1 16
2 my pantaloons and boots. But my terror increased, when I
3 reflected that I was in the desert, far from every human being !
4 What will become of me, thought I ? Must I perish by the
5 frost of the night ; or must I become a prey to the wild beasts
6 on their nightly wanderings ? Similar ideas rose in my imagi-
7 nation, and I was in a desperate situation.
8 But sometimes, at the moment when our calamity is highest,
9 our delivery is nearest. Having committed that imprudent
10 step of going into the marsh when I was fatigued and excited,
11 I felt nothing as long as I was wading about ; but now, as
12 the sharp air came in contact with my body, I felt the conse-
13 quences of the evil I had brought on myself. Against that
14 paraplegy, there was only one remedy, namely : — to produce a
15 perspiration on the whole body. But how was I to effect this ?
16 64 Necessity is the mother of invention.1’ I grasped my cloth
17 pantaloons, and began to rub my feet with all my strength, until
18 my hands got weary, and in the meantime my whole body became
19 covered with perspiration. To my great satisfaction, I perceived
20 that my feet began to become flexible, and so I continued the
21 operation, and succeeded so far as to be able to put on my panta-
22 loons and boots, and walk slowly towards my abode. There I
23 arrived very late, ordered a warm bath to be prepared, and after
24 half-an-hour’s bathing went to bed, having previously drunk a
25 glass of punch prepared with tea, which produced a good effect,
26 and thus I fell asleep. In the morning, when I awoke, my legs
27 were restored to their former activity.
28 At the same period, while I was private physician to the
29 English consul at Tripoli, there happened an extraordinary case.
30 An organic defect of a young woman in labor required a
31 Caesarian operation to be made on her body, and I was ap-
32 pointed to perform it ; but the Greek bishop refused to give his
33 consent thereto, because that operation was an uncommon one,
34 and I could not guarantee her life. Even after the death of the
35 poor woman, wife of Georgius Jani, the bishop again opposed
36 the operation, by which the infant might have been saved.
37 I and mv friends, the twin brothers Katzifliss (scarcely twenty