Page:Thirty-five years in the East.djvu/72

32 we soon had plenty of professional occupation. My companion, as acting physician, only cured the internal diseases, whilst I occupied myself with surgical cases.

Dohud Pasha was a native of Georgia, who had killed his master, the former Pasha of Bagdad, and usurped his dignity and place. As long as he paid the Porte the required subsidies, he enjoyed the protection of the Sultan ; but when he began to organize his troop, by putting them under the command of French officers, he found himself in difficulties, as he had exhausted his treasury in the equipment of his army. Even the expedient of manufacturing base coin, did not suffice to raise the sum required to be sent to Stambul. Besides that, he had ordered a Kapoojee-Bashi- (dispatched by the Sultan, probably to bring him his head ) to be murdered ; for that reason the Porte made war against him, which ended in his captivity ; he was brought to Constantinople, where he was pardoned, and I saw him there in the years 1836--1833.

The first patient the Pasha requested me to attend, was a peasant-lad, belonging to a silk-manufactory of the Pasha's whose case had been treated without success by almost all the physicians of Bagdad. The lad was about twelve years of age, and was tormented by insects in his ear, which caused such pain that he was continually crying ; sometimes the vermin crept out of his ear. After having tried some injections with a syringe, containing substances calculated to destroy insects, a few of them died, and I was now fully satisfied as to the cause of his complaint, of which I had doubted at the commencement. After the lapse of a few days, I placed the patient in the rays of the sun at mid-day, lifted the ear-lap in such a manner that the rays of the sun could enter it, and then I discovered some black object, which I extracted with a forceps, and found it to be a nest of insects. Almost distracted with joy, the boy fell on his knees, and expressed his gratitude, for having been restored to his sense of hearing. The nest was two-thirds of an inch in length, and half-an-inch in diameter. I put it into a vialfilled with sprits, and went with it, accompanied by the boy