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2 as crystallized sugar; an engraving of it may be found in the
3 second volume.
4 I instantly sent the stone to the minister Hoshbegi, at the
5 fortress of Registan, with the melancholy assurance, that to heal
6 the wound was impossible. In the meanwhile, I availed myself
7 of the opportunity to request from the minister some genuine
8 Persian mumiai, this remedy being considered in the Arabic
9 Materia Medica a specific against wounds and fractured bones.
10 I administered one grain to the patient daily. After a few days
11 had elapsed, he began to have an appetite. The minister, who
12 took great interest in the case, sent twice a-day to inquire
13 about the state of the student ; and on hearing of this false
14 sign of recovery, he said that my fears about the restoration
15 of my patient were certainly groundless. “ Would to God,”
16 replied I, “ that my prognostic may turn out false, and that I
17 may be obliged to owe the restoration of the patient to your
18 mumiai ; ” but up to this moment all the operations that I had
19 performed, when the stone was but slightly attached to the
20 bladder, had always failed ; and in such cases, mortification
21 ensues, generally on the fourth day after the operation, which
22 puts an end to the sufferings of the patient. He took his leave,
23 uttering the consoling words, “Trust and rely on God,” which
24 I indeed did ; for in sixteen days after, the unfortunate student
25 died of weakness and exhaustion, the bladder being perforated
26 like a sieve, and thus defying surgical and medical art. Feeling
27 the approach of death, he thanked both me and his brother for
28 our attendance, declaring that his early death (he was about
29 twenty years of age) was not the consequence of the inefficiency
30 of the medical art, but the fulfilment of the inscrutable will and
31 decree of God, the Ruler of all beings !
32 Hoshbegi was in one and the same person, Wuzeer, Receiver
33 of the Customs, Druggist and Hakim to the Emir. Like all
34 the literary men in the East, he not only possessed medical
35 knowledge, but he was likewise the confidential friend of
36 his princely highness. He was also charged with the pre-
37 paration of the victuals for the Emir, who was somewhat over