Almost 200 years ago, the daughter of the Russian Emperor Paul I, Catherine, Queen of Württemberg, with the help of a simple needle, independently removed … a pimple.
The event seems to be ordinary, but the miracles of history are such that sometimes the simplest and seemingly traditional leads to catastrophic consequences, and even to revolutions, cataclysms, storms and coups.
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In the old days, doctors, as now, did not pay special attention to the human head by accident. This is understandable - the brain, nerve endings, ears, mouth, nose and eyes are responsible for the basic functions of homo sapiens, Homo sapiens. However, doctors still pay special attention to the nasolabial triangle, which they call the triangle of death - "trigonum mortis".
Those who could afford the services of doctors, even in the Middle Ages, were given advice, which boiled down to about such simple prohibitions: if you squeeze out pimples on your nose or near your lips yourself, it threatens not only that a trace will remain.
In some cases, this can be fatal.
Promotional video:
I
Ekaterina Pavlovna became the wife of Crown Prince Wilhelm of Württemberg in 1816. In the same year, King Frederick dies, Prince William becomes king, and Catherine becomes queen.
The new year, 1819, in the capital of the kingdom of Stuttgart began the way it is still depicted on Christmas cards: snow is falling, spruce paws, balls and gingerbread, ruddy children, sledding down the mountains …
The night is quiet, the night is holy
People sleep, the distance is clear;
Only in the cave the candle burns;
The holy couple does not sleep there, The Child sleeps in the manger, the Child sleeps in the manger.
For the inhabitants of the tiny kingdom - a solemn prayer service, a festive dinner, walks, an opera performance. Everything went very nice and festive.
But the trouble is - on the evening of January 3, the queen noticed a pimple in the right corner of her mouth. As a true woman, she took care and - squeezed out a pimple. Then she went to bed, hoping that tomorrow, as always, would be irresistible - and what could overshadow natural beauty if a gorgeous woman, besides a queen, was only thirty?
Later, the frightened court doctors especially emphasized in their reports: this was done without their knowledge.
The next day, 4 January, the Queen visited the stud farm in Schaffhausen. It was raining and a strong wind was blowing. Ekaterina Pavlovna was very cold. According to a certain psalmist who left notes, "… the weather that day was, however, cloudy and rainy, and Her Majesty soaked her feet that it was impossible to take off her leather boots and they had to be cut with a knife." According to rumors, the queen went to Schaffhausen to interfere with her husband's date with another mistress. Whether it is true or not, we cannot say, but the fact that Ekaterina Pavlovna's family life was really not cloudless is a fact: the husband now and then showed attention to one or the other lady, forgetting that he was married. On the other hand, Catherine was, although an impulsive nature, but a fairly sensible lady. And tracking down her husband is not the most worthy occupation for the granddaughter of Catherine the Great herself.
II
From the examination report: "In the evening, the aforementioned woman complained to the doctors about the appearance of some sensitivity on the right side of the face, where a rather dense, but without redness, swelling was already observed, which captured the corner of the mouth and part of the lip." On January 5, the temperature rose, the pain intensified, the swelling spread to the upper lip. Neither medicinal herbs, nor leeches, nor medicines, nor plasters helped. On January 9, at 8:30 am, the queen passed away.
She was the mother of 4 children and, according to the doctors' descriptions, was awaiting the fifth at the time of her death. The world shuddered: the queen, daughter of one emperor and sister of another, went to the grave because she squeezed out a tiny pimple over her lip. Erysipelas, from which Emperor Alexander I almost died, turned out to be fatal for his beloved sister, since the tumor in the Grand Duchess happened on her face, in the very part that is called the triangle of death.
III
The grief of the Russian imperial family was boundless. Katya, their favorite, has gone to another world! As the memoirist F. F. Vigel, “By January 1, 1819, the sovereign returned; a few days after him Empress Maria Feodorovna; and on the 9th, Ekaterina Pavlovna, Queen of Virttemberg, died almost suddenly (as in the text). Many were sure that after her second marriage, her family grew cold to her. Then the deep grief that her death caused made everyone know that the tender feelings of her relatives for her never lost their strength. After that, of course, all amusements at the court had to be silenced until spring."
V. A. Zhukovsky in January 1819 wrote the elegy "On the death of Her Majesty the Queen of Wiertemberg":
Spouse, name! go to parting!
Tearing off the wedding crown from the brow, In the last earthly farewell
Lead the orphans after the mother, widower;
Give her the last kiss;
And where all dating ends
Forgive me tell me
And put all the benefits in the ground with it.
IV
King Wilhelm I of Württemberg in 1820, a year after the death of Catherine, married his cousin, Pauline of Württemberg.
Many years have passed, as they say. However, when Wilhelm died and his will was opened, the heirs saw the confession and posthumous confession of the king in his unquenchable love for Catherine. His body was buried by will in 1864 in the same tomb as the remains of Catherine Pavlovna. The king was wise and had an amazing feeling - to keep love for those who remained in his memory forever. Perhaps that is why he ordered in his will to inscribe over the entrance to the temple-tomb: "Love will never die."
Instead of an afterword
What does modern medicine say about the nasolabial triangle?
“The blood supply is very well developed in this part of the face,” said the head of the department of the Institute of Otolaryngology. prof. Kolomiychenko AMS of Ukraine, Candidate of Medical Sciences Dmitry Alexandrovich Zinchenko. - There are many vessels of both arterial and venous networks. In addition, the veins here do not have valves, unlike the veins in other parts of the body. This means that infections that enter the nasolabial triangle, for example, through boils or as a result of inflammatory diseases, can easily penetrate the cavernous sinuses of the brain. The most tragic consequences of a late visit to a doctor are the death of a person or serious complications."
However, when asked if he had witnessed such cases, the doctor reassured him, saying that modern techniques and drugs are able to cope with what happened in Europe, far from us, two centuries ago.
Source: “Interesting newspaper. Mysteries of Civilization №1