266 On the State of Medicine hi 



vince, or mufti, or any other employe of the government dies, 

 the whole of the treasure in his possession immediately finds its 

 way into the coffers of the state ; therefore, it becomes an object 

 of paramount importance for the family, to conceal, if possible, 

 the death of their relative, until they have either made off with 

 his money, or what is a safer method of proceeding, until they,,! 

 have used one portion of it to bribe the members of the divati 

 into conniving at their keeping the remainder. The father of 

 the present Pascha of Uskup, it is now ascertained, was buried 

 four years before his death was announced. During the inter- 

 val, his son had carried on all the public business in the father's 

 name, and the signature of the latter was affixed to all official 

 documents. During this period, medical advice was sought for 

 in all quarters, and eminent physicians were even brought from 

 Constantinople. They were consulted, but for very evident 

 reasons, were never permitted to see the patient, a matter 

 esteemed of little consequence in Turkey, provided the state pf ,. 

 the pulse is accurately described. 



ajf I must confess," says Dr Oppenheim, " that being at the 

 time but little acquainted with Turkish manners, 1 was any 

 thing but pleased upon being sent for by Abduraman, the Pascha 

 of Kalkandehl, to treat some patients in his harem. I was re- 

 ceived by the Pascha with all those marks of distinction, which 

 the Turk of consequence bestows on a Christian physician, when 

 he has occasion for his services. After he had complimented to 

 excess myself individually, and had extolled the wisdom of the 

 Franks generally, he informed me, that his whole harem was 

 sick, but that with my aid, he had little doubt that his three 

 wives would be speedily cured. The first lady I visited; Wi^ 

 about twenty-four years of age, who laboured under a catarrhal 

 fever. I promised to cure her in a few days. The second was 

 nearly twenty years old, and of a well marked strumous diathe- 

 sis. She laboured under a chronic ophthalmia and herpetic erup- 

 tion. My prognosis was, in her case, more cautious, but fa- 

 vourable ; but I specified no fixed period for her recovery. In 

 the third apartment, lay a lady about thirty years old, who had 

 anasarca and ascites, and was also in the last month of pregnancy; 

 her breathing was so much affected, that I feared also the exist- 

 ence of hydrothorax. As I afterwards learned, three months 



