Scrofula

a constitutional disorder thought, but not certainly, to be the result of bacterial invasion. Though associated with tuberculosis and often bringing it on, scrofula is not due to the bacillus of that disease. Scrofula may be inherited or it may be acquired. It is most apt to develop in young persons, particularly in the case of children insufficiently nourished or living in dark or damp, unsanitary quarters. Scrofula manifests itself in the inflammation of various joints and of parts of the mucous membrane, but more often in glandular swellings of the neck. These swellings are as irritating as a boil; in fact, the name scrofula means a little sow, the rooter, the digger, the scratcher. The swellings soften and break through the skin into running sores, followed, it may be, by unsightly scars. Sunshine, pure air, bathing in seawater, and wholesome food are corrective. Cod-liver oil is a remedy. Mineral waters containing iodine, iron, and phosphate of lime are considered beneficial. A person having a fair, thin, creamy skin is said to have a scrofulous complexion. Scrofula was known formerly as king's evil. The people of France and England brought their afflicted children to the king in the belief that a touch of the royal hand might cure the little sufferers. On Easter Sunday, 1686, Louis XIV is reported to have touched 1,600 persons, saying in French, "The king toucheth thee, may God cure thee." Even the parents of as noted a man as Dr. Samuel Johnson, the literary dictator of London, sought aid from the healing hand of Queen Anne in 1712. The queen not only touched the lad of thirty months, but, as was the custom, presented him a touch-piece. This particular coin, figured in Chambers's, has been kept as a relic.