700 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XVIII. 



The story is that at one time it was a single tree but was struck by lightning 

 and split, and from the base of the split these branches started. The split is 

 plainly seen in the photograph. 



Gulzarbagh, E.I.Ry., 2Uh August 1907. F. FIELD. 



No. XXXIII— DATES AND DATE-MARKS. 



Two of the chief features of Baghdad are the date palm and the local boils 

 which are known as " date -marks." Why this name should be given to them is 

 not easy to understand ; many explanations are offered, but none seem satisfac- 

 tory. Some say that they come from eating dates, but this is certainly untrue. 

 Others maintain that they are so called because they afflict people in date-bear- 

 ing countries, but this explanation does not hold good either, for Basra is far 

 more the region of date palms than Baghdad, and yet is free from the plague 

 of boils. Another theory is that they are called date-marks, because they almost 

 always begin during the season of the ripening of the dates, and yet another 

 that the name comes from the shape of the scar left, which is generally a long 

 oval, not unlike the shape of the fruit. Some people boldly casting aside any 

 connection between the boils and dates, lay the blame on the unprotesting mos- 

 quito, an animal which has become as necessary to the medical profession as 

 the cat to the landlady. 



Be the cause what it may, the effect is equally disagreeable. Scarcely any 

 resident of Baghdad, either European or native, escapes from these boils, which 

 in severe cases may cause the loss of the sight of an eye or carry off a bit 

 of the nose or lip. This is fortunately rare, but there is quite a probability 

 of disfigurement for life, resulting from frightful scars on the face. Indeed so 

 real is the danger, that it has been suggested that if the Government of India 

 is anxious to create a new decoration, it cannot do better than recognise the 

 valour of its subjects who have been " sent to the front " in these parts, and 

 issue a Baghdad medal with a clasp or bar for every boil, ladies not to be 

 debarred in any sense of the word ? Rude questions to a lady thus decorated as 

 to how many clasps she was embraced by might be disregarded. 



Job, who is supposed to have been a native of Mesopotamia, was probably 

 the most eminent sufferer from Baghdad boils, the germs of which were 

 no doubt then lurking in some obscure village, as they will continue to do 

 when Baghdad has gone the way of Babylon and other buried cities of the 

 plain. 



The Baghdad boil or date-mark follows the rule of slow growth and long life. 

 It lasts a whole year, beginning in July or August as a small pimple, which 

 grows very slowly for several months, and then becomes tender and swollen, 

 continues as an open sore for some months more, and slowly dries up. Consi- 

 dering the virulence of the sore, it is remarkably little painful, unless it hap- 

 pens to come on a joint or a part much exposed to knocks. Children are the 

 greatest sufferers, and are always attacked on the face ; indeed it is rare to see a 



