The Health of Historical Figures: Georgiana Cavendish

* This post might not be for you if you are squeamish or triggered by the mention of pain, medical procedures, doctors etc. 

Welcome to a new series, The Health of Historical Figures, where I will be exploring the health, treatments and surgeries of popular historical figures. The first post is about one of my favourites, Georgiana Cavendish (1757-1806) social butterfly, author, activist and political organiser for the Whig party.

The Duchess of Devonshire by Thomas Gainsborough. From the Devonshire Collection, Chatsworth.

Georgiana suffered from various illnesses throughout her life, including painful kidney stones, spasms, and an operation on her neck. But perhaps her most harrowing was an ulcerated eye in 1796, which left her screaming in pain. Her doctors, not fully understanding the cause of the infection, tried all manner of strange and excruciating ‘treatments’ on her.

Georgiana suffered from migraines and she experienced pain in her eyes after a migraine attack. In July 1796, after days of being bedbound with a severe migraine, her right eye ‘swelled to the size of an apricot.’ She had an ulcer on her cornea, which burst. Her children were sent away to Chiswick, while doctors worked on their mother. In the book Georgiana Duchess of Devonshire, Amanda Foreman writes how ‘One of the doctors almost strangled her when he tried to force the blood up to her head, in the belief that the eye needed to be ‘flushed’ through.’ Georgiana was awake while the doctors worked on her, and she took Laudanum for the pain.

Portrait of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire drawn by John Downman (1784)

© The Trustees of the British Museum

Georgiana's mother described her eyelid as being scarred from leeches, perhaps used to try and bring down the massive swelling, which she described as being ‘swelled to the size of your hands doubled and projecting forward from the face.’ And that ‘The eye itself to those who see it (for I cannot) is still more horrible.’  The poor hygiene of the doctors likely contributed to the infection further. Sterilising surgical tools and washing hands had not yet come into practice.

Her health improved after a few months; however, she could barely see out of her right eye and exposure to light would cause her pain in the months following the ulceration. Her right eye now drooped slightly. Understandably, the illness and her appearance made her very down and she lost a lot of weight. Dr Erasmus Darwin later recommended electric shocks above her temples as a way of ‘galvanising’ her eye. Unfortunately, it didn’t work. It must have been a very upsetting experience for Georgiana, someone who took great pride in her appearance and who was once dubbed by the newspapers as the ‘Empress of fashion’.

References:

Book: Georgiana Duchess of Devonshire by Amanda Foreman.