CHAPTER XI 



OTHER MEDICAL FRIENDS 



Ex amante alio accenditur alius. AUGUSTINE, Confessions. 



Thou hast made me known to friends whom I knew not. Thou 

 hast given me seats in homes not my own. Oh, grant that I may never 

 lose the bliss of the touch of the One in the play of the many. RABIN- 



DRANATH TAGORE. 



DR. ALEXANDER RUSSELL 



SOME of the medical friendships of Fothergill dated from 

 his Edinburgh days. Russell, Cleghorn and Cuming were 

 his fellow-students, and while life lasted they were mutual 

 friends. 



Alexander Russell sprang from a good stock in Edin- 

 burgh. He was one of the founders of the students' 

 Medical Society in that university in 1734. Soon after 

 finishing his studies he went out to Turkey, settling in the 

 year 1740 at Aleppo as medical officer to the " English 

 factory," a community of prosperous and intelligent 

 merchants. Here he made for himself a high position ; 

 he learnt the language and ways of the people, and his 

 own skill in medicine, contrasting with the ignorance of 

 the native practitioners, gave him in course of time an 

 entrance to all ranks and races in the city, then as now a 

 motley population. The Pasha himself became his friend, 

 often consulting him and leaning upon his advice in 

 matters of importance quite outside the medical role. 

 Many an accused man owed his life to the doctor's kind 

 offices. Sometimes the Pasha would tell the culprit that 

 in his opinion he certainly deserved death, but that he 

 durst not order it, for the English doctor insisted on 



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