A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 07Kerr, Robert
History
A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 07
Kerr, Robert
Voyages and travels
To this I answered, that my father was a
physician, and that I had learnt many things from him. He then took me
along with him to see his friend the sick merchant, and being told that
he was very sick at the head and stomach, and sore constipated, and
having before learnt that he was a great eater and drinker, I felt his
pulse, and said that he was filled with choler or black bile, owing to
surfeiting, and that it was necessary he should have a glyster. Then I
made a glyster of eggs, salt, and sugar, together with butter and such
herbs as I could think of upon a sudden; and in the space of a day and a
night I gave him five such glysters, but all in vain, for his pains and
sickness increased, and I began to repent me of my enterprise. But it
was now necessary to put a good face on the matter, and to attempt some
other way, yet my last error seemed worse than ever. Endeavouring to
inspire him with confidence, I made him lie grovelling on his belly,
and, by cords tied to his feet, I raised up the hinder part of his body,
so that he rested only on his breast and hands; and in this posture I
administered to him another glyster, allowing him to remain in that
position for half an hour. On beholding this strange mode of practice,
my Persian friend asked me, if that was the manner of treating sick
people in my country, to which I answered that it was, but only in cases
of extremity; on which he observed with a smile, that he believed it
would certainly relieve him one way or other. In the mean time, the sick
man cried out in his own language, "It is enough, it is enough, for my
soul now departeth." We comforted him as well as we could, desiring him
to have patience yet a little longer; and almost immediately his belly
was loosened, and he voided like a gutter. We then let him down, and he
continued to discharge a prodigious quantity, so that shortly the pain
of his head and stomach left him, and his fever was assuaged, which gave
us all great joy. By this adventurous cure, and my counterfeit
holiness, I grew into great credit, and when my patient offered me ten
pieces of gold as my reward, I would only accept two, which I gave away
immediately among the poor.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account