1 31
2 Kerbela, the holy tombs which the Shias (Persians) had con-
3 secrated to their martyrs, the Imams Hassan and Hussain, which
4 are situated on the right bank of the Tigris, above Bagdad. At
5 noon, our procession entered that famous city? where we met
6 with a kind reception, in the house of Mr. Swoboda. The
7 French consul, who was a bishop, presented us to the Pasha, and
8 as our reputation had already reached the ears of the inhabitants,
9 we soon had plenty of professional occupation. My companion,
10 as acting physician, only cured the internal diseases, whilst I
11 occupied myself with surgical cases.
12 Dohud Pasha was a native of Georgia, who had killed his
13 master, the former Fasha of Bagdad, and usurped his dignity
14 and place. As long as he paid the Porte the required subsidies,
15 he enjoyed the protection of the Sultan ; but when he began to
16 organize his troops, by putting them under the command of
17 French officers, he found himself in difficulties, as he had ex-
18 hausted his treasury in the equipment of his army. Even the
19 expedient of manufacturing base coin, did not suffice to raise
20 the sum required to be sent to Stambul. Besides that, he had
21 ordered a Kapoojee-Bashi (dispatched by the Sultan, probably to
22 bring him his head) to be murdered; for that reason the Porte
23 made war against him, which ended in his captivity ; he was
24 brought to Constantinople, where he was pardoned, and I saw
25 him there in the years 1836-1838.
26 The first patient the Pasha requested me to attend, was a
27 peasant-lad, belonging to a silk-manufactory of the Pasha's,
28 whose case had been treated without success by almost all the
29 physicians of Bagdad. The lad was about twelve years of age,
30 and was tormented by insects in his ear, which caused such pain
31 that he was continually crying ; sometimes the vermin crept out
32 of his ear. After having tried some injections with a syringe,
33 containing substances calculated to destroy insects, a few of them
34 died, and I was now fully satisfied as to the cause of his com-
35 plaint, of which I had doubted at the commencement. After
36 the lapse of a few days, I placed the patient in the rays of the
37 sun at mid-day, lifted the ear-lap in such a manner that the rays
38 of the sun could enter it, and then I discovered some black