154 TIIIRTV-FIVE YEARS IN THE EAST. 



among the natives. Sometimes I could not forbear laughing, 

 when at consultations with the hakims ; but I thought that 

 when among wolves one must howl also. On one occasion, 

 we deliberated about curing a chronic gonorrhoea, on which 

 occasion a hakim proposed the local balneum cucurbitae 

 citrulli : a water-melon was proposed to be procured and 

 opened, the contents of it to be crushed, and the membrum 

 virile una cum scroto introduced. Another, boasting of his abi- 

 lity, brought a still better remedy on the carpet',recomending 

 it as a probatum est. This highly praised remedy consisted 

 in roasting a sugar-melon, wrapped in dough, and while luke- 

 warm making a hole therein per quod foramen penis erectus 

 inserendus et semen virile injiciendum esset. Risum ten- 

 eatis amici ! — But we did not employ either, a hakim of 

 Peshawur prescribing pills of camphor, convolvolus argente- 

 us, opium, pyrethrum and zedoaria ; these, together with 

 some injections of solution of sulphates of zinc and copper 

 which I administered, produced the desired result, and the 

 patient was cured within a month. 



These consultations were generally held in the presence 

 of the patient, so that he might choose whichever remedy he 

 preferred. In the assembly of the hakims, the Persian 

 language was spoken, and the technical terms used were 

 Arabic, which no patient could understand ; but if there 

 were present any Hindoo physicians or pundits ( astrolgers ), 

 which was always the case when consultations were held 

 at respectable houses, then the Indian language was 

 spoken, because generally the Indians are not versed in the 

 Persian. 



Alms are given on every occasion of illness, but mostly 

 at the time when the patient's last hour seems to be near ; 

 and consequently large numbers of poor faqueers and 

 Brahmins assemble on these occasionsjat the entrance to the 

 houses, especially of those inhabited by wealthy people. 



Chronic diseases are temporarily treated with a compo- 

 sition of myrobalons ; and in the following spring china-root 

 decoctions are employed. This is their last resource ; which 

 corresponds with the "change of air" recommended by our 



