SURGERY AT HERAT.

Kumara Times, Issue 1156, 12 June 1880, Page 4

SURGERY AT HERAT.

The Times of India states that M. Ferrier gives an amusing instance of the way some Hakims of Herat went about the treatment of a broken leg belonging to a sirdar, who had been thrown from his hone. “The doctors and bone-setters who had been called in to set the leg arrived one after the other, and two hours elapsed before they examind it; they were another hour discussing the mode of treatment, and of course without agreeing about it; one wanted to wash the wound made by the nails of the horseshoe, another proposed something else; at last the Vizir’s surgeon arrived—be was for washing it; the the dresser who was fixing the splint stopped short, declaring that he would do nothing further unless a moollah came and said (he prayer usually offered during an operation—a prayer beforehand constituting in his opinion at least three-fourths of the chance of a cure. A good hour again elasped before the Eazi arrived, who then recited a long orison; and as it finished, the leg was wretchedly and unskilfully set, the horrible agony and loud cries of the patient being little regarded. The surgeons then pat on a plaster made of barley flour and yolks of eggs to facilitate the joining of the bona, but eve D at this point they had not done with the sufferer; a new dispute arose as to the general treatment, how he was to be dieted; one was for total abstinence from food, another abstinence) from liquor ; one was for hot drinks, another for cold, and as they could not as they could not agree, it was determined to have recourse to the tesbih, a chaplet with which Mnzzlemans consult fate. On this authority, and that of a constellation given by an astronomer who was present, it was at length settled that the patient was to have no drink at all, but as much as ever he could eat, while he, without the least appetite and nearly moribund, declined everything that was brought to him. As the Vazir’s surgeon had some authority in the midst of such a mob, and was supported by the favorite wife of the sirdar, the discussions, propositions, and arrangements were at length brought to a close; they had occupied four hours, and if it had not been for these two persons, they would not have terminated till the following day at the same hour ; but it should be remembered that to mend a leg is no small thing at Herat.’*