Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1895-03-14
DOCTORS IN TURKEY.
thousands of Persons Die Annually Wi

he
ont Medical Attention.
According to Scontad Hovosapian
the young Armenian attending the
Central Medical college of this city
the practice of medicine is quite a new
study in Turkey.
The general mode of conducting af-
1alrs in Turkey prevails in the medical
SCHOOLS, he said. THE bakshish is
the power greater than brains or hard
study The students have two holt
days week, and every night they can
be found around the theaters or the
cares. How much they lose from their
studies l can not say, but the bakshish,
which must be slipped into the hands
OF the examiner, as the Americans say.
does the business
DO the graduated physicicians prac-
tice this system of bribery"
10 some extent they do. Many of
the doctors will not go to visit a sick
person unless the fee is paid before
hand or assured. Oftentimes they will
stop to wrangle about the size of the
fee before starting out. The best doc
tors have one or two hours week set
aside when they receive patients at
their Offices who are doubtful about
the fee. No business can be conducted
In Turkey without the blessed bride
You have to pay bakshish to have let
ter received at a post Office. The fire
department of Constantinople ran to a
hire, and then refused to do any work
until the amount of their reward had
been fixed by the owner of the burn
ing building. How can doctors or
anybody else do anything under these
conditions to advance the country?
''In the two colleges 1 mentioned
Christian subjects are nominally al
lowed to enter. but practically they
are prohibited from graduating There
are SO many difficulties and so many
bakshishes in the way of the Christian
student that he has a poor chance
Very few Christians have succeeded in
graduating from the schools. as they
are distinctly Turkish in both religion
and customs. AS result, the Chris
tians who desire to study medicine go
to Paris, Vienna or America. L came
here because the American college
stands very high in Turkey. The Paris
schools are the most popular. but the
American doctors are regarded more
favorably than the English doctors"
'Are there many doctors in Turkey?"
Not enough, and all of them are in
Constantinople. Thousands of people
die annually throughout the empire
for want of medical attention. The
women are the doctors for the poor
people. Every good woman must know
the use of the so-called remedies for
diseases and every house has a stock
or dried herbs and roots. These are
collected from the mountains and hills
during the summer time and carefully
kept for use in case of sickness in the
family The women believe a great
deal in severity, and think there can
be no cure without pain. / remember
how my grandmother treated me, and
I can still feel the pain in my bones
She used to give me terrible medi-
cine, and many time when l was sick
l have pretended to be quite we'll to
escape her treatment"
Are there any magicians in Turkey
who pretend to effect cures?" was
question asked.
Yes, and they form third class of
doctors. stranger can see them fire.
quently about the streets of Constan-
tinople and everywhere else in Turkey.
They are Turkish priests, and the
more successful ones have long white
boards. They generally choose for
their office a place before a mosque
door or fountain. They sit, with
crossed legs, on a small square table
before them, on which are displayed
all kinds of knives, a few heads of
garlic, small pieces of glass, copper
coins and everything of an extraordi-
nary nature one can imagine. Their
fee for treating a case is about one
hundred paras, or equivalent to ten
cents in American money.
THE treatment for every disease
and paints the same. The patient is
made to sit before the priest on his
knees. The so-called doctor then puts
his hands on the patients head and
mutters some meaningless words, now
and then turning his eyes toward
Heaven. The things on the table are
next passed successfully over the pa
TENTS head and over his body, and all
the time the murmuring and mutter-
ing goes on. At last the patient is
pronounced cured. If by chance he
does recover the news spreads until it
is in everybody's mouth, and the sue
cessful magic practitioner does big
business for a time. a doctor can
spend years and years in study, yet
never in his practice make half what
one of these lazy Turks make in
quiet and lazy way"
'.Who attends to the dental work of
the peoples"
The BARRIERS are the dentists. They
do not attempt to treat the teeth. but
they pull them when they ache. They
have no modern tools to work with,
and the patient suffers great pain
indianapolis Journal.