she gave birth to the eighth’s child of hers, judged in the context of the birth of , Leopold, with the help of the new anesthetic at the who had been a month earlier, on April 14, 1857 and indication of physician John Snow, called by the royal the concerns of medical world regarding the use during

A B Figure 6. A. Queen Victoria in 1835, B. selfportrait, in 1882

Medical Histories Found in Memoirs of Queen Mary of Romania 53 HISTORY OF MEDICINE MEDICAL CONNECTIONS • NUMBER 2 (34) • JUNE 2014 the royal birth. Let us not forget that Prince Leopold considered still real, the history of alleged guilt of was born four years earlier, and the criticism was late, Queen Victoria being launched in 1839 and taken as even by the temporal standards of those years. In true as such even today, a simple search on the Internet addition, the interests of the founder and publisher of will bring considerable surprises. The known caring of Lancet journal, Thomas Wakley, were to shut many the Queen Victoria for the servants and ladies of the factories which were polluting London, and John Snow court, sometimes upon for three generations of their stated, correctly, that the smells from those factories family, is well known and in fact witnessed even by were not causing the epidemic of cholera [3]. However, Queen Mary in her memoirs, which would rule out in 1864, the Royal Society of Medical and Surgical such behavior. Sciences declared the substance as “the favorite analgesic In a future article we will continue with the medical of England”, despite the fact that ether was much safer histories recorded in volumes II and III of Memoirs of to use. Even though Queen Victoria declares that the Queen Marie of Romania. anesthetic “had not been discovered before”, i.e. until 1857, which obviously was not real, we could give credit to her statement that she regretted she had to give birth References to “eight children without this invaluable aid”. We must mention the scandal of the early reign of 1. Maria, Regina României. Povestea vieţii mele, Ed. Queen Victoria, namely the alleged infliction of the RAO, Bucureşti, 2013, Vol I, pag 38, 39-40, 99, 183- death of a lady of the royal court, Lady Flora Hastings, 184, 193, 246, 249, 276-277. in 1839, following an acute infection, which occurred 2. Anesthesia and Queen Victoria. Ph.ucla.edu. http:// after a gynecological consult imposed by Queen, to www.ph.ucla.edu/epi/snow/victoria.html, accesat în refute the gossips of the Court on an alleged pregnancy, 02.09.2013. otherwise invalidated after consultation. In reality Lady 3. The Lancet admits: You knew something, John Snow, Flora died months later, most likely by liver cancer. It is http://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/24665, interesting how an discrediting by this type can be accesed in 02.09.2013.

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