. Glandular tuberculosis in general (scrofule), a systemic infection of the skin and various organs, was apparently widespread in medieval France as a result of dietary deficiencies, contagion, and bovine tuberculosis, to which it is related. One form that drew particular attention is an inflammation of the lymph glands in the neck (écrouelles). Medical encyclopedists, such as Bernard de Gordon and Gui de Chauliac, described scrofulous abscesses in detail among the apostemes caused by phlegmatic humor, and they noted correctly that the young were the most common victims. Physicians prescribed an improved diet as the first phase of therapy. Next, softening salves or plasters were applied; a “French remedy” was cited by the 12th-century Syrian traveler Usamah. Surgery was to be used only if medicaments failed, as stipulated in a contract by which a Toulouse barber in 1400 promised a cure for the price of eight écus payable after doctors certified success. A last resort was the noisome application of caustics.
Patients who found no help in medical treatment might make a pilgrimage to St. Marcoul, whose specialized cult spread after 1300. They could also seek the ceremonial royal touch for the “King’s Evil.” Remissions, often spontaneous, were celebrated as miracles. Claims to healing power were made by French kings from the Capetians to the Bourbons and contested by English dynasties. Ironically, scrofula may have claimed the lives of several members of the house of Valois.
