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2 taken any remedy prescribed by a European physician, and that
3 he used to give all the remedies which had been ordered him by
4 the English doctors, Murray, Steel, and Macgregor, to his
5 servants, to try the effect on them ; but that he was now resolved
6 to take my medicines, which I was to prepare in his presence.
7 This I promised to do. It was then mid-day, the time when the
8 durbar (assembly) leaves the palace, so, accompanied by the
9 fakeer, I presented myself to the king. I found with him only
10 the minister, Dhyan Sing. I had brought with me the tinciura
11 dulcamara , and three empty corked little phials. First of all, I
12 asked for a gudwai (water-carrier), and ordered him to bring
13 the spirit that the maharajah was in the habit of drinking ; this
14 had been distilled, in my presence, from Cabul grapes, and it was
15 rectified, because Runjeet Sing preferred strong spirits. I put
16 the three empty phials into the hands of the gudwai, and ordered
17 them to be rinsed with the same spirit, and afterwards each of
18 them to be half filled with spirit, about one drachm in each phial.
19 When this was done, I put just one drop of the essence of
20 dulcamara (woody-nightshade) into one of those phials which the
21 water-carrier held in his hand, and I ordered him to cork it and
22 shake it. Then I desired the fakeer to mark it number 44 one,’1
23 and I put a drop out of it into the second phial, causing it to be
24 corked and shaken like the first, and marked number 44 two.”
25 In the same manner, the third dilution was made, and number
26 44 three” was marked on it. From this last, I ordered one single
27 drop to be let fall on a lump of sugar, which, at my request, the
28 maharajah put into his mouth, where it was retained until dis-
29 solved. I ordered the same dose to be administered to the patient
30 every morning and evening.
31 During the preparation of the medicine, some persons who
32 were standing by could not forbear smiling ; and the fakeer
33 himself was of opinion that such a minute dose could not be
34 hurtful, should it even be supposed to be poison. But what was
35 the result ? On the first day there was no sensible amelioration
36 in the health of the maharajah ; on the second day he felt some-
37 what better ; and on the third lie was in such a merry humor