DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14729#0052
THIRTY-FIVE YEARS IN THE EAST.
•me not to go there, as in their opinion an epidemical
disease was raging at that place ; but I did not listen
to their warnings as I wished to be useful to those
people who had implored my assistance, and at the same
time to extend my experience. When I was near the
village, I saw a great many Maronite girls (Christians^
coming back from the well, with pitchers on their heads,
each of them holding an onion in their hands, at which they
frequently smelled.
The epidemical disease had the character of a Synochus,
and several persons had died suddenly, which caused great
alarm among the inhabitants. The silk gathering was
just ended, and I found the diseased were located in
miserable, low houses, deprived of fresh air ; I thought
it advisable to cause them to be removed from their habita-
ations, and brought into the manufactories, where previously
the silk worms had been ; and the result of my treatment
was, that none of my patients died of that disease. I was
conducted from Mesrut-ul-Toofah, to a place a little
farther up the Lebanon, to Aito, where the former French
interpreter, Isaac Torbei, was confined to his bed with
Angina, and was unable to articulate, in spite of all his
efforts to do so. I examined his throat, and found an abscess
therein, which I opened immediately ; by which operation
my patient Was able to talk instantly, and after a few days
he entirely recovered.
From Aito, I was brought to Kannobin, to the resi-
dence of the Maronitan patriarch, where the Bishop Mootran
Seman lay very ill. Kannobin is situated on a declivity,
from whence a beautiful view is obtained of the valley,
it is by no means a town, as the Dictionnaire Encyclop-
edique Ferancaise (second edition) erronously asserts, it
being merely a convent. There is a curious custom
attached to this country, and in most places of Asia. A
physician being called on to attend a sick person, it is
first arranged as to how much he will require for curing
the same ; upon that arrangement being completed, the
physician receives one moity of the sura agreed upon, and
•me not to go there, as in their opinion an epidemical
disease was raging at that place ; but I did not listen
to their warnings as I wished to be useful to those
people who had implored my assistance, and at the same
time to extend my experience. When I was near the
village, I saw a great many Maronite girls (Christians^
coming back from the well, with pitchers on their heads,
each of them holding an onion in their hands, at which they
frequently smelled.
The epidemical disease had the character of a Synochus,
and several persons had died suddenly, which caused great
alarm among the inhabitants. The silk gathering was
just ended, and I found the diseased were located in
miserable, low houses, deprived of fresh air ; I thought
it advisable to cause them to be removed from their habita-
ations, and brought into the manufactories, where previously
the silk worms had been ; and the result of my treatment
was, that none of my patients died of that disease. I was
conducted from Mesrut-ul-Toofah, to a place a little
farther up the Lebanon, to Aito, where the former French
interpreter, Isaac Torbei, was confined to his bed with
Angina, and was unable to articulate, in spite of all his
efforts to do so. I examined his throat, and found an abscess
therein, which I opened immediately ; by which operation
my patient Was able to talk instantly, and after a few days
he entirely recovered.
From Aito, I was brought to Kannobin, to the resi-
dence of the Maronitan patriarch, where the Bishop Mootran
Seman lay very ill. Kannobin is situated on a declivity,
from whence a beautiful view is obtained of the valley,
it is by no means a town, as the Dictionnaire Encyclop-
edique Ferancaise (second edition) erronously asserts, it
being merely a convent. There is a curious custom
attached to this country, and in most places of Asia. A
physician being called on to attend a sick person, it is
first arranged as to how much he will require for curing
the same ; upon that arrangement being completed, the
physician receives one moity of the sura agreed upon, and