(Continued from page 9)

The main argument in support of the haemophilia theory is the claim that the daughters and granddaughters of Queen Victoria were carriers of the disease and passed it on to their sons, but once again there is no solid medical proof.  It is true that the bleeding disease is carried down the maternal family line and passed on from mothers to their sons by a faulty X-chromosome.  However, the story that haemophilia is in the Royal bloodline begins with the explanation that Queen Victoria became a carrier through a spontaneous mutation from her father.  This is the first of a number problems with the suggestion that the disease was carried in the family line.

The first Royal said to have died from the disease was Victoria's grandson Frederick of Hesse... Alexei's uncle.  Known to the family as "Frittie", the boy was only three years old when he died in 1873.  Alexei's mother was less than a year old when her brother fell out of the window of his mother's bedroom at the New Palace in Darmstadt.  The toddler fell twenty feet and landed head first on the paving stones in the garden below.  We take X-rays and CT scans for granted but the doctors of the time could only give a visual examination and decided that the boy looked to be all right.  When he died later that same evening his "bleeding on the brain" was attributed to the recently discovered disease of haemophilia.  We now readily accept that anyone can die as the result of a severe cerebral hemorrhage caused by a skull fracture... not just haemophiliacs.

The second Royal on the list was Victoria's fourth son and Frittie's uncle Leopold who died eleven years later in 1884.  His health was described as frail and once again the death was attributed to haemophilia.  The thirty-one year old Prince had died in his sleep and, just like his nephew before him, the physicians said that "bleeding on the brain" was the cause of his passing.  At this point, well over a century down the road, we call this an aneurysm and know that it is certainly not exclusive to those who suffer from the bleeding disease.

Then there were the two Spanish princes.  It was said that they probably would not have died from their injuries if their heavy bleeding had not been caused by the disease that curses the Royal males.  These two individuals both lost their lives as a result of automobile accidents but, here again, you do not have to have haemophilia to die from severe internal injuries suffered in a car crash.

Haemophilia to the people of the nineteenth century was a bit like AIDS is for us at the end of the twentieth... a newly discovered disease that frightens everyone but few understand.  One might use the well-worn description "the disease of the week".  At that time, if someone bruised or bled easily then haemophilia was about the only explanation that they had.  They knew very little about what blood was made of and what caused the disease.  Cars, planes, and the modern medicine that we take for granted today were all part of the future that was unknown to them.

©  J. Kendrick 1997                                                                                                      (Continued on page 11)