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QUEEN VIOTOBIA'ß DOCTORS.
THEIR ADVICE REGARDING
LONGEVITY.
An article on "Some Hints on Health
from the Queen's Doctors," appeared in
the January number of "Harmsirorth's
Magazine," issued, of course,-before the
death of the Queen. The writer says :
-The gentlemen who hare the very/dis-
tinguished honour of describing them-
selves,as'the Queen's owa-physicians> and
surgeons, are as clever a set as it would
ever be possible io get together. All, of
course, have acquitted themselves bril-
liantly fn their professions, and then,
over and above that , they are men of the
very highest integrity in every respect.
Every doctor will tell you that nothing
is more fatal in the case of illness, real
or imaginary, than to convince yourself
that you really are ill, and to act accord-
ingly. On the other hand, it is half the
batt lc to make up your mind that all is,
and jnust be, welland that is precisely
what the Queen does. Her buoyancy
"aifd cheerfulness at all times are remark- I
abie, and this has been no small factor 1
in «li? prolongation of her life.
*Her Majesty, it would appear, s ¡emed
to take long life as assured till the
Prince Consort was taken from her, and
that seemed to awaken Her Majesty more
to the uncertainty of existence . than
previously. Then she inclined more to
tiie doctors. Part of her creed has al-
ways been in the spending of as much
time as possible out of doors ; and there
once appeared some danger ot the " Sove-
reign overdoing it, for she . habitually
brayed weather that most others would
have shiunk from.
Porno'time ago, however, when she
W4s in residence ot Osborne, HciSMajes
ty fpce;*eu a gentle reminder that eveu
the best of Boyal constitutions mast not
be trifled , with, and from that time her
; doctors found her all that they could
desire'. '
r After the great «dil power of Her Ma
ieity, there-are two other factors which
.have much, to do:wifch the preservation
of her health. One is the. strict regula-
rity of her habits, and the other is iua<
abstemious mode of living. From, the ;
time of taking her early morning cup of
cocoa to retirme io r#et at night. Safer ;
nay!« Ufe is as staple ai.you could ima-1
jpnÄT ShejítoÍBá Jiot diae iron*''?-:luauy:',
courses of b^hly-seasened dishes; prepar-
ed with tii^ utmost elflbbratipn of the
Wo* ?:^^M^%»^^^.^a^li'
^tt;'1«nifâ^^
an unthinking person might fancy a
Queen would do)-Her Majesty is far too
sensible for that.
Good, honest, English beef is her fa-
vourite and staple article of diet, and a
Iii tie simple whisky and water her stimu-
lant. In such respects it is open to al-
most the humblest of her subjects to live
as the Queen does, and witli^ner will and
co stitution the results might be equally
beneficial. She lives according to the
rules of life which the late Sir William
Jenner, one of the greatest doctors who
eeer lived, laid down for her, aud they
are simply those which have been men-
tioned.
Chatting in his cosy little consult-ag
r>.»m in Pall Mall, Sir Francis Laking,
surgeon-apothecary to Her Majesty, ex-
pounded lo me his views as to the raivs
of. life, and they may be summarised in
the briefed space.
"To live long," he said, "do anything
you like, but do nothing to excess. . The
best rule of life is moderation. It is the
excesses and not the déficiences which
make people ill nowadays. When in
search of health they think they should
do something more, or eat or drink some-
thing more. Rather let them do some-
thing less, and eat and drink something
less. Of course/' he added, " a great
deal depends upon temperament and
constitution, and I need not say that
what will do for one person will not do
so well for another. But as far as it is
possibler give a general rule, I can give
that one."
Sir Francis, a clean-shaven, bright-'
eyed, bright-featured, and ^quick-witted:
man, is, next to Sir James Reid, the
Queen's resident physician^ ~mßi with .
Sir Douglas Powell, of Tecenfc appoint-
ment, the doctor who is perhaps most ,
intimately concerned with Her Majesty's j
health: and his is^such a cheery optim-
ism, while the great doctor obtrudes it-
self so little in his personality, that he is <
one whom any patient would envy.'j
Standing on his steps ou a winter's morn-
ing, and looking otft into a dirty, dis-
agreeable I/ondon, upon which for hours
and hours the rain has been descending,
and which for all that*seems to make
the atmosphere no cleaner or pleasanter,
one cannot help a cynical smile at the
thought that for an hour we have been
discussing the ways and means of living
to 80. "In thisP" I ask. "Certainly,p
he responds. "Why not P Don't worry,
and it's ail right 1"" You find no bottles
of poisons, nor stethoscopes, nor fearful
and wonderful instruments of discovery
and torture in his consulting room. In-
stead, it is a little museum-a geologi
-jcal, mathematical, gunnery explosive,
and gênerai curiosity museum j but main-
ly geological. There, are little stones
and big stones, stones on the «de tables
and boxes of stones-stones everywhere.
All of them-and many are of the most
beautiful description-he has collected
himself in different paris of the Bri-
tish Isles.
Then he will open a case;- and show you
sections of shells-gun shells, that is, and
explain in detail how time fuses are
worked ; and from that subject he will in
an instant switch you off to another, on
which he will discourse equally learned-
ly, till you begin to think that, wonder-
ful as his medical knowledge must neces-
sarily be, it can be as nothing compared
to his knowledge of everything elsel That
is a sample of one of the Queen's doctors.
But on this question of the achieve-
ment of octogenarianism Sir Samuel
Wilks, physician extraordinary to the
Queen, told me much the same thing as
Sir Francis. He, too, declares, "Do what
you like."
"Every man," he said to me, "has a
natural temperament of his own, and be
should follow that and avoid excesses.The
instincts of people are right as a rule*.
What should TOU do when-a quack tells
you to eat an ounce of albumen, an ounce
of starch, so much water, abd all that sort
of thing? Why, go and have a nige
chop. . It is no use saying people must
do this and musfdo that. Let them
follow their instincts. Why, dur-
ing the last-three or four centuries we
have done-Better intellectual worfc-tbon
ever before, and they have been centuries
of tea, coffee, tobacco, and alcohol!
"What can you make of thatP" And
as for the much-talked-of - exercise. Sir
William Jenner himself confessed, 'I
never walk at all, except from my house
to my carriage. I hate walking and if
I could I would get my servants to carry
me to bed!'" _. - -
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