DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14729#0201
148
THIRTY-FIVE YEARS IN THE EAST.
the matter with much earnestness ; and in the extensive
practice which I had at Lahore, I was induced to adopt the
medium between those two extremes. I know well, that in
politics the system of juste milieu does not enjoy a great
degree of credit, especially since Louis Philippe has lost
by it the throne of France ; but that which is incongruous
and inconsistent in politics, may be otherwise in the empire
of science ; and the numerous successful results which I
have found this medium system to have effected, have tend-
ed most strongly to confirm that opinion. To support my
assertion, I may cite the two well-known words of the
Greek—Mydev ayav —Ne quid nimis—" Too much is as bad
as too little," as they say in England.
Soon after the death of Runjeet Sing, in the year 1840,
I began to experiment upon this new principle ; and five
years afterwards, the epidemic cholera raged at Lahore.
'It proceeded slowly from middle Asia, or Turkistan, through
Cabul and Peshawur, as we learned from the "Delhi Gazette",
in which it was stated that the epidemic was taking a direc-
tion towards the East Indies. I thus had sufficient warning,
previously to its arrival at Lahore, to prepare myself for
its reception. It was a dreadful spectacle, to witness the
fury with which it swept away its victims. At its first
appearance, the Hindoos and Sikhs conveyed the bodies
of the deceased through the gate called Tunksallee-Derwazeh,
because of its being near to the river Ravee, on the banks
of which they were accustomed either to burn the corpses
or throw them into the river ; but owing to the progress
of the cholera, the number of funerals became so great that
the passages of the bazaars were interrupted, and the govern-
ment was obliged to issue an order that the dead should
be carried through other gates also ; and thus the Sikhs and
Hindoos were, like the Musselmen, carried through the re-
spective twelve gates of the city. When the epidemic had
reached its height, there were upwards of eight hundred
deaths daily, out of a population of about 70,000. During
that fatal period I had the opportunity of making a large
number of experiments ; but the six weeks during which
THIRTY-FIVE YEARS IN THE EAST.
the matter with much earnestness ; and in the extensive
practice which I had at Lahore, I was induced to adopt the
medium between those two extremes. I know well, that in
politics the system of juste milieu does not enjoy a great
degree of credit, especially since Louis Philippe has lost
by it the throne of France ; but that which is incongruous
and inconsistent in politics, may be otherwise in the empire
of science ; and the numerous successful results which I
have found this medium system to have effected, have tend-
ed most strongly to confirm that opinion. To support my
assertion, I may cite the two well-known words of the
Greek—Mydev ayav —Ne quid nimis—" Too much is as bad
as too little," as they say in England.
Soon after the death of Runjeet Sing, in the year 1840,
I began to experiment upon this new principle ; and five
years afterwards, the epidemic cholera raged at Lahore.
'It proceeded slowly from middle Asia, or Turkistan, through
Cabul and Peshawur, as we learned from the "Delhi Gazette",
in which it was stated that the epidemic was taking a direc-
tion towards the East Indies. I thus had sufficient warning,
previously to its arrival at Lahore, to prepare myself for
its reception. It was a dreadful spectacle, to witness the
fury with which it swept away its victims. At its first
appearance, the Hindoos and Sikhs conveyed the bodies
of the deceased through the gate called Tunksallee-Derwazeh,
because of its being near to the river Ravee, on the banks
of which they were accustomed either to burn the corpses
or throw them into the river ; but owing to the progress
of the cholera, the number of funerals became so great that
the passages of the bazaars were interrupted, and the govern-
ment was obliged to issue an order that the dead should
be carried through other gates also ; and thus the Sikhs and
Hindoos were, like the Musselmen, carried through the re-
spective twelve gates of the city. When the epidemic had
reached its height, there were upwards of eight hundred
deaths daily, out of a population of about 70,000. During
that fatal period I had the opportunity of making a large
number of experiments ; but the six weeks during which