DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.11638#0073
AND LOWER EGYPT. 59
On the other hand, if the physician has the mis-
fortune to be called in by a man in power, that
which would be in our country a source of rejoicing,
of importance, and of riches, becomes there a
source of perpetual terror and dangers. He should
diligently endeavour to shun an honour so peril-
ous ; but if he cannot escape it, he must either
cure his too much exacting patient, or lay his ac-
count with dying himself. A most cruel alternative
undoubtedly, but which renders the trade of quack-
ery very rare here, and so common in other coun-
tries, where they are allowed to kill with the
most perfect resignation. Does a remedy given to
one of these same powerful men prove troublesome
to him ? The physician is ordered in: he is obliged
to remain during the operation of the medicine ;
he is informed that he must answer with his head
for any unpleasant termination. In the moments
of pain, looks of fury are darted at him, and the
wretched physician, more disordered than the sick
man himself, awaits, in mortal agonies, the issue
of the operation of a medicine which his conjectural
skill could not permit him to assert would be suc-
cessful in its effects.
It will easily be conceived, that I observed every
precaution, in order to shelter myself from the dan-
gers with which the practice of physic is surrounded
in those barbarous countries, where it was imagined
that a man is a physician only in order to cure,
and
On the other hand, if the physician has the mis-
fortune to be called in by a man in power, that
which would be in our country a source of rejoicing,
of importance, and of riches, becomes there a
source of perpetual terror and dangers. He should
diligently endeavour to shun an honour so peril-
ous ; but if he cannot escape it, he must either
cure his too much exacting patient, or lay his ac-
count with dying himself. A most cruel alternative
undoubtedly, but which renders the trade of quack-
ery very rare here, and so common in other coun-
tries, where they are allowed to kill with the
most perfect resignation. Does a remedy given to
one of these same powerful men prove troublesome
to him ? The physician is ordered in: he is obliged
to remain during the operation of the medicine ;
he is informed that he must answer with his head
for any unpleasant termination. In the moments
of pain, looks of fury are darted at him, and the
wretched physician, more disordered than the sick
man himself, awaits, in mortal agonies, the issue
of the operation of a medicine which his conjectural
skill could not permit him to assert would be suc-
cessful in its effects.
It will easily be conceived, that I observed every
precaution, in order to shelter myself from the dan-
gers with which the practice of physic is surrounded
in those barbarous countries, where it was imagined
that a man is a physician only in order to cure,
and