94 THIRTY-FIVE YEARS IN THE EAST. 



employ any local remedy. After my complete recovery; 

 I wrote to the English physician ( on whose account I had 

 visited the infected town of Palee ) the result of my ex- 

 perience, and read the letter to my companions, who mani- 

 fested their astonishment, and blamed me for having ex- 

 posed them to the infection of such a dangerous epidemic. 

 My answer was, that I only did my duty as a physician, and 

 that those who were not pleased with such proceedings 

 ought not to travel in the society of a physician. 



I cannot tell how it was that 1 caught the plague, in spite 

 of all my precautions, unless it was that when I was entering 

 the town, there was a violent wind blowing, whirling the 

 pestiferous dust up into the air 5 and this might have com- 

 municated the virus to my body externally, and even 

 internally — externally, by absorption through the lachrymal 

 glands of the eyes, the pituitous membrane of the nostrils, 

 and the cavity of the ear ; internally, by the respiration of 

 the lungs. The infection was not produced by immediate 

 contact ; had that been the cause, I should certainly not have 

 escaped it at Constantinople if the predisposition to it lies 

 in every one. At this time I must have had a predisposition 

 for the contagion, for some days before I had felt an itch- 

 ing in the body, and a kind of plethora, owing to the irre- 

 gular manner of I'ving which is consequent on the incon- 

 veniences and difficulties of long journeys. It is certain 

 that the plague does not require a long time to develop 

 itself, as it made its appearance a few hours after my visit- 

 ing the patients. In some cases an interval of two or three 

 days may occur before the symptoms are visible. The 

 malaria of Palee, I believe, is generated by the exhalation 

 of the immense marsh, whither thousands of birds and' 

 reptiles resort, and which serves at the same time as a de- 

 pository for all the substances ejected from the town. 

 The government could easily prevent the obnoxious influ- 

 ence of this marsh, by converting it into fertile ground. 



Arrived at Lahore, I found my former patron, the 

 maharajah, Runjeet Sing, seated on a chair, with swollen 

 feet, aud making himself understood by gestures and signs 



