The German physicians who had attended the prince since the beginning of March (Karl Gerhardt, and subsequently Adalbert Tobold, Ernst von Bergmann, and others), had diagnosed his ailment on 18 May as cancer of the throat; but Morell Mackenzie insisted (basing his opinion on a microscopical examination by a great pathologist, Rudolf Virchow, of a portion of the tissue) that the disease was not demonstrably cancerous, that an operation for the extirpation of the larynx (planned for the 21 May) was unjustifiable, and that the growth might well be a benign one and therefore curable by other treatment. The question was one not only of personal but of political importance, since it was unsure whether any one suffering from an incapacitating disease like cancer could, according to the family law of the Hohenzollerns, occupy the German throne, and there was talk of a renunciation of the succession by the crown prince. It was freely hinted, moreover, that some of the doctors themselves were influenced by political considerations. At any rate, Morell Mackenzie's opinion was followed: the crown prince went to England, under his treatment, and was present at the celebrations of the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria in June. Morell Mackenzie was knighted in September 1887 for his services, and appointed a Grand Commander of the Royal House Order of Hohenzollern. In November, however, the German doctors were again called into consultation, and it was ultimately admitted that the disease really was cancer; but Mackenzie, with very questionable judgment, more than hinted that it had become malignant since his first examination, in consequence of the irritating effect of the treatment by the German doctors. The crown prince became emperor on 9 March 1888 and died on 15 June. During all this period, a violent quarrel raged between Mackenzie and the German medical world. The German doctors published an account of the illness, to which Mackenzie replied by a work entitled The Fatal Illness of Frederick the Noble (1888), the publication of which caused him to be censured by the Royal College of Surgeons. After this sensational episode in his career, the remainder of Sir Morell Mackenzie's life was uneventful, and he died somewhat suddenly in London, on 3 February 1892 and was buried in the churchyard at Wargrave in Berkshire where he had a house in the country. He published several books on laryngoscopy and diseases of the throat. Biographies