AND LOWER EGYPT. 59. 



On the other hand, if the physician has the mis- 

 fortune to be called in by a man in power, that 

 which would be in our country a source of rejoicing, 

 of importance, and of riches, becomes there a 

 source of perpetual terror and dangers. He should 

 diligently endeavour to shun an honour so peril- 

 ous ; but if he cannot escape it, he must either 

 cure his too much exacting patient, or lay his ac- 

 count with dying himself. A most cruel alternative 

 undoubtedly, but which renders the trade of quack- 

 ery very rare here, and so common in other coun- 

 tries, where they are allowed to kill with the 

 most perfect resignation. Does a remedy given to 

 one of these same powerful men prove troublesome 

 to him ? The physician is ordered in : he is obliged 

 to remain during the operation o{ the medicine ; 

 he is informed that he must ansvt'er with his head 

 for any unpleasant termination. In the moments 

 of pain, looks of fury are darted at him, and the 

 wretched physician, more disordered than the sick 

 man himself, awaits, in mortal agonies, the issue 

 of the operation of a medicine which his conjectural 

 skill could not permit him to assert would be suc- 

 cessful in its effects. 



It will easily be conceived, that I observed every 

 precaution, in order to shelter myself from the dan- 

 gers with which the practice of physic is surrounded 

 in those barbarous countries, where it was imagined 

 that a man is a physician only in order to cure, 



and 



