It was something of an achievement—though an odd one—on the
part of The Times to publish both a news message and a leading article on the death of Prince Gonzalo without a single reference to the haemophilia from which all but one of the Spanish princes notoriously suffer, and which was in the case of this particular prince the direct cause of death. The characteristic of haemo- philia—the tendency to bleed copiously, internally and externally, with or without apparent cause—is that it is transmitted through females but only occurs (the rule has very rare exceptions) in males. A striking com- ment on that is that while Prince Gonzalo had no outward sign of injury, he died of internal haemorrhage, in the case of his sister, Princess Beatrice, who did sustain some outward contusions, they had no more effect on her than on any other normal person. Strangely enough, while three of King .Alfonso's four sons have always suffered from haemophilia, the third son, Prince Juan, is quite free from it.
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