The Skull of Robert the Bruce

Abstract

A LETTER to NATURE is perhaps not the suitable place to discuss the historical evidence for sporadic syphilis being well known in Europe from at least the ninth century, nor do I intend at present to controvert Sir Arthur Keith on several other points in which he disagrees with me in his recent friendly review of my “Bruce” (NATURE, February 28, p. 303). But there is one point at which Sir Arthur seems to me to show less than his usual acumen. He concludes his article with the words: “The writer [Sir Arthur] has searched the pre-medieval graves of England and Scotland for traces of syphilis and found none, and those who know our medical records believe that Robert Bruce had been asleep in Dunfermline Abbey for two centuries before this fell disease appeared in Britain”.