THIRTY-FIVE YEARS IN THE EAST. 5 



Tharsus, Adana, Alexandretta, and Antiochia. At Aleppo I 

 fouDd many Germans among the numerous Europeans, and 

 on that account would willingly have practised there for 

 some time. Unhappily I fell sick on the road, as between 

 Adana and Alexandretta I had to cross an unhealthy, low 

 and marshy country, where malaria and marsh-fever 

 were prevalent. In consequence I was attacked with a 

 disorder called sub-acute inflammation in the spleen, which 

 afterwards turned into an obstinate quartan ague, of which 

 I got cured only when I had left Aleppo ; and that, I 

 suppose, was the reason why I could not get an extensive 

 medical practice. A physician ( was the saying ) who is not 

 able to cure himself, can never cure others. 



After a two months' stay on the Syrian coast, during 

 which time I enjoyed the best health, I tried to get back 

 again to Aleppo ; but at the last station before reaching 

 Aleppo I caught the fever, on the same spot where it left 

 me, and curious enough I found, in my journal, it happen- 

 ed on the same day it would have befallen me had I not left 

 Aleppo at all. Thus it continued to be my constant com- 

 panion during all my stay there ; but as soon as I took my 

 leave of that place, it deserted me, without having been ex- 

 pelled by any remedy. I had full ten months to suffer by 

 that tiresome guest. The experience I had myself, agrees 

 with that sentence, " Febris autumnalis est longa non le- 

 thalis." During these ten months I got but few cessations 

 of my illness, and then only at short intervals. One may 

 infer from this, that obstinate diseases, defying every medi- 

 cal assistance, can only be cured by travelling, I mean to 

 say ( change of air ) by removing from the country where 

 the disease is caught. 



Subsequently I had the opportunity of effecting several 

 cures in Tripoli — where these marshy fevers are endemi- 

 cal — with 'a compound mentioned in the second volume 

 of my work, containing arsenic and bitter almonds ( prus- 

 sic acid ) in minu«:e doses, which was eminently efficacious 

 where sulphate of quinine failed, 



I quitted Aleppo before the fat^il catastrophe of the 



