Rushton Alan R
Department of Pediatrics, Hunterdon Medical Center, Flemington, New Jersey 08822, USA.
J Hist Med Allied Sci. 2012 Jul;67(3):457-90. doi: 10.1093/jhmas/jrr029. Epub 2011 Jul 15.
Hemophilia is a rare bleeding disorder inherited by males born of unaffected female carriers of the trait. British physicians became knowledgeable about this hereditary disease early in the nineteenth century as they investigated families transmitting the character through several generations. Prince Leopold (b. 1853), the fourth son of Queen Victoria, experienced recurrent bleeding episodes and was diagnosed with hemophilia during childhood. His hemorrhagic attacks were first described in the medical journals during 1868, and subsequently in the London and provincial newspapers. The royal family carefully managed news about health matters, and many newspapers reported widespread public sympathy for the travails of the queen and her children. But the republican press argued that the disaffected working classes resented the hyperbole connecting the health of royal individuals with the political future of the entire nation. Public discussion of hemophilia transformed it from a rare medical phenomenon to a matter of national news. Practicing physicians, the royal family, and the general public all came to understand the clinical features and the hereditary nature of the problem. Members of the royal family subsequently utilized this information to guide the marriages of their own children to prevent the spread of this dreaded bleeding disorder.
血友病是一种罕见的出血性疾病，由携带该性状的未受影响女性所生的男性遗传。19世纪早期，英国医生在调查几代人遗传该性状的家族时，开始了解这种遗传性疾病。维多利亚女王的第四个儿子利奥波德王子（生于1853年）童年时经历了反复的出血发作，并被诊断患有血友病。他的出血发作于1868年首次在医学期刊上被描述，随后在伦敦和地方报纸上也有报道。王室谨慎管理有关健康问题的新闻，许多报纸报道了公众对女王及其子女苦难的广泛同情。但共和派媒体认为，心怀不满的工人阶级对将王室成员的健康与整个国家的政治未来联系起来的夸张说法感到不满。对血友病的公开讨论将其从一种罕见的医学现象转变为全国性新闻事件。执业医生、王室和公众都开始了解该问题的临床特征和遗传性质。王室成员随后利用这些信息来指导自己子女的婚姻，以防止这种可怕的出血性疾病传播。
