Books: Tropic of Cancer

Like many a lesser light in his profession, British Laryngologist Morell Mackenzie "had a harmless liking for seeing his name in the newspapers." So when he was summoned to Berlin, in 1887, to examine the troublesome larynx of Crown Prince Frederick—heir to the throne of Germany—Dr. Mackenzie saw to it that the imperial summons appeared in the Court Circular of the London Times. Six months later, the royal patient was dead—and the world's newspapers boiled the unfortunate Mackenzie in one of the spiciest, most scandalous stories of the 19th Century.

British readers are now able to learn the facts of this...