126 On the State of Medicine in 



habit of recommending astringent injections in this disease. 

 Notwithstanding this injudicious practice, strictures of the ure- 

 thra are very rare, a circumstance worthy of observation. Dr 

 Oppenheim, in his remarks upon the venereal disease, discloses 

 many circumstances, which prove the almost incredible preva- 

 lence of unnatural vice in Turkey, not only among the ignorant 

 and uneducated, but among the highest functionaries, of the 

 state. The late, and the present Grand Vizier, Redschid 

 Mehmet Pascha, are quoted as examples ; in short, it is evident 

 that the standard of morality among the Turks is not higher 

 than it was among the Romans in the time of the emperors, 

 whose tyranny was well deserved by subjects totally destitute of 

 private virtue. If other proofs were wanting of Turkish sen- 

 suality, the enormous prices they give for aphrodisiacs would 

 alone establish the fact. 



Eaters of Opium, and of Corrosive Sublimate. — Dr Oppenheim 

 saw a large price given in Caesarea, for a powder, made by incine- 

 rating the brains of male and female sparrows in equal quantities. 

 The Doctor makes some very interesting observations on the 

 practice so prevalent in Turkey, of eating opium, to which is 

 added, in confirmed cases of this dreadful habit, corrosive sub- 

 limate. Some take the latter poison to the extent of ten grains 

 daily. Strohmayer is quoted, as having lately published in 

 Vienna, an account of a Tyrolese peasant, who was in the habit 

 of mixing ten grains of arsenic with his daily portion of food. 

 Quite as extraordinary is the fact I have lately seen in some 

 work, that in one of the islands of the Pacific, the inhabitants 

 have no other water to drink but sea water. Mackenzie or 

 Hooker, I forget which, relates that in Iceland, the cows are 

 often fed with dried fish during the winter ! Those who in- 

 dulge in opium, always avoid drinking water or any fluid at 

 such times, as so doing often occasions colic. It is particularly 

 worthy of notice, that Dr Oppenheim himself was attacked in 

 Turkey with intermittent fever, which at first had the quotidian 

 form, but soon changed its type, so that the paroxysm came on 

 every seventh, and afterwards every fourteenth day. In one of 

 the clinical lectures, published in the London Medical and 

 Surgical Journal, I have noticed this strange species of ague, 

 as occurring in some parts of Russia. 



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