A STRANGE MALADY IN BAGDAD.

Samoa Times and South Sea Gazette, Volume 2, Issue 89, 14 June 1879, Page 3

A STRANGE MALADY IN BAGDAD.

♦ The puhlishers of the Franklin Sqnaro Library nay the pnnple of this country a compliment in making a 11-ccnt book out of Qrattan Geary's "Through Asiotio Turkey : Narrative of a Journey from Bombay to the Bosphorus." The work is one of the notable books of the time, a hook of the rarest interest, a book bearing directly upon the life, character resources, and temper of the Persians, the Arabs, the Kurds, and other Asiatic peoples, who seem destined to play a part of no little importance in the "world's history presently. The chapters about Bagdad are not only unusually interesting, hut are also in a sense an embodiment of the whole ofAsiatio Turkey. Touching the singular malady which affects all men who dwell in the strange town Mr. Geary Bays:—■

" No account of Bagdad would be complete, or even honest, which omitted mention of the Bagdad 'date-mark,' a mysterious malady that affects everybody, whether citizen or stranger. It is a dry eating sore, which conies generally upon the face, lasts for a year, and then goes

away for ever, leaving an indelible murk about the size and shape nf a date, as evidence of the visitation. Tlie cicatrix is just skin deep; the spot appeal's as if tho surface bad been seared away with caustic or a J|ot iron, and it by no means enhances the beauty of the victim. The sore generally comes in childhood, and then it cuuimoulv settles upon the face. The cheek of nearly every man and woman brought up in J'.agdad shews the unmistakable mark. Sometimes it settles on the nose, aid then the disßgnrement is considerable; sometimes on tho eyelid, and blindness is generally the result. Strangers are attacked even after a very brief resi deuce; but if they lie adults, they get the sore on th= anu or wrist. " It i.

more painful there than on tlio cheek, but, of course, then' is no disfigurement, hi every case the attack runs its course for a year; no treatment no ointment or medicine has the slight est effect upon it. Once the sore makes its appearance, the suiferer knows what to expect, and lie may as well resign himself philosophically to all it involves. The Arabs say that everyone that goes to Bagdad must get the; 'date-mark'; if he does not g«t it while in the city, ho will get it after he leaves; and if lie does not get it while alive, he will get it alter lie is dead , it is uot to be avoided.

" The cause of this peculiar and most disagreeable ailment has not been satisfactorily traced, though Iniuny learned theories have been broached upon tho subject, The impression i.s that the quality of the water is chargeable with it; but this notion must, I think, he given up. The disease is known jn most of tho towns, from the head of the Persian <iulf to tlmMcdituranean, though nowhere is it so lifo as ill Bagdad. In the town of Mardjii it is prevalent, and the water supply of that place comes from the top of tho great. hill on the side of which it is built. It is very pure water and that it is not the source of the 'date mark ' is proved hevond doubt bv the fact that the inhabitants of a large village at the other side of the hill drink it, and are never attacked by the malady. In Aleppo the disease is known as the 'Aleppo button,' and there, us in Bagdad, the favourite theory )s that tho water is the cause of the evil. Hut to European physicians who went to the city to investigate the matter were themselves attacked within a fortnight after their arrival, though they took the precaution of having their drinking water brought from a distant place, where its quality was above suspicion. Another suspected cause is a supposed deficiency of iodine in the salt used in the country. (Some people arc inclined to think that theto is something in the defective sanitation of the town which predisposes to the attack. Tho visitation Ls not as a rule painful, unless it happens to ti* upon a spot above a joint on a muscle frequently brought into exercise. The irritation' caused by movement of the affected part is often considerable, and gives rise to a good deal of suffering. The general health is little, if at all, disturbed in ordinary cases. The children play about the narrow streets, and mako ui'iul pies quite joyously, with great ulcere, the size of a crown "piece, on' their little checks; it gives them no concern that they arc being marked and perhaps disfigured for life, and of DUD they fool uothing.

" "When, a little lutter on, I stopped at Mardin, I h:id the pleasure of, making the acquaintance of Dr. Thorn, of the American Mission in that town, and he told me thot he had examined the ulcer under a miscroscope, and found it to be coni|io*eil of a fungoid growth ; but nothing that he had ever Mad had MM able to arrest or modify its usual course, lie had applied distilled nitric ucid with-

"in producing more than temporary effect* An application of iodine was just as iuedicacious. He was attacked himself, a large'date mark forming on Ids forebead, and apparently eating through the skin to the bone, but nothing thatlie could think of was of the least use.—New Voik Post.