When, in 1736, a seven-year-old German princess called Sophie Friederike Auguste was found to be suffering from curvature of the spine, her parents called in the local hangman for advice. The man, more used to causing than repairing dislocation, prescribed an unconventional remedy: Sophie’s back should be vigorously rubbed each morning with the saliva of a neighboring servant girl. Beneath her clothes, she should wear a corset, and her arm and shoulder should be wrapped with black ribbon.
With medical advice like this, it was no wonder that Sophie, who would grow up to become Catherine the Great of Russia, was deeply suspicious of doctors.
