Quotes:Mackenzie, Morell

Zirkoff, Boris

Mackenzie, Sir Morell. Eminent British physician, son of a surgeon, b. at Leytonstone, Essex, July 7, 1837; d. Feb. 3, 1892. Studied at the London Hospital, at Paris, Vienna and Pesth, where he learned the use of the newly-invented laryngoscope under J. N. Czermak. In 1862, became specialist in diseases of the throat; in 1863, helped to found the Throat Hospital in King Street, Golden Square, becoming a leading authority.

In May, 1887, was summoned to attend the German Crown Prince Frederick, whose illness was difficult to diagnose. The German physicians (Karl Gerhardt, Tobold, E. von Bergmann, and others) had diagnosed his disease on May 18, 1887, as cancer of the throat, but Mackenzie insisted, on the basis of a microscopical examination of portion of the tissue by R. Virchow, that this was not the case, and that an operation for the extirpation of the larynx was then unjustifiable. His opinion was accepted. He was knighted in September, 1887, for his services. In November, however, it was admitted that Frederick’s disease was cancer, though Mackenzie hinted that it had become malignant since his examination as a result of the irritating effect of the treatment by the German doctors, for which there seems to exist some evidence. Tracheotomy was performed in San Remo, February 9, 1888. The Crown Prince became Emperor on March 9, 1888, and died on June 13 of the same year. For a time a violent quarrel raged between Mackenzie and the German medical world. The German doctors published an account of the illness, to which Mackenzie replied by the work entitled The Fatal Illness of Frederick the Noble (London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle and Rivington, 1888. 246 pp.). This resulted in his being censured by the Royal College of Surgeons. Mackenzie had a very high opinion of the moral character of Frederick III and stated so publicly.

Source: Boris de Zirkoff, «H. P. Blavatsky Collected Writings», vol. 9, p. 443