The growth of medicine from the earliest times to about 1800Buck, Albert H. (Albert Henry)
History
The growth of medicine from the earliest times to about 1800
Buck, Albert H. (Albert Henry)
Medicine -- History
Gabriel, the son of Bakhtichou and a grandson of the famous George
Bakhtichou, was the most distinguished member of this remarkable
family of physicians. In the year 792 A. D., five years after the
consultation mentioned above had taken place, Gabriel was sent by his
father to give medical advice to Jafar, the son of the Grand Vizier.
The treatment which he recommended proved to be entirely successful,
and, pleased with the result, Jafar soon afterward had an opportunity
to speak to Haroun Alraschid of Gabriel as the physician best fitted to
effect a cure in the case of his own favorite wife, who, in a fit of
yawning, had dislocated her shoulder. The Arabian physician had tried
friction, different sorts of ointments, and manipulations of every
imaginable kind, but all in vain. The dislocation still persisted.
When Gabriel arrived on the scene he told the Caliph that he could
bring the shoulder back into place provided no offense would be taken
at the means which he was about to employ. Alraschid gave the desired
promise and Gabriel made a movement as if he were about to lift up the
bedclothes. Instantly the patient, through a natural sense of modesty,
stretched out her dislocated arm to keep the bed-covering in place.
“There! she is cured!” exclaimed Gabriel, and such indeed was the
truth. The sudden movement of the limb had reduced the dislocation.--It
only remains for me to add that the sum of 500,000 drachmae[49] was
paid to Gabriel by Haroun Alraschid for his successful treatment.
Some surprise having been expressed by the Caliph’s relatives that
he should display such extravagant generosity toward a Christian, he
replied: “The fate of the empire is bound up in my fate, and my life is
in the hands of Gabriel.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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