and divers general Rules for the meanest capacity to find out the Disease. The best expedient to prevent poor People from unnecessary Journeys. The whole concluded with above Sixty admirable Cures, performed with and without Gold, by His Majesty's Benediction; by His Late Majesty's precious Blood; and the like." Prefixed to the work is a portrait of Browne, engraved by R. White, inscribed "Johannes Browne, Regis Britannici necnon Nosocomii sui Chirurgus Ordinarius;" and a curious frontispiece, also engraved by White, entitled "The Royal Gift of Healing," representing Charles II. seated on his Throne, surrounded by his Court, touching for the King's Evil. This ceremony seems to have been in high vogue during this reign. "The King gives freely," says Mr. Browne, "not calling the Angels to witness, nor sinking so low as others do, to perform the same by Black Art or Inchantment. He does it with a pure heart, in the presence of the Almighty, who knows all things, without superstition, curing all that approach his Royal Touch. And this I may frankly presume to aver, that never any of his Predecessors have ever exercised it more, or more willingly or freely, whose wonderful effects, and certainty of cure, we must and shall ever acknowledge[216]." [216] Browne, book iii. p. 126. This is followed by accounts of about 70 "wonderful and miraculous cures, performed by his Majesty's Sacred Hands;" and also by "An Account of the Number of Persons touched for the King's Evil, from May 1660 to September 1664, from the Registers kept by Thomas Haynes, Esq. Serjeant of the Chapel Royal; from which I shall copy the totals of each year: 1660 6725 1661 4619 1662 4275 1663 4667 1664 3335 Another account, kept by Mr. Thomas Donkley, Keeper of his Majesty's Closet belonging to the Chapel Royal, continues the Numbers as follows: 1667 3078 1668 3543 1669 2983 1670 3377 1671 3568 1672 3771 1673 4457 1674 5079 1675 3471 1676 4454 1677 4607 1678 3456 1679 3752 1680 3796 1681 2461 1682 8577 Summa Totalis 92,107 QUEEN ANNE. It appears by the Newspapers of the time, that on the 30th of March, 1714, _two hundred_ persons were touched by Queen Anne[217]. Amongst these was _Samuel Johnson_, afterwards the justly celebrated Moral Writer. He was sent by the advice of Sir John Floyer, then a Physician at Lichfield; and many years afterwards, being asked if he could remember Queen Anne, said, "he had a confused, but somehow a sort of solemn recollection of a Lady in diamonds, and a long black hood." [217] The Ceremony used in this Reign is given in the Appendix, No. II.