HOW TO SET A LEG

Temuka Leader, Issue 263, 25 May 1880, Page 2

HOW TO SET A LEG

The Times of India states that a Mr 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 horse. “ The doctors and bone setters who had been called in to set the leg arrived one after another, and two hours elapsed before they examined it ; they were another hour discussing the mode of treatment, and, of course, without agreeing about it ; one wanted to wash the wounds made by the nails of the horseshoe, another proposed something else ; and the dresser who was fixing the splint stopped short, declaring, that he would do nothing further uut'l a moolah cam<> and said the pray r usually offered during an operation—a prayer beforehand constituting in his opinion at lea>t three-fourths of the cha ce of a cure. A good 'hour again elapsed before the Kazi arrived, who then recited a long orison 5 and as it finished, the leg waswretdhediy and most unskilfully set, the horrible agony and loud cries of the patient being little r carded. The surgeons then put on a plaster made of barley flour and the yolks of severs 1 eges, to facilitate the joining of the hone, but even at this point they bad not done with the poor sufferer ; a new dispute arose as to the general treatment, how he was to be dieted ; one was for complete abstinence from food, another abstinence from liquids ; one was for hot drinks, another for cold ; and, as they could not agree* it was determined 10 have recourse to have recourse to the tesbih, a chaplet with which mussulmans 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 ho drink at all, but as much as ever he could eat wh le he, without the leatt appetite, and nearly moribund, declined everything t.iat was brought to him. As the Vazirs surgeon had some authority in the midst of such a mob, aud was supported by the favourite wife of the sirdar, the discussions, propositions, and arrangements were at length brought to a close* they had occupied four hours, and if had not been ror these two persons, they ■would not have terminated till the follow ing day at the same horn*; but it should be remembered that to mend a leg is not a small tiling at Herat.”