The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1886-03-20
THE HEALING ART IN TURKEY.
Business Done Only on a Cash Basis-Street
Ouaeks-Barbers-IgnO


The other day in Galata a man fell in
some sort Of fit on the street. A great
crowd gathered, shutting out the air, but
some superstition kept them all from
lending any aid The accident happened
within few doors of a doctors Office,
and the doctor stood on the steps, look
ing on in an interested way, but making
no movement toward going to the suf-
ferer's assistance, though urged strenu-
ously to do so by the bystanders. He
was Greek, and had met him on one
of the little coast steamers that ply on
the Black sea. He was little and dirty
and black, and his speciality was herbs
He smiled when he saw me, and made
a place for me on the steps. You do
not seem anxious TO take the case" l
said, with glance toward thu corner.
He shrugged his shoulders and smiled
again. What is the use?" he said sim
ply; "the man has no money, and his
friends make no gifts. But do you
take no cases until the fee is advanced"
l asked. He replied with the counter
question, I'm your country do men work
for nothing?" In the meantime the
man died and his friends carried him
away.
Now, this little Greek doctor was no
more hard hearted than others of his
profession along the Mediterranean. The
healing art in Turkey is done on a strictly
cash basis, that is all. There is no senti-
mentality that makes Turkish doctor
get up in the night to go out and ale
viate the sufferings of a sick pauper
where he knows the patient to be such.
1t is cash down or no cure. This, of
course, is only with the poorer class of
patients. With responsible parties a
Numerically opposite course is pursued.
No fee is demanded from them, and it
would be considered very bad manners
in a doctor to bring them in bill.
The payment comes from them to
a physician in the form of
gift, as if his service had been
wholly voluntary and the return con-
sideration of esteem. Still, it is com
monty paid on the spot, and is, as rule,
| fully as much as the doctor would have
| dared to charge.
The number of regular physicians in
| Constantinople is strictly limited, and
many of them are foreigners. Every
| doctor has his own territory, into which
professional etiquette allows no other
| physician to intrude. Each one makes a
| daily round through his territory, beat
| ing up patients in the coffee-houses and
| the streets. And woe to the Well-to-dO
man found ailing on the route. He is
| taken in hand unceremoniously and sub
| jected to an examination that seldom
| fails to end in some sort of treatment or
! other. Besides the regulars, there are
| an innumerable number of specialists
and Quacks who cut in on prices
| and peddle all sorts of nostrums.
! They recognize no limitation as to terri
tory and take practice wherever they can
find it. 1 have seen the same vender
practicing and crying his wares in Siam
boul, Galata and Scutari.
All the common cases of blood-letting
and headache go to the BARRIERS, who
also pull teeth, and all classes indiscrim-
inately patronize the dervishes and
! shrines. 1t is only in cases of fever and
colds and other standard troubles that
the regular physician is called in at all.
Perhaps after all it is as well that this is
so, for the regular physician in Turkey
is expected to exhibit a preternatural
sagacity that would certainly fail him if
the range over which it is exercised
were wide. When he is called to see a
sick person he is not allowed to diagnose
the case as a western physician would
deem necessary. He is supposed to
know as soon as he sets eyes on pa
tient what the matter is with him, and
any hesitation would be deemed a con-
fession of ignorance.
A little Irish doctor told me with
wrath in his breath of a case which he
had attended, where from looking at the
patient he seemed to have fever and be
suffering great pain. The usual RENE
dies failing to give relief, closer ex-
animation showed that the sick man was
chary of moving his left leg. This, be-
ing uncovered, proved to be broken and
mangled and horribly swollen. The
doctors indignant question, why they
had not told him this at first,
elected the contemptuous answer that
they had supposed he knew his business,
and thought of course he had been treat
ing the patient for the trouble from the
first. And before he could throw up the
case and gracefully retire, they dis
charged him for incompetency. icon
stantinople Letter.