1 84
2 employed as a prophylactic or curative; and, I dare to say, with
3 respect to the plague, it might be considered as a specific.
4 During mv stay at Constantinople I frequently had an oppor-
5 tunity of making the observation that many individuals, especi-
6 ally Armenians, wore a string, to which was attached a bean,
7 called Strychnos Faba St. Ignatii , as a preventive against the
8 plague. Having been informed that this bean was acknowledged
9 to be an effective one, I administered it in minute doses, as a
10 medicine, and that with the best success. The particulars will
11 be mentioned in the course of this work.
12 Among the above-mentioned private houses in which they
13 relied on my medical skill, was that of M. Shabert. The head
14 of this respectable family had been formerly invested with the
15 office of English interpreter.
16 It is the duty of a physician to have patience when he has
17 occasion to attend old ladies ; and thus I must crave the reader’s
18 indulgence while I relate what Mrs. Shabert communicated to me.
19 She began thus: — “A young Greek stabbed my son with a
20 stiletto; and, at the moment when he was about to cry out for
21 assistance, the Greek was so malicious as to thrust the weapon
22 into his mouth and cut a blood-vessel, from which a violent
23 bleeding ensued, and it could only be stopped by immediate
24 surgical assistance. He was taken to the consulate, in front of
25 which it happened, and where he was employed. By the appli-
26 cation of red-hot iron, the blood was stanched ; but two or three
27 days subsequently, the bleeding began afresh, and the patient
28 felt exhausted ; when the bleeding was renewed for the third
29 time, he became much worse. On the ensuing night, he was
30 restless, and in a state of great perturbation from his dreams. It
31 appeared to him as if his adversary was running towards him,
32 with the stiletto in his grasp. The attendant physicians, think-
33 ing this symptom to be the forerunner of another flow of blood,
34 declared the patient’s state to be very critical, being persuaded
35 that, upon another bleeding, death was inevitable.” In this
36 awful position, the family proposed to the physicians to allow
37 them a trial of homoeopathy. They readily consented, in the