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2 Arrived at Lahore, I found my former patron, the maharajah,
3 Runjeet Sing, seated on a chair, with swollen feet, and making
4 himself understood by gestures and signs with his hands;
5 his organs of speech being paralysed to such a degree, that he
6 was not able to utter a single articulate sound, and other means
7 of imparting his thoughts were not in his possession, as he
8 never had learned to write.
9 From time to time I had occasion to relate many of the cures
10 effected by the new method of homoeopathy, by the aid of
11 which I had cured myself in Vienna of the cholera, and lately
12 in Hindostan of the plague. Although they did not doubt
13 the truth of my assertions, it was not without difficulty that
14 they could prevail on themselves to trust me with the treatment
15 of the maharajah, because the favourable season — it being spring
16 — allowed the native physicians to rely on other trials which
17 they had to make : meanwhile I succeeded in some homoeopathic
18 cures quite to my satisfaction. But the greatest sensation pro-
19 duced, was by a cure which I undertook at the request of the
20 minister, Rajah Dhyan Sing. He committed to my medical care
21 a native of Cashmere, Aboo Ibrahim, commander of his jesails
22 (camel-artillery), in whose head, ten years previously, a bullet
23 had been lodged, at an affair with the Affghans, and which no
24 native surgeon had been able to extract, and in consequence he
25 was paralysed on one side. I trepanned him, and extracted the
26 bullet, which was stuck beneath the skull, and pressed the brain,
27 without, however, affecting that organ. My patient having been
28 a drunkard, and troubled with indigestion in consequence of his
29 weakened stomach, I administered to him some physic, to acce-
30 lerate his recovery ; and I succeeded in restoring him to perfect
31 health, in the short space of two months. When relieved from
32 his hemiplegy, I presented him to the minister, and he introduced
33 him to the maharajah.
34 Meanwhile, the excessive heat had come on. At this time the
35 fakeer Azeez-oo-Deen came unexpectedly and called on me, as
36 the native physicians were unable to improve the health of the
37 maharajah. This man, who had formerly been physician in
38 ordinary to the king, told me that the maharajah had never