In an Italian paper, La Tribuna, there recently appeared the following advertisement: “A young lady of noble family, aged 30, of refined education, having an income of 2,000 lire, wishes to get married. The suitor may be broken in fortune, but it is absolutely essential that he should have a loving heart and the title of prince. A medical man preferred.” This remarkable advertisement has every appearance of being genuine. The lady lives at Padua, and it may be conjectured that having a limited income and indifferent health, she is looking for deliverance from medical bills in matrimony. To find a husband who could minister to her bodily ailments, and at the same time give her the social advantages of the title of “Princess” might well be the dream of a mature maiden's heart. She is to be commended for her practical common sense in distinctly formulating her conditions before entering on negotiations. The difficulty is to find a man who fulfils them. Princes, indeed, have had little taste for medicine since the days of Henry VIII, who, according to his admirer, Froude, was the best physician in his realm; and Peter the Great of Russia, who was fond of bleeding and bandaging his lieges and extracting their teeth on occasion. There are, we believe, at present in Europe only two princes who are doctors, both of whom belong to the House of Wittelsbach. These are the Duke Karl Theodor of Bavaria, and Prince Ludwig Ferdinand. The former is an ophthalmologist of no mean skill, and only the other day was elected on his professional merits an honorary member of the Belgian Academy of Medicine. They have established on their estates in the Tyrol hospitals of which they themselves are the medical officers. Both these princes, hoever, are married. Our own gracious sovereign, who is a Fellow of both Royal Colleges, is also ineligible for the same reason. We fear, therefore, that the fair maid of Padua will sigh for her prince-physician in vain.
(BMJ 1902;i:164)