76 
PATHOLOGY. 
then took me by the arm, and turned me gently round, 
with my face towards the door of the entrance, over 
which was a gilded lattice, concealing the emperor, who 
had placed himfelf there to witnefs the vifit. Our ftay in 
the room did not exceed fifteen or twenty minutes. The 
four large windows were ffiaded externally by gilded 
lattices, and the intervening pannels were covered with 
mirrors and arabefque tapeftry. The divan, which en¬ 
circled the chamber, was veiled with crimfon cloth, 
richly embroidered with gold, furrounded with cufhions 
of the fame defcription ; and the floor was covered with a 
fuperb Perfian carpet. On our return to the firft pavilion, 
I, of courfe, coincided with the Boerhaavians, and wrote 
a prefcription to that effect. Indeed, had ffie been a 
princefs of any other European court, it is probable that 
a large bleeding would have been decided upon ; but, 
from the ignorance and prejudice of her attendants, I 
found it impoflible to convince them of its neceflity ; and 
on confulering that the miftakes, real or imaginary, of 
the Turkifli court-phyficians, are frequently vifited by 
the bow-Aring, I had but little inclination to bring the 
lives of my colleagues into farther jeopardy. The He- 
kim-Bachi and Hazni Vekili therefore carried my pre¬ 
fcription, and interpreted it to the fultan, who, in re¬ 
turn, fent back a complimentary meffage, and a purfe con¬ 
taining one hundred and fifty fequins.” 
In cafe our readers ftiouid feel interefled in the fate of 
the patient, we mull add, that the fultana funk under 
her illnefs in the courfe of a week: but her age was fe- 
venty-two ; and her 1'on, far from giving way to the bar¬ 
barous practice of punifliing the court-phyfician, figni- 
fied to him that the event was evidently in the courfe of 
nature, and (hould make no alteration in the confidence 
which he enjoyed. This prince, dei'erving of a better 
fate, was the unfortunate Selim who lofl his life by an 
infurreftion of the Janiflaries in 1807. 
But at length we have better news to communicate, 
and fiuch as will be highly gratifying to our readers. For 
we think that all who intereft themfelves in the progrefs 
of fcience, and more particularly in that of medicine, 
cannot but feel pleafure in learning that in Turkey, a 
part of the world where knowledge has hitherto made 
the molt inconfiderable advancement, where every thing 
is under the dominion of prejudice, and the moft: bene¬ 
ficial fuggeftions are oppofed with the moft obftinate ani- 
mofity, the government has lately caufed to be compofed 
and printed in the vernacular language, the firft work on 
anatomy and medicine which has been produced by the 
prefs at Conftantinople. Whether we confider the aver- 
fion entertained by the Turks for the moft ufeful know¬ 
ledge which does not accord with the fpirit of the Koran, 
or which is derived from Chriftians ; or their implicit 
obedience to the oulemas, or priefts, whofe intereft and 
policy have uniformly prompted them as much as poflible 
to enflave and paralyze the national mind 5 this revolu¬ 
tion in the opinions of Muffulmen appears in an equal 
degree extraordinary. 
The only ftep which the Turks have taken in civiliza¬ 
tion for the laft century has been the adoption of print¬ 
ing, (firft introduced at Conftantinople fo lately as 
1726.) but this improvement was fall lofing its beneficial 
effefts till the reign of the unfortunate Selim III. juft 
mentioned, who fomewhat revived the declining ftate 
of dawning literature. But the prejudices and religious 
fcruples againft every kind of reprefentation of human 
figures; the religion which forbids the contafl of blood, 
as a pollution; the law* againft the opening of bodies; 
and, laftly, the belief in predeltination, which ranks im¬ 
providence and indifference to the accidents of life among 
religious virtues ; all thefe, by their combined operation, 
afforded, till the prefent time, infurmountable barriers to 
the progrefs of anatomy and furgery. From all thefe ob- 
ftacles then, the work of which we are about to give an 
account, cannot fail to excite general attention, and to 
conftitute an epoch in the hiftory of the Ottoman Empire. 
This volume, printed at Conftantinople in the Turkifli 
language, contains about 300 folio pages; and, what is 
more particularly worthy of notice, it is accompanied by 
fifty-fix indifferently-engraved plates, in which the hu¬ 
man figure, and the various objefrs of anatomy, are de¬ 
picted. The greater part of it has been copied by the 
author, Chani-Zadeh Mehemmed-Ata-Oullah, from fo¬ 
reign productions of a fimilar nature. According to fome 
communications made to M. Bianchi by a perfon lately 
arrived at Paris from Conftantinople, this Muffulman 
muft be the foil of an old and principal phyfician of the 
government, whom his father fent to Italy for the pur- 
pofe of profecuting his ltudies, and who at his return 
immediately engaged himfelf in writing on anatomy and 
furgery. 
The principal phyfician of government, called in the 
Turkifli language Hekirn Bajha, arrives at his dignity 
after having filled the office of cadi, or judge; and is 
chofen from the religious or judicial officers. It is only 
when he has arrived at the end of his career, and at the 
rank to which all his colleagues may afpire, that he is 
nominated as the chief phyfician of the empire, without 
having undergone any medical education which could 
entitle him to the office. He has, therefore, at the fame 
time to fulfil the duties of his other employment, and 
to direCt his attention to the ltudy of medicine and fur¬ 
gery, a circumftance which will enable us to judge of his 
neceflarily-limited acquaintance with the knowledge re¬ 
quired for the exercife of his new profeffion ; though he 
is ex-officio at the head of the medical department in the 
empire; as the phyficians, furgeons, and druggifts, fub- 
jeCt to the Grand Signior, are nominated by the principal 
phyfician of government, a fource from which he derives 
a confiderable revenue. 
M. Bianchi obferves that, notwithftanding the preju¬ 
dices, or rather the fuperftitious refpeCt, of the nation 
for ancient cuftoms, many individuals are to be found 
among the public officers, who have a fufficient degree of 
intelligence to induce them to countenanceimprovements 
calculated for the general good. He was more particularly 
led to make this remark, at the time of the plague in the 
year 1811-12, when he was commiflioned by the French 
conful to tranfiate into Turkilh the inftruCtions con¬ 
tained in the work of Guyton-Morveau, on the means of 
deftroying the infeClious properties of air by the aid of 
chlorine. The tranflation was put into the hands of the 
governor of Smyrna, and was received with equal pleafure 
and gratitude. The method was not only at once adop¬ 
ted by him, both as an antidote againft infection, and a 
means of purifying contaminated apartments and goods, 
but he alfo ordered its adoption by all the members of his 
family, at that time engaged in the principal adminiftra- 
tions of Smyrna, as well as by the Greek and Armenian 
communities of the fame city. However latisfaftory and 
beneficial the plan may be, it is at prefent highly probable, 
that the tragical death of the governor, which took place 
in 1817, by order of the Grand Signior, and the difgrace 
of all his family, will plunge into oblivion not only the 
plan itfelf, but alfo the falutary effedls by which it was 
followed; a refult which is inevitable in a nation, among 
whom inftruflion and information are not general, and 
men, difpofed to protect the interefts of fcience, have 
only an ephemeral exiltence. 
It is very much to be wiffied, that this firft appearance 
of a tafte for medicine and furgery, by becoming more 
general in the Eaft, may produce phyficians in that part 
of the world, who would be better calculated than the 
prefent race, to affume the guardianfhip of the public 
health ; for, with the exception of fome foreigners at 
Conftantinople, and the other towns of the Levant, who 
acquit themfelves with reputation in their profeffion, the 
whole empire is infefted with a mob of charlatans and ad¬ 
venturers, who are conftantly committing devaftations on 
mankind by the exercife of a profeffion, of the firft ele¬ 
ments even of which they know nothing. 
3 The 
