The Sun.
London, England, 1839-10-22 00:00:00

DEATH OF THE LATE SULTAN

(FROM A CORRESPONDENT.)
CONSTANTINOPLE, AUG. 31, 1839.
In compliance with your repeated solicitations, I have
at last obtained the following account of the death and
illness of Sultan Mahmoud, which you will peruse with
interest, inasmuch, as some very incorrect versions of
this sad event have appeared in the public journals.
I am free to admit, and it is a most melancholy re-
flection, that this great and good monarch (whose
reign, despite of an uninterrupted series of political vi-
cissitudes, was marked by many a noble effort in the
cause of reform) might still perchance have lived for
years, to work out progressively the regeneration of his
people, had but one seasonable remedy, but a single ra-
tional item in the list of therapeutics, been employed
to combat at the outset a common and apparently
trifling ailment ; but this would have been an exception
to the rule of medical practice at Constantinople.
Pathology is here the scoff of the beats vetula, the
Hogia, and the astrologer; and on all occasions the
humble pretensions of science are eclipsed by the won-
ders of the Nuska and talisman. In short, a wrong
and most perverse estimate of his best and dearest in-
terests is throughout a distinguishing characteristic of
the ill-fated Moslem, and in every undertaking of pub-
lic and private life, destiny infallibly leads them on to
some fatal and irreparable errors.
It was even thus in the present lamentable instance
that the life of Mahmoud, so intimately blended with
the fate and very existence of his empire, was entrusted
principally to the care of Abdulhak, the Hekimbaschi,
an impudent, ignorant Turkish impostor, assisted, it is
true, by two Greek medical gentlemen, the Messrs.
Caratheodori, who whatever may have been their merit
and peculiar attainments in the humble position of
Ryahs, had to bow down in submissive obedience to the
oracular decisions of the Archiator.
It was a well marked case of hepatitis and gastritis,
subacute, with some loss of blood from the hemorrhoidal
vessels, which, from:the statement of the Royal patient
himself, contributed invariably to the relief of his suf-
ferings ; and the evidence of this fact alone, did there
exist a doubt respecting the nature and character of the
ailment, would have led, it is presumed, the veriest tyro
to suspect the presence of inflammatory action, and
consequently to the use of general and local blood let-
ting, as the best resource of art, and a vital indication
under the existing circumstances. The Sultan, besides,
was strong, robust. and plethoric, of gouty diathesis,
rather irregular habits, and his constitution, hitherto,
bad not been impaired by one serious illness in the
course of his life.
Towards the end of February he began to ail, and
from the circumstance of his having been raiely confined
to the Palace, and never having kept his bed, not even
for one day, the measure and intensity of his complaint at
that period may be in some degree estimated. More-
over, he continued in most respects his accustomed
mode of life, appearing in public and going to the
mosque in state, and dvoted himself besides, without
intermission, to the arduous duties of Government, at a
perplexing and difficult crisis.
Abdulhak, meanwhile, was now an important per-
sonage, the man of men, a sage, another oracle of Epi
daurus ; he was in communication with the grandees
and principal dignitaries of the Porte, and receiving
hourly magnificent presents in gold and jewels for the
Mudgede or bulletin, containing the most barefaced
and positive assurances that all was right, and no appre-
hensions entertained respecting the health and safety of
his august Master. Under such auspicious circumstances,
as may be imagined, in all the solemnity of medical gri-
mace, he was day and night continually bustling about the
Royal patient; active, indefatigable, it is true, and scru-
tinizing as an antiquary over his medals, but unschooled
alai ! in the very rudiments of art, arrogant, insolent,
and still more woefully blind to the ravages of an insi
dious disease. In the fatal security of ignorance and
superstition, Maschallah and Inchallah were his safe-
guard and never-failing refuge in every emergency ; and
those mystic words, with sundry nostrums of a similar
efficacy, were the wise and wonted expedients of this
mountebank, and throughout, perhaps, the sum of his
medical achievements. Nay, more effectually to delude
the courtiers and the public, and to divert the attention
of the Royal patient from his own deplorable position,
amusements, excursions, and pleasure parties were the
order of the day ; and night set in with abundance of
good cheer, with fire-works, rejoicings, and dramatic
representations.
Such, then, on that melancholy occasion, is a sample of
sayings and doings at the Seraglio, up the 17th June,
when Dr. Machmoud, with Drs. M'Carthy and
Nuners, the latter Europeans in the Court service, were
for the first time summoned to attend the consultation.
Being introduced to the presence chamber, they found
the Emperor, elegantly attired, reclining on the divan,
pale, emaciated, and sinking under a load of mental and
bodily affliction. His intellectual faculties were in a
state of perfect integrity, and, though he complained
of little else than nausea, sickness, and pain on pres-
sure in the region of the stomach and right hypochon-
drium, still his whole frame was evidently most deeply
interested, and the disease had already degenerated
into a confirmed and deadly hectic. The consulting
physicians, after a short pause, requisite for medical
examination, were permitted to retire to an adjoining
apartment ; and there they announced, formally and
officially, to Rioza Bey, the chief page, that his Ma-
jesty's life was imminent danger ; nay, that there
was no longer a gleam of hope ; and that the complaint
had already advanced far beyond the reach and resources
of the healing art. This was a conscientious discharge
of a painful duty. In how far eventually, it may or may
not have contributed to promote the interest, and add
to the reputation of these gentlemen, is another question,
for " hair settle," or give pleasing intelligence, come what
may, is a sacred and inviolable maxim of the Osman-
leys. Meantime in the course of the ensuing ten days,
they were again four times invited to return ; but un-
happily on those occasions, nothing occurred to alter
their opinion, or modify in the least the fatal prediction
pronounced at their first visit.
Lastly, on the 27th June there appeared another
actor in this mournful scene, a surgeon, who undertook
the management of the Royal patient. In consultation,
he characterized the disease as gastro-enteritis, and
although, in his opinion, the case was serious, he still
declared explicitly in the presence of all (Dr. C. Cara-
theodori was acting as interpreter) that there were
hopes of its terminating favourably, and as this prognostic
differed point blank from the sentiment repeatedly ex-
pressed by the consulting physicians, these gentlemen
forthwith, as birds of ill-omen, were excluded from the
councils of the medical junta. The Emperor, meanwhile,
was sinking rapidly, and unable any longer to rise from
his bed, during the last two or three days previous to the
close of this sad catastrophe, Moreover, he was now
occasionally observed to wander, a phenomenon not
unusual inbthe last stage of a decline, and familiar to
every practitioner : and this new symptom led to the
supposition that his Majesty's complaint was "nervous
fever," and subsequently, en derniere analyse, it was
defined to be a case of " delirium tremens?' Opium
therefore was considered the specific, and administered
in potent doses, and Abdulhac never ceased to assure
the public that his Highness slept well, ate still better,
and even smoked, as usual, his tcibouk after meals ; in
short, that in all respects he was improving wonderfully
under the auspices of the new-comer ; and, I need not
add, that sacks of gold, with other valuable presents,
were hourly pouring in as the price of this welcome in-
telligence. But the delusion was soon at an end, and
the Emperor expired on the Ist of July, universally la-
mented and deplored. His remains were conveyed to a
spot on the Divan Jollou, not far distant from the
Burnt Pillar and the Hippodrome. The tears of a
mourning people bedewed his grave, and never were a
Sovereign's obsequies honoured with a more affecting
display of profound national affliction.
It was a scene of sorrow and desolation—a deep
awful, appalling silence ; no funeral pomp, no pageant
mockery, no prying gaze of idle curiosity ; there stood
the stern Musselman, pensive and absorbed, struggling
with the intensity of his own emotions, his bosom heav-
ing with voiceless anguish, his gushing eye cast down
in reverential awe, before the shadowy grandeur of de-
parted Majesty. A dense moving mass thronged-the
streets, and, pressed on with:solemn footfallito the last
resting place of this great man ; and, albeit, from his
very birth, the child of misfortune and the sport of cir-
cumstances, his name shall go down to after ages, and
be inscribed with honour on the page of history.
He was one of the most extraordinary Monarchs of
modern times, and among his eminent qualities as a
ruler were firmness of purpose, undaunted courage, a
love of impartial justice, abhorrence of cruelty and op-
pression, and an almost chivalrous spirit of Reform and
innovation, emulous of all that is great and noble in
the institutions of civilized States. He was an Ori-
ental scholar, and though bereft of the advantages of
scientific culture, his great mind soared above vulgar
errors and the national prejudices ; unbiassed in mat-
ters of religious belief, he was fond of patient inquiry,
and full liberty of conscience was the right of every
sect and every persuasion throughout Lis dominions.
His manners were gentle and refined, and in familiar
intercourse he was affable, amiable, a finished courtier ;
his conversation most interesting, his remarks shrewd
and pointed, and dealt out, too, in all the graces of the
purest idiom. He was kind and affectionate in his
family circle, munificent to his dependants, charitable
and benevolent to all, and seldom was the prayer
misfortune permitted to reach his ear without prompt
and effectual succour.
These, then, are some few of his titles to fame,
and to the admiration of posterity, and among
other causes of his power, and many remarkable
achievements during life, and of that unceasing
veneration and respect which is the national
tribute to his memory at this day. The pious
Moslems still mourn his fate and throng in numbers
daily to his tomb, there to offer up the prayers of pro-
pitiation : Allah .Rahmet eilesin ! Allah Rahmet eiksin !
And as in him I lost a patron and a benefactor, oft have
I mingled in the crowd and joined in their plaintive
requiems.