THIRTY-FIVE YEARS IN THE EAST. 71 



At Bokhara, I found that the {guinea-worm ( Dracun- 

 culus) occurred very frequently. At Cabul, I saw a strange 

 case of this kind, in which a merchant had drunk the 

 water from which it orginates a year previously at Bombay. 

 The worm was at the hollow of the knee. Upon its ap- 

 pearing and being pulled, it broke, and the knee was very 

 much inflamed and swollen. Feeling an accumulation of 

 matter, I made an incision, upon which it began to flow. 

 1 kept the wound open for several days, and ordered the 

 swollen parts to be embrocated with wax-oil, and in a few 

 days it was entirely healed. In a severe swelling of the 

 testicles, which was the consequence of an external injury, 

 the same remedy proved efficacious. 



Oil distilled from wax (cerelaeum ) is employed by the 

 native physicians of the East in various diseases, especially 

 in paralysis, contractions, swellings, wounds, itching, im- 

 potence, colds and cholera-morbus. The embrocations are 

 generally performed in the rays of the sun. In cholera- 

 morbus, they drink hot broth afterwards ; hot bricks are 

 enveloped in rugs and applied to the soles of the feet, they 

 are then covered with woollen-sheets over the head, ta 

 produce perspiration. In similar cases, the Bokharians 

 administer a Turcoman-sudorific remedy, with which a na- 

 tive physician assured me he had cured many cholera 

 patients. The medicament is as cheap as it is simple, and 

 should be used in case no other can be obtained at the 

 moment. They procure a quantity of wheaten bran, sift it 

 seven times, and as many times wash it superficially, then 

 rub it in water with the fingers, and strain it ; the strained 

 water is simmered until reduced to one-half, to which they 

 add some garlic and almond oil, and it is then drunk luke- 

 warm. The garlic serves, as the physician told me, to 

 drive away the evil spirits. The physicians of Europe may 

 learn by this what remedies ought to be employed when 

 patients are haunted by evil spirits, a thing which occurs 

 occasionally in the case of ladies. The same doctor also in- 

 formed me by what means they got rid of the cholera at 

 Bokhara. A procession was arranged, during which they 



