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belief in ancient Rome that a swallow of gladiator blood could cure epilepsy. Provocative, yes, but scientific, no. In Dr. Dolphin’s theory, however, science concedes. The severe anemia caused by CEP leaves sufferers with dangerously low levels of heme in their circulatory systems. In medical terms, a heme deficiency is an iron deficiency, which is why the modern treatment for this rare form of porphyria is regular transfusions of blood. Though not recommended, a patient could instead be given a straw. The heme molecule is robust enough to survive digestion and will make its way into the bloodstream.

When I consulted a nutritionist on this final notion, I was so preoccupied by the repulsive thought of ingesting blood that I was startled when she stated the obvious: “We eat blood all the time. It’s in our meat, in all the animals we kill for food.” Mary Kay Grossman is a registered dietician and coauthor of the bestseller The Insulin-Resistance Diet. “In our culture,” she continued, with the exception of kosher diets, “we don’t drain the blood off. If you cook it, it’s not unhealthy to eat blood, and it doesn’t lose its nutritional value.” In fact, Grossman explained, some cultures, such as the Masai of Kenya and Tanzania, subsist entirely on blood and milk—cow’s blood, that is. “They milk the cows, then puncture the throat, and drain the blood off.” (The cows survive, by the way.) The Masai then mix the two and drink it fresh, she added, or give it a few days to ferment. “They live in an extremely dry climate where it’s almost impossible to grow anything, so the blood supplies iron and the milk is a major source of protein.”

Raw animal blood is a central part of the diet of other pastoral groups in eastern Africa, I later learned, including the Karimojong of Uganda, but, globally, cooked animal blood as a main ingredient in traditional dishes is far more common. The Inuits with their seal’s blood soup, for example. The Tibetans with yak’s blood cubes, a snack of reduced yak’s blood served with sugar and hot butter. And the English with their black pudding, a baked then fried concoction of pig’s blood, bread cubes, skim milk, beef suet, barley, oatmeal, and mint. You can even taste your way through every region of France through local interpretations of boudin noir, “blood sausage.” Larousse Gastronomique, the classic French encyclopedia of Continental cuisine, describes sixteen variations, following the basic recipe of equal parts onions, pork fat, and pork blood.

King George III was likely never fed such savory dishes when he was ill. Rather, according to historians, he was often straitjacketed, tied to a bed or chair, and subjected to a varying regimen of vomits, purges, blisterings (the placing of hot coals on the skin in order to draw “bad humors” to the surface), cuppings, bloodlettings, and leechings. Heaven help the king. Perhaps some degree of solace can be found, however, in the fact that the last three forms of treatment would have, in theory at least, helped the ruler. While anemia can be relieved through adding blood, removing blood will quickly reduce the level of porphyrins in circulation. In fact, some types of porphyria are currently treated through phlebotomy, the modern-day counterpart to bloodletting, as is the more common hereditary blood disease, hemochromatosis, in which a dangerous excess of iron in the blood must be decreased through regular blood draws. (A curious side note: Once this heme-heavy blood is collected, it’s routinely destroyed, even though—assuming the donor with hemochromatosis is otherwise disease-free—its iron-richness is exactly what many ER patients need.)

Four of King George’s sons are believed to have had porphyria, including the heir apparent, George IV, whose wife (a first cousin) and daughter, Charlotte, were also afflicted. It’s quite possible the illness later led to Princess Charlotte’s death during childbirth at age twenty-one (her son was stillborn), a tragedy that precipitated a regency crisis: The king, who by this point was blind, enfeebled, and nearly eighty, now