DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.11638#0072
58 TRAVELS IN UPPER
place, called him in. He suffered, he told him, a very
severe pain in his head. The surgeon was inconsi-
derate enough to prescribe for him that which a
physician in this country must not presume to men-
tion. On a sudden the Mussulman was in a fury,
that in order to cure a complaint in the head, an
application was to be made to a part diametrically
opposite: lie drew out his sabre, arose from his
divan, loaded the Frenchman with imprecations,
and would have struck him with his scymilar, if
he had not found means to evade the blow.
But such mistakes as these are not the only dan-
gers to be encountered in the practice of physic in
Egypt. If it happens that the sick person sinks
under his disease, his physician must not expect the
same indulgence which, in Europe, charitably re-
moving from him every kind of reproach, contents
itself with ascribing the death of the patient to the
incurable nature of his disorder, or to the paiient
himself. He is regarded as an assassin. The fa-
mily, the neighbours of the victim, even the popu-
lace, always disposed to rise up against foreigners
whom they hold in abhorrence, unite together;
the massacre of the physician succeeds almost im-
mediately the loss of his patient; and he is made
a sacrifice to the manes of the dead, and to the
vengeance of the living.
On
place, called him in. He suffered, he told him, a very
severe pain in his head. The surgeon was inconsi-
derate enough to prescribe for him that which a
physician in this country must not presume to men-
tion. On a sudden the Mussulman was in a fury,
that in order to cure a complaint in the head, an
application was to be made to a part diametrically
opposite: lie drew out his sabre, arose from his
divan, loaded the Frenchman with imprecations,
and would have struck him with his scymilar, if
he had not found means to evade the blow.
But such mistakes as these are not the only dan-
gers to be encountered in the practice of physic in
Egypt. If it happens that the sick person sinks
under his disease, his physician must not expect the
same indulgence which, in Europe, charitably re-
moving from him every kind of reproach, contents
itself with ascribing the death of the patient to the
incurable nature of his disorder, or to the paiient
himself. He is regarded as an assassin. The fa-
mily, the neighbours of the victim, even the popu-
lace, always disposed to rise up against foreigners
whom they hold in abhorrence, unite together;
the massacre of the physician succeeds almost im-
mediately the loss of his patient; and he is made
a sacrifice to the manes of the dead, and to the
vengeance of the living.
On