The Last Days of Charles II

Abstract

CHARLES II. died at midday on Friday, February 6, 1685, at the age of fifty-three. His last illness seemed to his courtiers to begin on the morning of Monday, February 2, with an attack of convulsions. He was bled, and became conscious and able to speak; on Thursday had more convulsions, with intervals of consciousness, and on Friday morning, after an attack of breathlessness, gradually became insensible, and so died without further convulsion. His body was examined alter death; the blood-vessels of the brain were found distended, there was an excess of serum in the cerebral ventricles, the heart was large and firm, and, except an old pleural adhesion on the left side and a general engorgement of the liver, spleen, and kidneys, there were no other signs of disease. From these facts, as set forth in detail in contemporary evidence, Dr. Crawfurd arrives at the conclusion “that his death was due to chronic granular kidney (a form of Bright's disease) with uræmic convulsions.”

The Last Days of Charles II.

By Dr. Raymond Crawfurd. Pp. 80. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1909.) Price 5s. net.