130 ^ On the State of Medicine in 



Lunatic Asyhims the only Hospitals in Turkey, — The only 

 hospitals of any sort in Turkey, are those appropriated to the 

 reception of idiots, institutions better regulated than could be 

 expected, in a country otherwise so backward in civilization. The 

 inmates are persons afflicted with fatuity or epilepsy, and tlie 

 idea, so universally prevalent, that these diseases partake of a 

 sacred character, operates very favourably in increasing the 

 amount of alms contributed to their support, and consequently 

 these hospitals abound in Turkey. 



State of Surgery in Turkey, — Surgery has hitherto scarcely 

 deserved that name in Turkey, and indeed it could not be other- 

 wise, in a country where dissection, or even opening a dead body, 

 is expressly forbidden by the Koran : " thou shalt not open the 

 body even of a criminal, who has stolen and swallowed pearls of 

 price,"" are the emphatic words of the prophet. The present 

 Sultan has caused to be published in Constantinople, a large 

 folio, a sort of cyclopaedia of practical medicine, surgery, and 

 anatomy, with anatomical plates, which is used in the medical 

 school established under his auspices, but is ill understood by 

 the pupils, on account of containing many Greek and Latin 

 phrases, either untranslated or translated very badly. 



A Turkish surgeon has no instrument but a lancet, scissors, 

 searing iron, and a forceps for extracting balls. Except bleeding 

 and cupping, (in the latter they are great adepts), they never per- 

 form an operation, as they dread hemorrhage, which they are 

 totally unable to control, their only resource being the applica- 

 tion of some styptic powder, or else the iron ore, called hematite, 

 to the bleeding part. In some cases they sear the wound with 

 the actual cautery : when the limbs are chopped off by the exe- 

 cutioner, the only person who ever performs an amputation in 

 Turkey, the criminal's friends arrest the bleeding in this manner. 

 He who is caught in the act of thieving, has his hands cut off; 

 the Koran is explicit in enjoining this punishment. For slight 

 offences, they nail the car to a post, at such a height that the 

 sufferer just touches the ground with his feet, a position by no 

 means enviable. Scarifications of the skin are frequently used 

 and often with great benefit : they apply them to relieve pains 

 in all parts of the body? and use them in persons of all ages. 

 I have known this operation to be performed in the country 



