Page:Thirty-five years in the East.djvu/109

Rh with the preparation of the victuals for the Emir, who was somewhat over twenty years of age. All dishes, before they are placed on the table of the prince, must be tasted by Hoshbegi, in the kitchen ; he puts them afterwards in a locked basket, of which he and the Emir only have the keys.

The Emir having taken the above-mentioned bilious fever, I was introduced to him by Hoshbegi. I administered the usual emetic, which had a good effect, and Hoshbegi requested the recipe of it. He asked me also for some tartar-emetic, quinine ( with which last he was acquainted through Dr. Gerard), and phosphorus, the latter for his recreation.

Among the many patients I had to attend during my stay at Bokhara, was one affected with asthma, whom I was ordered by the Emir to cure, as he was a relation of his own, and the recovery of whom produced some sensation. This man was troubled upwards of twenty years with a spasmodic and periodic; asthma he was already very weak and exhausted, yet I succeeded in curing him.

Hoshbegi was very much pleased with my information, and was anxious for instruction, so we passed many hours in conversation. A short time after the death of the aforesaid student, he asked me how the stone is produced in man ; this I explained to him clearly. At this time, the Emirakhoor ( chief groom ) gave me two stones from a horse, each the size of a goose egg, which had been ejected, along with the excrement, in the interval of a year, and which probably had been formed in the stomach or intestines. I remember relating an anecdote to him on that occasion, which I venture to introduce here, it having very much pleased Hoshbegi. A mother on the Lebanon, whose boy I operated on, told me she well knew the cause of the formation of the stone in the body of her son George. I begged her to tell me her opinion, and she went on saying : "My husband, who is a butcher, is addicted to drink ; he departed for the fair