king's-evil

Dr. John Browne, a surgeon in ordinary to Charles II, published a treatise entitled "Charisma Basilicon, or the royal gift of healing strumas, or king's-evil swellings, by contact or imposition of the sacred hands of our kings of England and France, given them at their inaugurations."

Primitive Psycho-Therapy and Quackery Robert Means Lawrence

Sir John Fortescue, in defending the House of Lancaster against the House of York, claimed that the crown could not descend to a female because the Queen was not qualified by the form of anointing her to cure the disease called the king's-evil.

Three Thousand Years of Mental Healing George Barton Cutten

The royal touch was especially efficacious in epilepsy and scrofula, the latter being consequently known as "king's-evil."

Three Thousand Years of Mental Healing George Barton Cutten

_ -- Scrofula, or "king's-evil," was best cured by the touch of the sovereign, but, if this could not be accomplished, a naked virgin could cure it, especially if she spit three times upon it.

Three Thousand Years of Mental Healing George Barton Cutten

[8] These ladies, I believe, by their names, presided over the leprosy, king's-evil, and scurvy.

The Works of Henry Fielding, Volume Six: Miscellanies 1900

There was a very good lay-out for the king's-evil business -- very tidy and creditable.

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court 1889

Thus, by the substitution of nickels for gold on a king's-evil day, I not only injured no one, dissatisfied no one, but pleased all concerned and saved four-fifths of that day's national expense into the bargain -- a saving which would have been the equivalent of $800,000 in my day in America.

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court 1889

You see, he was billed for the king's-evil -- to touch for it, I mean -- and it wouldn't be right to disappoint the house and it wouldn't make a delay worth considering, anyway, it was only a one-night stand.

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court 1889

When you consider how much that amount of money would buy, in that age and country, and how usual it was to be scrofulous, when not dead, you would understand that the annual king's-evil appropriation was just the River and Harbor bill of that government for the grip it took on the treasury and the chance it afforded for skinning the surplus.

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court 1889

So I had privately concluded to touch the treasury itself for the king's-evil.

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court 1889