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ADDRESSES

BY

WILLIAM NUTTING, M.A.,

AND

DAVID HUBBAKD NUTTING, M.D.

ADDRESSES

BY

WILLIAM NUTTING, M.A.

AND ^ ^

DAVID HUBBARD NUTTING, M.D.

» » T »1

•• • • ••

BOSTON

GEORGE H. NUTTING 1912

UB&95

Copyright

George Hale Nutting

1912

yxicxT^L^

THE STETSON PRESS, BOSTON

PREFACE

IN this hustling, bustling, progressive and wonderful age in which we live, little time is left us to contemplate the lives and deeds of our forbears, — who stood in their places and sturdily did the right as they saw it, meeting every crisis bravely, and endeavoring to discover and avail them- selves of the underlying good in all.

When it becomes possible to preserve, in fairly permanent form, the impressions of life, the vital parts of life, as they were pictured by one of our ancestors who manfully "fought the good fight," — and long since joined the silent major- ity, leaving an honored name and character to his descend- ants, — it becomes almost a sacred duty so to do. For the inspiration and incentive to solid achievement of our fam- ily and our posterity, it seems most fitting, therefore, that the following lectures by William Nutting, M.A., formerly of Randolph Center, Vermont, and delivered by him before the Randolph Academy in 1849, should be printed and distributed.

Upon his death, the Vermont Chronicle said in part: "William Nutting was born in Groton, Mass., during the Revolutionary War, October 30, 1779. He worked on his father's farm till the age of twenty-one, then for about three years as a carpenter and joiner; when, his physical constitution having been broken by sickness, he turned his attention to the acquisition of a liberal education.

His mental powers being unimpaired, and naturally of remarkable vigor, his progress in study was such that, after close application for a year and a half at Groton Academy, he joined the same class at Dartmouth College which had entered Freshmen at the time he commenced his preparation.

After graduating, in 1807, he became Principal of the Orange County Grammar School, located at Randolph Center, Vt. Here he taught for five or six years, — in the meantime pursuing the study of law, under the instruction of the Hon. Dudley Chase, who was afterwards successively the Chief Justice of Vermont and its representative in the United States Senate. After practising for a short time in partnership with his instructor, Mr. Nutting opened an office of his own, which he continued to occupy until within the last few years, having meanwhile, introduced many stu- dents into the same profession. During this time he once or

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PREFACE

twice represented the town in the State Legislature, and at least once in the Council of Censors. Sometime during these years, also, he was offered the chair of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy in the University of Vermont, but saw fit to decline, and continue in his chosen profession.

As a teacher he earned an enviable reputation, as to instruction and discipline, and tact in inspiring his students with an enthusiastic fondness for their studies, as well as for the inculcation of sound principles of truth, honesty and sobriety. And many of his pupils have risen up to call their instructor blessed, as the author, under God, of their own success in all subsequent life.

In his legal profession he was ever considered an honest and able counselor, a discriminating lawyer and a success- ful advocate."

William Nutting died in Randolph, November 26, 1864, aged eighty-four years.

David Hubbard Nutting, M.D., his son, was for twenty- one years a Missionary Physician in Asiatic Turkey. While attending to his professional duties, he also carried on classes in medicine and surgery among the more promising and intelligent young men of Oorfa, Aleppo, Aintab, Diar- bekir and other cities where he was stationed. In the pur- suance of this beneficent work for humanity, he was com- pelled sometimes to break the laws of the land. The use of human bodies and skeletons, though forbidden, was neces- sary, and they were used by him, of course most carefully, as discovery might have cost many lives, in that fanatical country. The knowledge of this use of human bodies and skeletons was, for reasons most patent, carefully kept from his wife and family until years after their safe return to this country, with the sole exception of the writer, who made the discovery accidentally.

The experiences of Dr. Nutting given in the two lectures herein reprinted, proved very interesting to the large num- bers of his audiences in the British Isles, where he delivered them in 1875, 1^ most of the leading cities, in the interest of the work of the Missions; and no doubt will also interest even more, the members of our own Clan.

Accordingly I take great pleasure in publishing this little volume for circulation among our family and friends.

Boston. Mass. AprU 25. 1912. GEORGE HALE NUTTING.

CONTENTS

PAGES

Physical Education 11-22

William Nutting, M.A.

Intellectual Education 25-36

WiLUAM Nutting, M.A.

Moral Education 37-53

William Nutting, M.A.

Experiences and Observations of an American Missionary in Asiatic Turkey — 1876 57-75

David H. Nutting, M.D.

Incidents of Travel in Mesopotamia, Armenia

AND KOORDISTAN — 1854-1876 79-94

David H. Nutting, M.D.

PHYSICAL EDUCATION

LECTURE BY WILLIAM NUTTING, M.A., RANDOLPH ACADEMY

SEPTEMBER 2^, I 849

PHYSICAL EDUCATION

LECTURE BY WILLIAM NUTTING, M.A., RANDOLPH ACADEMY

SEPTEMBER 23, I 849

EDUCATION properly means the drawing forth, cultivating, and training of all the faculties, which our Creator has given us, in such a manner as to render them most useful to ourselves, and most beneficial to others.

To acquire such an education is our duty; it is also our highest interest. God has made it our duty. He has given us the germs of various faculties capable of unlimited im- provement by proper cultivation; and He has commanded us to improve them; He has said to us all "occupy till I come." He has also so constituted us, that it is only by the cultivation and use of the faculties, which He has given us, that we can be happy here, or expect happiness hereafter.

But our Maker has given us faculties of different kinds or classes, all of which are to be developed and cultivated. He has given us physical, intellectual, and moral faculties; or in other words, He has made the human being to consist of a body, a mind, and a conscience or a faculty of dis- tinguishing intuitively, without the slow process of reason- ing, between moral right and wrong. All these parts, or faculties of the human being, are to be simultaneously educated.

Education is therefore properly divided into three branches: physical, intellectual, and moral. All these branches of education are essential to our usefulness and happiness, for it is easy to see that without a competent degree of bodily health we cannot make proficiency in our studies. Such is the connection between body and mind, that the one can- not suffer and the other remain at ease. We must have the ^^ Sana mens in corpore sano^'^ or the sound mind in a sounds body, if we would be happy or useful. And it is an equally obvious fact, that by cultivating a man's physical and in- tellectual powers, while his morals are depraved, instead of increasing his happiness you make him miserable; instead of making him useful, you make him a pest to the community; you make him a more powerful savage, a more perfect demon.

It is obvious then that the three branches of education.

^ ^. ^ ^ WILLIAM NUTTING, M.A.

viz., physical, intellectual, and moral, must go hand in hand; that they must be taught in all our schools and seminaries; and that our former teachers, who supposed their whole (or even principal) business was the intellectual improvement of their pupils, had but very imperfect conceptions of their duties.

I purpose at this time to offer a few suggestions on phys- ical education; and afterwards as I may have opportunity to take up the subjects of intellectual and moral education.

I place physical education first, because it is first in order of time; our bodily wants and faculties must be attended to and cultivated before our intellectual and moral faculties are capable of cultivation. It is first in importance, for with- out health, and a competent degree of bodily strength and activity we can neither cultivate our mental and moral powers nor perform the serious duties of life. And not- ^ withstanding its importance it has been most lamentably neglected.

Physical education is the cultivation of our physical faculties in such a manner as shall most conduce to bodily health, strength and activity. And this depends on a prop- ter attention to two words, diet and exercise. By a proper attention to diet and exercise every perfectly formed child would grow up to a healthy and vigorous maturity, accident and specific diseases excepted, with a prospect of a long, and, so far as physical powers are concerned, a useful life.

But what is the proper diet, and what the proper exercise, to promote health, strength, and activity? To attempt to answer these questions may seem to be encroaching upon the province of the physician and professed physiologist; but still they will pardon a man of plain sense, but without any pretension to these particular sciences, to make some suggestions as the result of more than fifty years of expe- rience and observation.

And first as to diet; let it be plain and simple, and rather even coarse and scanty, than luxurious. Do you ask my authority for this recommendation? I refer you to your own observation. Compare the present generation with what you know of our ancestors; compare the almost uninter- rupted health and vigor of the early inhabitants of this town with the consumptions, dyspepsias, liver complaints

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PHYSICAL EDUCATION

and gouts now common among us, and ask, what makes the difference? Compare the health and hardihood of the peas- antry in this and all other countries with the imbecility, effeminacy, and "often infirmities" of the nobility and more opulent classes in the same countries; finally compare your- selves with the foreign peasantry flocking into our country from almost all nations, and now all around us; — let the young ladies and misses present not shrink from comparing themselves, in respect to health and strength of constitu- tion, with the Irish and French women and girls now hired in a great proportion of our families, and see on which side the advantage lies. Is it not a conceded fact, that though our foreign females are less acquainted with our manner of housekeeping, and have less sleight or dexterity, yet their superior health and strength enables them to perform twice as much hard work as our native hired help? It is true that in them, physical strength is connected with vulgarity, or a want of intellectual and polite accomplishments. But this is by no means a necessary connection. On the contrary the young lady of firm health and sound constitution has greatly the advantage of her feeble sister in the pursuit of intel- lectual education and the polite accomplishments. But these are facts which you must have observed; and how do you account for them? Is it not a fact that colds, coughs, and other pulmonary complaints; want of appetite, indi- gestion, dyspepsia and other disorders of the stomach, to- gether with the whole train of what some of our physicians have called ^^ gouty affections, ^^ are almost infinitely more common now than they were among our ancestors? True, you did not live in the days of our ancestors, but you know from history, and from verbal information from those few aged persons, who still survive, that these are facts. You can also look around you; and let me ask, did you ever know an Irishman, or Canadian, male or female, afflicted by want of appetite, indigestion or dyspepsia? If you admit the fact, that this disparity in the health of ourselves and our ances- tors, and between the peasantry and higher classes in other countries exists, the question returns, how will you account for it? It cannot be accounted for on the score of soil or climate. We live in the same climate, tread the same soil, and breathe the same atmosphere, which our ancestors

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WILLIAM NUTTING, M.A.

did. The same is true of the peasantry and nobility of other countries. But their manner of life, their diet and exercise, was different. Consult the early history of these States; or go to the few very aged men and women, whom a merci- ful Providence is still sparing for our instruction, and en- quire of them, how they lived in the early days of this coun- try. They will tell you, that their diet was always very plain and simple, frequently what would now be called coarse, and sometimes scanty; and that their exercise was constant, and frequently severe. They will tell you that they used no intoxicating liquors; and I am happy that for some years past we have been, in Paddy's phrase, advancing back, to the ground occupied by our ancestors, in this re- spect; and that all, whom I now address, can truly say with them, ''we use no intoxicating liquors." They will tell you farther, that coffee and tea formed no part of their morning and evening repast; that their drink was pure cold water, with which no country is better, and few so well, supplied as ours; that they used very sparingly if at all, the various spicery and other condiments now considered indispensable; and that they very seldom indeed ever ate of more than one dish at the same meal, and never, except on Thanksgiving and other gala days, tempted their appetites, overloaded their stomachs and brought on dyspepsia by a succession of pud- dings, pies and cakes, after having partaken of the prin- cipal dish.

They will tell you farther that their labor was severe, that they rose early and went immediately to their work, while the morning air was cool and bracing, and after spending a long day in severe toil they retired to rest, and found that "sleep was sweet to a laboring man, whether he ate little or much." If you apply to any of the venerable remains of a former age, still surviving, they will give you this as the experience of their early lives; and your own reflections will convince you that it must be true. You will see that the man who felled and cleared off the huge forests which years ago covered these hills and valleys, must have labored long and severely; and that the women who from the wool and flax produced by their husbands on their own farms, or lots as they were then called, manufactured, with their hand-cards, wheels and looms, all the cloths used in

PHYSICAL EDUCATION

their respective families, besides doing all the house work, which now requires all the labor of the mother and daughter with one or two hired assistants, must, like Solomon's vir- tuous woman, have risen "while it was yet dark," and could not have eaten "the bread of idleness." You will see that to live in luxury or idleness, "Their lot forbade," that their diet must have been simple, the products of their own farm. They could produce their own meat and bread-stuffs, potatoes and some other vegetables; but situated as they were, 150 miles from any navigable water, with no passable roads, the host of foreign luxuries now considered indis- pensable to a decently furnished table, were certainly be- yond their reach. Salt indeed as a necessary they must pro- cure, but sometimes at the enormous price of ten bushels of wheat for a single bushel of it. If you ask the Irish immi- grants, what has been their ordinary diet at home, though you will find many of them exceedingly jealous of the honor of their country and therefore unwilling to give direct an- swers, yet when they tell you the whole honest truth, you will find that the diet has been plain and simple in the ex- treme, almost wholly vegetable, and but little excelling in quality that which we give our fattening animals. Yet they are genuine specimens of health and hardihood.

But you may ask, "Why address these remarks to us.^ Would you have us in this land of plenty reduce our bill of fare to oatmeal and potatoes, and a bowl of whey now and then?" By no means. But if you would ^"^ eat to live^^ and not "live to eat," let your diet be plain, simple, and frugal; and I mention the extreme simplicity and frugality of the Irish peasantry to show, that there is less danger to health in going to the extreme of simplicity and frugality in diet, than in the least advance towards luxury; or rather that extreme frugality and plainness of diet are generally accompanied by firm health, while chronic diseases in their various form are as generally the attendants of luxury and idleness.

With respect to exercise I shall detain you but a short time, though it is of great importance; but as most of those whom I now address have recently come from scenes of active life, and probably expect after a few months to return to them, they have less need of caution on this subject than on that of diet. A person may preserve comfortable health

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WILLIAM NUTTING, M.A.

for some time with but little exercise, if he constantly ob- serve the rule, that ^'diet must he proportional to exercise, ^^ This is one of nature's laws, which can never be long vio- lated with impunity. You all know that a man, or animal, whose exercise is severe, requires and can digest a much greater quantity of food, than the same man or animal could during a season of comparative inactivity. Hundreds of young man, who have left the farm or shop in high health to pursue a course of studies, have been obliged, by neglect of this rule, to give up their studies, and return home with health equally unfit for study or labor. A highly respectable medical gentleman, with whom most of us are acquainted, who has for many years suffered so severely from dyspepsia that he told me recently he would give all his property to be freed from it, at the same time told me that his disease was induced by inattention to the above rule; that during his course of classical studies he walked about two miles to school each day, and boarded at his father's table furnished in patriarchal simplicity, and enjoyed good health. But when he went abroad to attend his professional course, he was too intent upon his studies to allow of taking his usual, or even any, exercise. At the same time his appetite was tempted by a greater variety of food on the table of his boarding house, than he had been accustomed to; without thinking of the consequences he indulged his appetite, till he induced a derangement of his digestive powers, from which all his attainments in medical science can never recover him; but he has lived thus long, and probably must continue during the rest of his days, a hopeless dyspeptic.

A comfortable state of health may generally be main- tained with very little exercise, if the diet be proportionally "^^ reduced. No disease will be induced; the physical faculties may all perform their various functions regularly, and the person will feel comfortable, and pursue his studies with tolerable success; but he will not be vigorous. His muscular strength and energy will be gradually impaired. God has so made us, that all our faculties, whether physical, intel- lectual, or moral, acquire strength by exercise; and they can be brought to their full strength and activity only by habitual and strenuous exercise. This your own observa- tion must have taught you. Why is your right hand larger,

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PHYSICAL EDUCATION

stronger and more active than your left, but because you have put it to more constant and severe use? It was not so in infancy. The infant's hands are both aHke; and if by accident, or the carelessness of parents, it uses the left hand the most, he becomes what we call left-handed; his left hand becomes larger, stronger, and more active than his right hand. Why is the right hand, as well as the right arm and shoulder of the blacksmith much stronger than those of other men of equal general muscular powers, but because his avocation requires more constant and laborious use of that hand, arm, and shoulder than those of other men? You all know, by information at least, that porters in our cities, men whose business it is to carry loads on their shoulders for short distances, acquire a degree of strength in those joints, muscles, and sinews, which are especially exercised in their daily labors, perfectly astonishing. I myself, with many others, a few years ago, saw an Irishman of rather diminutive stature walk from the store (which Mr. Miles now occupies) across the street to the tavern with two grindstones on his shoulders weighing together between five and six hundred pounds. We were all amazed, but the truth was, he had acquired the necessary strength by long training to the business of a porter.

If then you would enjoy sound and vigorous health be abstemious in your diet, and be not afraid nor ashamed of proper exercise. If you would have great muscular strength and activity to be able to defend yourselves and friends when assaulted, and your country when invaded, and to perform the various duties of life with ease, accustom your- selves to severe exercise, not of one particular part, but of your whole muscular system, remembering that all our powers are strengthened by lase. Nor let the ladies present think it a mark of vulgarity for them to possess good health and a sound constitution; nor to use the means necessary to attain and preserve them. The ruddy glow of health on a female face will always be a great enhancement of beauty, notwithstanding the sickly word delicacy^ delicacy of con- stitution, which good matured physicians love to repeat to their feeble female patients to encourage them in their complaints; and which word, when so applied, has done more harm than any other word in our language. I admire delicacy

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WILLIAM NUTTING, M.A.

of sentiment^ and delicacy of moral feeling; but delicacy of physical constitution will always be a defect to be pitied and avoided, rather than a grace to be admired or sought after.

In connection with exercise as promotive of health I would urge upon students and others of sedentary habits a strict attention to position or posture whether in sitting or standing. Always sit, or stand with the body erect; that is, keep the spine straight, the shoulders well back, and the breast prominent and full. Such a position enlarges the chest, re- lieves the lungs and heart from all pressure, and gives them full and fair play. If while sitting you need for any purpose to incline forward, let the inclination proceed from the hips, without suffering any curvature of the back. If your books or papers are too low for you to see distinctly, raise them, but by no means suffer yourself to bend down over your table or desk. Any curvature of the body from the hips to the shoulders contracts the chest, impedes the action of the lungs, and if long continued brings on weakness of the stom- ach, irritation of the lungs, coughs, spitting of blood, con- sumption and death.

I would relate something of my own experience during a course of study and professional life; but I must apologize, as St. Paul did when he found It necessary for him to be egotistic, and say, "Would to God ye could bear with me a little In my folly," — "and indeed, bear with me."

When I commenced study, preparatory for College, my constitution was so far Impaired by severe sickness that my physicians told me there was no probability I should ever again be able to labor. I had been, up to the time of my sick- ness, Inured to constant and hard work. I was then far advanced In my twenty-fourth year; a little taller than at present, and as slender and destitute of flesh as perhaps any young man now present. My eyesight was strong and my head clear, but my posture after my sickness a little stoop- ing, my breast hollow, and I had some other symptoms of approaching consumption. I consulted my physicians on the propriety of commencing study. They doubted, but said I might perhaps live If I would pay strict attention to my diet, exercise, and position. I commenced study about the twentieth of October, 1803, boarding at my father's frugal table, and walking two miles each day to school. I

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PHYSICAL EDUCATION

was constantly mindful of the physician's direction and never suffered myself to sit in a curving position for a moment. I studied in a sitting position rather than standing, but always erect or leaning back in my chair, with my books in my lap or in my hands before me. If I had a table near me to support my lamp, or writing apparatus, I placed it directly at my right hand, and never in front of me, and wrote as well as studied in an erect position. Sometimes, when very busy in writing, a pain in my breast would ad- monish me that I was a little stooping; and I could not remove the pain otherwise than by clenching a rod in the back of my chair with my left hand, and leaning back across my left arm. In this position I have written weeks and months, and perhaps I might safely say years. I pursued my academical studies in this manner one year and four months, and though I studied more intensely than almost any other scholar of my acquaintance my infirmities were during the time perceptibly diminished. I had during that year and four months gone through all the preparatory studies, and advanced one year and a half in the Collegiate course. In February, a.d. 1805, I was admitted into the Sophomore Class in Dartmouth College, where I pursued my studies, except teaching school four months each win- ter, till May, a.d. 1807, always adhering strictly to the same rules of diet, exercise, and position, and my health during the time rather improving than diminishing. On the first of May, a.d. 1807, 1 was applied to by the Committee of this Corporation and permitted by the faculty of College, to take charge of this school, in which I continued about six years. In August, 1807, I graduated, having been offered one of the first three appointments, which I declined on account of my employment in school. During my connection with the school I had frequent occasion to lecture informally upon health, and to urge attention to diet, exercise and position; though in those days much more upon the latter than the two former topics. This house was then most unhealthily constructed, with a huge fire-place in each room, and the seats and desks in all the rooms precisely like those now remaining in the north room and hall, the seats without backs, and so situated that if a scholar would lean back against the wall or forward against the desk to rest him,

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WILLIAM NUTTING, M.A.

unless he was remarkably square built, he would infallibly fall into the destructive curvature I have mentioned. I admonished them again and again of the necessity of keep- ing the spine straight, and with some success. There were many complaints of pain in the breast, and hemorrhage from the lungs, which were gradually but effectually re- moved by attention to this one admonition. I succeeded after some time in persuading the Trustees to strip the south room, in which I generally kept the school, and fit it with a stove, seats and desks as at present, gradually diminishing in size from the rear to the front, so that if the seats be as- signed to the scholars proportioned to their sizes, no one will be inclined to curve himself to his desk. Since that altera- tion of the house I have known of no weakness of the stom- ach contracted by studying in these seats.

My own health during the time of my study and teaching gradually improved till in about ten years from my first sickness and debility I was surprised to find myself in the enjoyment of a firm and vigorous constitution. I still ad- hered to my former rules of diet and exercise; and till the heavy hand of old age compelled me to stoop, I maintained a tolerably erect position, and have to be grateful to the Author of all good, that for the last 35 or 40 years of my life I have enjoyed as sound and uninterrupted health, and as much strength and hardihood to endure fatigue and hard- ship as most men of my acquaintance.

I must again beg your pardon for this long egotistic di- gression, which I think I have not been induced to indulge by any motive of personal vanity, but by a sincere desire that the narrative might be advatageous to some who have heard it. That by knowing what has been accomplished in study by a person of moderate talents and feeble health some may be encouraged to increased exertions; and that from learning how bodily infirmities have been removed, and health regained and preserved by attention to a few simple rules, you may be induced to attend to these rules. If any one should be benefited, either in health or in progress in study, I know I shall be pardoned by that one at least.

But it may be asked. Why lecture on physical education in this seminary, as though the science of health were to be studied and taught here? I answer, it is a subject the rules

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of which should be studied, and taught, and practised, here and everywhere; in the nursery, the infant school, the dis- trict school, academies and colleges. They should nowhere be neglected. Every parent or instructor should notice and correct every deviation from them.

I have made these suggestions to you, my young friends, because that, so far as human power is concerned, you are the keepers of your own health. It is in your power to be temperate, plain and frugal in diet, and regular in your exercise, with a proper attention to position when seden- tary. You may never be able to procure all the luxuries of the table; but you may under all circumstances avoid them. If by chance you find yourself seated at a table loaded with all the various kinds of food which can tempt the appetite, think and act as Addison tells us he did under similar cir- cumstances. "When," says he in one of the Spectators, "I am invited to dine at a table on which I see fish, flesh, and fowl prepared in their various and most tempting forms, I imagine that I see in these dishes apoplexy, palsy, fevers, indigestion, cholic and gout; and I avoid them as I would do the diseases, which I fancy they contain; and make my whole repast from the simplest dish within my reach." You all can do the same. Remember it was improper in- dulgence of the appetite, which "brought death into the world, and all our woes." Remember, too, that health may be injured by taking too much even of plain food, though I believe it is not often the case. Dr. Franklin, a man of great practical wisdom — in his autobiography (a book which I earnestly commend to your careful perusal) has said, "I think that people in general, since the modern improve- ments in cookery, take about twice as much food as nature requires." Use moderation then in the quantity^ as well as the quality of your diet.

I address these remarks to you not only because I con- sider your own health, with the exceptions I at first made, entirely entrusted to your own keeping, but also because I consider that the young gentlemen and ladies now pupils in this seminary will probably in a few years be the fathers and mothers of a rising generation, whose education phys- ical, mental and moral, will for a time be entirely depend- ent upon you. It is therefore of incalculable importance that you have correct views of these subjects.

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WILLIAM NUTTING, M.A.

Let me entreat you therefore candidly and thoroughly to examine the suggestions I have now made, and those which I may hereafter make, if permitted, on the other branches of education; and if you shall not find them consonant with truth, reject them; and count your labor in hearing and in- vestigating them, as so much spent in honestly searching after truth and duty, which can never be lost labor. But if you shall find them consistent with reason, and supported by your own experience and observation as well as the testi- mony of others, let me earnestly but affectionately exhort you, as you value your own health, happiness, and useful- ness in life, — as you value the character and condition of those who may hereafter be dearer to you than life itself; — as you regard the final account which you must give, of your improvement of the talents entrusted to you, — lay them up in your memories and reduce them to practice.

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INTELLECTUAL EDUCATION

LECTURE BY WILLIAM NUTTING, M.A., RANDOLPH ACADEMY OCTOBER 6, 1849

INTELLECTUAL EDUCATION

LECTURE BY WILLIAM NUTTING, M.A., RANDOLPH ACADEMY OCTOBER 6, 1849

ON a former lecture I treated of Physical Education. I endeavored to convince you of its importance, and to give you rules for the attainment and preservation of health and physical strength and activity. And I would renewedly express my belief that strict and continued ob- servance of these rules would, in ordinary cases, bring our physical system to the highest state of perfection, of which, since the fall, it is capable. But however perfect our physical, or animal, systems may be, still without mental or intel- lectual culture we should be but the more perfect animals. It is the mind, or our intellectual faculties only, which places us at the head of the animal creation, and which by proper cultivation enables us to approximate toward the higher orders of intelligences. But our mental faculties, as well as our physical, when we are brought into existence, are but in an embryo state. They are but the germs of what they may become by proper culture. But what is that proper culti^ vation? We will spend the short time allowed us at this time in examining this question.

We heretofore defined education to mean the develop- ment, cultivation, and training of all the faculties which our Creator has given us, in such a manner as shall render them most useful to ourselves and others. This applies to our intellectual as well as physical faculties. We have also seen, if we examined the assertion, which was made last week, that all our faculties acquire strength and activity from use or exercise. Our whole course of education should be such as will bring all our intellectual faculties in exercise, and so far as any course of education falls short of this, so far it is defective.

The great and radical defect in our system of education fifty years ago, as now appears to me from recollection and reflection, was that it exercised but a part of the faculties of the mind, while the rest were suffered to remain inactive and, of course, uncultivated. Rules were given and doctrines advanced by the instructors, which the scholars were re- quired to receive, and remember. No pains were taken to demonstrate the principles of the rule, or to elucidate or

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WILLIAM NUTTING, M.A.

prove the doctrine, and if a scholar ventured to question the one or the other, he was checked by a frown or a sarcasm. If he enquired, ^^why it is, or how we know it," the question was either evaded, or the answer generally amounted to about this: "it is so because it is so;" and "we know it is so, because it is so in the book."

This is precisely the kind of education for brute animals. They have the faculties of perception and memory. They can be made to understand the rules we prescribe to them, and they can remember them. And this is all which was required of our scholars by a very large proportion of their instruc- tors. Thus their powers of perception and memory were exercised and in some degree improved; while their reason, that distinguishing faculty of our species, was left unexer- cised and uncultivated. They learned by rote. What should have been knowledge was merely belief, and that resting on a very slight foundation. They were taught to receive the assertions and opinions of others without demonstration, without proof, and without investigation. They thus formed in early life habits of credulity and mental inactivity which were seldom entirely overcome.

Such a course of education, you will all admit, was very deficient; and why? because it did not exercise, strengthen and improve all our mental faculties, nor even the most important of them.

Within the last half century our course of studies, and the manner of teaching them, have undergone various changes, and in many respects been greatly improved. The fault which I have mentioned is, I trust, now avoided in most of our schools, and a course of instruction adopted which brings into exercise a greater portion of our intellectual faculties; which leads our scholars not merely to receive and remember the rules given them by others, but to examine and compare them, to investigate the principles on which they are founded, and to demonstrate their truth or falsehood.

As it should be our object to ascertain and adopt the best possible course of education, that course which has the most direct and certain tendency to render all our intellectual faculties strong and active, it may be well to spend a little time in comparing the plan and course of education in use fifty or sixty years ago with those of the present day, that

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we may see what improvements have been made, and in what respects we are still deficient. For we may have made alterations which are not improvements ^ and though we may have made great improvements already, still farther improve- ments may be made.

Sixty or seventy years ago the studies of the mass of our people were very limited; generally confined to reading, spelling, writing, and arithmetic, with now and then a class or a single scholar attending to geography. I well remember when by indentures of apprenticeship the master was or- dinarily bound to teach his apprentice, in addition to his trade, "to read and spell and write well, and to cipher as far as the single rule of three," — that was called a good educa- tion. English grammar was then unknown. Indeed, our mother tongue was not then dignified with the name of a language^ nor had its genius or idioms been sufficiently in- vestigated to reduce it to grammatical rules. I well remember the spelling book which I used sixty-five years ago, it was called "The only sure guide to the English Tongue,''^ not language. These few studies they pursued separately. The scholar was kept at reading and spelling till he could read and spell correctly. He then took writing and gave his whole attention to that, except reading and spelling a lesson each half day, till he could write a fair, legible hand; then arith- metic, and so on, keeping each study distinct from the others, and giving his undivided attention to each in its turn, till it was in a good degree mastered. Whatever knowledge they attained in these several branches, they gained chiefly by dint of study, as they had little assistance from instruction, lectures, or the various apparatus now in us^. After English grammars were formed they were introduced in our course of studies, and generally preceded the study of arithmetic.

This limited course of study was, together with the manner of teaching, as I have before observed, very deficient in calling into exercise our more important intellectual facul- ties. Reading and spelling exercise only the perception and memory. Writing is rather an art than a science; any per- son with good eyes and a steady right hand may learn to write an elegant hand with very little exercise of intellect; and arithmetic, though in itself peculiarly calculated to exercise the thinking and reasoning faculties, or, as one has

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well expressed it, "/o make rational creatures of us,^^ was then taught rather mechanically than scientifically. Scholars did not study arithmetic. They had no books upon the subject. They were required to bring blank books for manuscripts, in which the instructor wrote a numeration table, and taught them to numerate figures. He then wrote the rule for simple addition, and sums, as they were then called, to be performed under it. The scholar transferred them one after another to his slate, and performed the operation, step by step, as directed by the rule, which he had committed to memory, and transcribed his performance from his slate to his manu- script; and so on from one rule to another as long as he at- tended to the science of figures.

And in this way many became expert accountants; they could add, subtract, multiply and divide, with great rapid- ity. But still the intellectual faculties, the mind, was very little strengthened or improved by all their attention to the science of numbers. They took the correctness of the rules for granted. They were not taught, nor encouraged, to an- alyze them, to investigate their principles, or demonstrate their truth. They found by experiment that the rule given would enable them to perform the operation required; and by practice learned to perform it with dexterity, but with as little mental exercise, as the expert musician will perform a piece of music while engaged in conversation, or thinking upon some other subject.

The course of education which I have described you will all pronounce exceedingly deficient. If I ask wherein was it deficient, you will probably answer unanimously, "It was too limited; it did not embrace a sufliicient range of literature and science." True, this was a great defect; but it was not its only defect, nor even its greatest. The object of intel- lectual education is to enable us to think; to think closely and intensely; to think correctly; to examine and compare; to investigate long and patiently; to be able to distinguish between truth and error, and to deduce correct inferences and conclusions from well established facts. Any course of educa- tion which qualifies us to do this is valuable, however limited; but that which has not this tendency is useless, or worse than useless, however extensive or costly it may be.

Our present course of education, you will readily perceive, is

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very different from that which I have described as in vogue a half century ago. The circle of sciences to which we are now introduced is very greatly enlarged, and we are furnished with almost an infinity of books and apparatus to aid us in the acquisition of those sciences. Our instructors also have made exertions to supersede the former arbitrary, didactic mode of teaching by adopting the analytic or synthetic method. They either give their pupils a rule, and require them (and assist them if necessary) to analyze it and demonstrate the correctness of its various parts, or they place before them various self-evident or very simple facts, and from them teach the pupils to make rules for themselves. They teach them that it is not enough to know how a thing is to be done, without also knowing and being able to show why it is to be so done. They strive to make their pupils think for themselves, to have something which may be called knowledge, instead of mere belief resting merely on the as- sertions of others. This is all right. It tends to make us rational creatures. It tends to qualify us to act our various parts on the great theatre of life with discretion and inde- pendence, without becoming the dupes of every demagogue, or mountebank, or false prophet.

All must admit that we have within the last half century made great advances in intellectual education. But may we not still make further improvements? And may it not be possible that we have deviated in some instances from the course pursued by our ancestors to our own disadvantage?

We have seen that the course of studies preparatory for the common walks of life was exceedingly limited in former times; but we must bear in mind that the time which could then be spared for attending school was also very limited. We can now devote a greater proportion of our time to in- tellectual education than our parents and grand-parents could, and may therefore with propriety enlarge our circle of studies. But is there no danger of enlarging it too far? Of trying to become acquainted with too many branches of science for the time we can devote to them ?

For some years past it has appeared to me that the ambi- tion of scholars, both in our higher and common schools, has been directed not to the attaining of the greater amount of useful knowledge, but to the attaining of some degree of

WILLIAM NUTTING, M.A.

acquaintance with the greatest possible number of sciences. Formerly it was thought that a youth of tolerable capacity might profitably devote one term in our higher schools to the studies of English grammar and arithmetic, and another to natural philosophy, and so on. But now, or within a few years past, a young man who should admit that he had spent a whole Academic term of eleven weeks in the study of nat- tural philosophy, besides his weekly exercises in elocution and composition, would be considered a blockhead. Within the last seven years a young lady, on her return from a six months' term in one of our celebrated female seminaries, on being asked by a gentleman of education to what studies she had been attending, replied with very great self-com- placency, "To the English, Latin, and French languages, to natural philosophy and chemistry, algebra, geometry and conic sections, and have also taken lessons in music and drawing." And many a youth returning from his first term in our academies would give a similar account of his attain- ments, omitting perhaps the ^^ music and drawing.'*^

Our bookmakers also have promoted this rail road pro- gress through the world of literature and science by sending out instead of the ponderous volumes we formerly studied, mere epitomes of the various sciences as large as a New Testa- ment, and English grammar, or a New England Primer. Instead, for instance, of Enfield's large quarto volume, or Adams' four octavo volumes, on Natural Philosophy, a Mr. Comstock, or some other stock, furnishes us with a complete system of Natural Philosophies in a book as large as the Rhetorical Reader; and so on in the other sciences. I would by no means condemn these abridgements, or summaries of the sciences; they are, or may be, useful. But the fault is perhaps in the scholars (and possibly in the teacher some- times) in thinking that the time to be devoted to any one science must be in direct proportion to the size of the book which treats upon it; whereas in truth and in fact the pro- portion is inverse. (I believe, however, that modern arith- meticians state all their questions so as to make the propor- tion direct; and I may not be understood when I speak of inverse proportion), but all will readily understand that the less assistance they receive from their book and their in- structor, the more time and the more exertion will be neces-

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sary in acquiring the knowledge aimed at; or In other words, the shorter the text, the longer the time and greater the labor to make out the sermon.

But to return, I would respectfully ask, does not this method of hurrying our scholars, or suffering them to hurry through these epitomes, and of going over the sciences by their title pages, tend to make them mere smatterers? In- stead of understanding one science thoroughly, they have skimmed over many, but are superficial in all. It has, in my opinion, a direct tendency to make them superficial in everything through life. They become, to use a common but appropriate expression, "jacks at all trades, but good at none,'* and in after life, when reflecting upon their scholas- tic education, with Cassio after his night's intoxication they will say, "I remember a mass of things, but nothing dis- tinctly."

I would also venture to question the propriety of having scholars pursue a number of distinct branches of learning at the same time. Formerly a scholar, as I have mentioned, gave his undivided attention to one single science till he had acquired a competent knowledge of it; then pursued a second in the same manner; and so on, till he had completed his education, or rather, spent all the time which could be al- lowed him for that purpose. But of late it has become fashionable for almost every scholar to have his attention divided, and generally his mind confused, by two, three, four, or five studies at the same time.

This I conceive to be injurious in two respects. It un- doubtedly retards the scholars' progress in learning. No person can accomplish as much, either of bodily or mental labor, if his exertions are directed to diff"erent objects at the same time, or in rapid alternation, as if they are directed steadily to one object till it is attained. On this principle as an axiom we have brought the mechanic arts to their present state of perfection by what is called "^ division of labor,^^ that is, having each man pursue one particular kind of labor. Let the farmer, who is expert in the use of his hoe and his shovel, his scythe and his sickle, and has a day's work to do with each, work one hour with each in succession through the four days, i.e., will he accomplish as much as if he devoted an entire day to each? But it is said by the ad-

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vocates of this mode of study, that "it is easier for the stu- dent;" that changing from one kind of study to another " operates as a relaxation of the mind." This is its very worst feature; the strongest objection against it.

Our whole course of education should tend to fit the mind for close thought, for intense application, for deep and severe study. But this shifting from one study to another because it is easier, tends to render the mind imbecile, and unfit for strenuous exertion. It is like humoring a capricious child; the more you indulge it, the more perverse it will be, till it becomes perfectly unmanageable.

Our mental, like our physical powers derive strength and elasticity from severe exercise, which can be acquired in no other way. Would the muscles of the blacksmith's arm, to which I referred in a former lecture, have acquired their present strength, if he had been sufi"ered during his appren- ticeship to lay down his hammer, when his arm began to be weary, and go to some other business? Or would the porter's shoulders have been able to sustain the enormous burdens, which he now easily bears day after day, if when he com- menced his business, he had been permitted to throw down his load on the first approach of weariness? They were taught to persevere and overcome their weariness, and thus have gained that firmness and muscular power which their several employments require.

Even so must our minds be trained to severe study even when weary, in order to acquire that strength, and patient endurance of toil necessary to our usefulness in life, and without which we shall never be able to examine thoroughly and judge correctly.

It is true, the apprentice must be trained with discretion. Neither as severe exercise, nor for so long a time, as the master would easily endure, must at first be required of him. Nor must we expect that our scholars can bear the intense application of Sir Isaac Newton, when, as it is said, he stood in one position for more than twenty hours with his mind so intently fixed upon the subject of investigation, that he was not aware of his servant's entering his study several times and presenting him refreshment. But still their whole course of education should be calculated to give them strength and vigor of mind, and they should never be al-

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lowed to alternate between several studies, because it is easier; but they should be taught boldly to face obstacles, to grapple with difficulties and overcome them.

I would make one other suggestion relative to our present mode of instruction; I would even venture to enquire, whether our best instructors do not frequently give their scholars too much instruction. Whether they do not thus en- courage them, or at least allow them, to depend too much upon instruction, and too little upon their own exertions.

It is exceedingly easy for an experienced instructor to perform those operations, which would cost the scholar much study, and severe mental application; and his kindness frequently induces him to anticipate the difficulties in the way of his scholars, and remove them. But by so doing, though prompted solely by kindness to the scholar, he does him a great injury, he deprives him of all the benefit, which he would have derived from that hard study and mental exertion; and he deprives him of the satisfaction arising from self-dependence; — from a consciousness of being able of himself to encounter and overcome difficulties. Our intel- lectual faculties gain not only skill, but strength from exer- tion. By overcoming one difficulty we acquire courage and ability to overcome succeeding difficulties, though each in itself grows more and more formidable. While on the con- trary by removing, or helping the scholar over, every ob- stacle in his way, he becomes more and more afraid of en- countering them, grows up with very little self-reliance, and never enjoys, what Burns calls

"The glorious privilege of being independent."

It is true we need instructors, and the best instructors, to teach our scholars what and how to learn; to correct their errors, to direct their studies, and to teach them this im- portant truth, that it is study, rather than instruction, which can make them either learned or useful.

The importance of long continued, persevering effort can- not be too forcibly urged upon the attention of scholars. They should be taught not to be discouraged and apply for assistance on the failure of their first effort; but should be reminded of the old fable of the waggoner and Hercules. They should also be referred to the historical narrative of the brave Scottish General Bruce and the spider. It is briefly

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this according to my recollection. Robert Bruce, while striv- ing to free his country from English domination, was again and again defeated; till on the sixth engagement his defeat was so decisive, that the remains of his army fled in utter confusion, and he himself sought refuge in a lonely cavern. While there remaining in utter despair, his attention was directed to a spider striving to extend her thread from one point in the wall to another. She failed in her attempt, and fell to the ground. She renewed her eff'orts again and again, each time falling as at first, till on the sixth attempt she was so bruised and stunned by the fall, that she appeared utterly unable again to climb the wall. She lay In a stupor for some time, but again rallied, climbed the wall and made a seventh efl^ort, which was perfectly successful. Bruce compared the spider's repeated defeats with his own; "And shall I," said he to himself, "have less perseverance than this insect?" He left the cavern, rallied his scattered forces and raised new recruits, met the English army for the seventh time, defeated and cut them to pieces and established his coun- try's independence.

I will venture to relate another narrative of facts which fell under my own observation, further to Illustrate the benefits of persevering exertion. During my collegiate course the Professor of mathematics proposed to his class a question which he requested them to try to solve by the next day's recitation; at the same time telling them It was very diflicult, and that he had never yet known a scholar answer it without assistance. The class were considerably excited with the hope of victory over all their predecessors, and as soon as possible attacked the dlflficult question. After the lapse of two or three hours many of the class were seen sneaking across the halls to the doors of the most distinguished mathematicians of the two higher classes for assistance. Two of the class, however, of respectable, but not eminent rank in the class, seated themselves at their table, deter- mined to answer the difficult question without assistance. They studied without cessation from dinner till supper, and from supper till late bedtime, when one of the two gave up that he could not do It and retired to sleep. The other con- tinued his Investigations most intensely till near the break of day, when he aroused his sleeping companion with the

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Archimedean exclamation, "Eureka! Eureka," "I have dis- covered, I have done it." At the mathematical recitation, the next day, every scholar in the class confessed his in- ability to answer the question, except the one who had de- voted the whole night to his study. When he was called, he promptly produced the whole solution of the question with the demonstration of every step in the process, drawn so plain, that he who runs might read. It was received with a shout of approbation from the class and even from the Pro- fessor. And at that moment that scholar appeared not only to himself but to the class to have had at least half a cubit added to his stature. He was very soon unanimously de- clared the first mathematician in college; and though but a Sophomore, the Juniors and Seniors were not ashamed to apply to him for assistance in their mathematical difficulties. This young man was indebted for his success, not to any su- periority of intellectual powers, but solely to his unflinching perseverance. He had the self-control necessary to direct all his energies to the investigation of the question proposed; and when all his competitors yielded to discouragement and despair, he alone had the firmness to persevere till the object was attained. And his success on this occasion formed a new era in his life. It inspired him with new courage; he found that resolute perseverance would overcome all obstacles, or, in scripture language, that "all things are possible to him that believeth."

Nor is this steadfastness of purpose, which we call per- severance, necessary alone in the pursuit of science and literature. It is perhaps equally necessary in every pursuit of life. Neither the farmer, the mechanic, the merchant, nor the statesman can succeed without it; and it should be in- culcated not only in our colleges and academies, but in our common and primary schools, and even in our nurseries, Mark the difference between the tottling infant who, when he makes a misstep and falls, is immediately helped up, pitied, and caressed; and another who under like circum- stances, is taught to make light of it, and turn it off with a jest, or the infantile expression of bravery, "up again and take another." Observe also the man in whatever walks of life, who on the first rebufl" of fortune gives up, and asks the pity and assistance of his friends, and you will soon find him

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without self-reliance, without self-respect or the respect of others, without property and without energy, and emphati- cally a poor creature.

I urge this subject upon your attention, my young friends, not only for your own sakes, but also for the benefit of the hundreds, and thousands, who will shortly be under your instruction, and the influence of your examples. Probably within a few weeks many of those whom I now address, will be in the desks of our district schools; others will return to the domestic circle, and the ordinary vocations of life. But wherever you may be situated, strive to form and promote, by your example as well as precept, in your scholars, in your younger brothers and sisters, and all whom you can influence, habits of courage to encounter diflliculties, and indomitable perseverance in overcoming them; and let all see that you are yourselves influenced by the sacred injunction, "What soever thy hand findeth to do do it with thy might J*

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NOVEMBER I, I 849

MORAL EDUCATION.

LECTURE BY WILLIAM NUTTING, M.A., RANDOLPH ACADEMY NOVEMBER I, 1 849

ON a former occasion education was defined to mean "the cultivation of all the faculties, which our Creator has given us in such a manner as to render them most useful to ourselves and others." But as we have faculties of three different kinds, so education is properly divided into physical, intellectual, and moral. The proper education of our physical powers alone we have seen will make us or- dinarily healthy, strong, and active. But without intellec- tual education, or the cultivation of our minds, we should be but perfect animals, but little above the beasts that perish. In a subsequent lecture we have had under consideration in- tellectual education, and endeavored to show how our minds may be trained to strength and vigor; how we may be en- abled to think closely, to investigate critically and patiently and to judge correctly. But as the cultivation of our physical faculties alone would make us but perfect animals, so the most perfect physical and intellectual education, while the morals are uncultivated and depraved, will but make us more powerful savages. Physical and intellectual culture increase our power to do good or evil; but whether this in- creased power shall be directed to good, or to evil — whether we shall become the benefactors of mankind, and be loved, respected and honored in this world, or whether we shall become the pests and dread of community, depends en- tirely upon moral education,

Mrs. Seymour has very beautifully, as well as forcibly, expressed the effect of education upon the human character, in very few words. She says, "The sculptor may form from the block of marble before him either an angel, or a devil; so the soul may be made either a seraph's home, or a demon's haunt; and do you not know, parent, teacher, that it is your hand that fashions the abode, and beckons thither the visitant?" But I would add, it is the moral education alone which determines whether our souls shall be the receptacle of the seraph or of a demon. If a person has been trainee to the love and practice of all the moral virtues, he will be loved and respected by all good beings, however small his physical and intellectual powers may be; his soul will be the home

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not of a seraph only, but of the holy spirit; while on the con- trary, however perfect a man's physical and intellectual powers may be, yet if he has been trained or suffered to dis- regard moral principle, and follow the dictates of his own passions and appetites, though his superior powers may cause him to be feared, he never can be loved; his soul is filled with hatred and malice, and not only will be, hut is a "demon's haunt." How important then is correct moral education.

In my introductory lecture it was asserted that our Creator had given the faculty of deciding between moral right and wrong, as we decide upon natural objects, such as figures, colors, sounds, etc., by our senses.

This power of distinguishing the moral character of ac- tions intuitively, or without any process of reasoning is called, by some, the moral sense; and as it uniformly ap- proves, what it decides to be morally right, and condemns moral wrong, it is called conscience. But by whatever name it is called, we have such a faculty; and like our physical and intellectual faculties it is capable of improvement by constant exercise, or of becoming inert and almost entirely useless by neglect, and by constantly disregarding its admonitions. And how grateful should we be to the author of our being, that He has given us not only sight, hearing, and our other senses to guard us against the approach of natural evils, but that He has also given us this moral sense to guard against moral evils; and we should cultivate this faculty with as much greater care than we do our physical and intellectual faculties, as moral evil, or sin, is more to be dreaded than all natural evils.

The first step towards a correct moral education should be, deeply to impress upon the mind of the child, or pupil, the nature of moral obligations. They should be taught, as soon as they are capable of receiving moral instruction, some- thing of the character of God; that He is the great and good being, who made all things; that He made us and sustains us in life; that He has made us capable of enjoying happi- ness, and surrounded us with objects calculated to promote our happiness; that He has given us a law, called the moral law, calculated to ensure to us the greatest degree of happi- ness which we are capable of enjoying both in this life and

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through eternity. They should also be taught the penalty^ which God has annexed to the breach of His law, or the punishment, which He will inflict on those who disregard it. We should also show them that God is everywhere, and al- ways present; that He sees and knows all we do, or say, or think; that if we indulge wicked passions or desires. He knows, and that for every secret thing, as well as for every idle word He will bring us into judgment.

I should have mentioned, before this, one indispensable part of education, which is obedience^ or submission to those who are placed over us. Whether this pertains exclusively to moral education, or not, I will not now take the time to decide. It is certainly of high moral obligation, though it must be taught to the child, to be effectively taught, before he is old enough to be capable of moral action. It is so intimately connected with all the branches of education, that neither physical, intellectual nor moral education, can be profitably pursued without it. Every child must be taught implicit obedience to all commands or requisitions emanating from competent authority, whether from parents, teachers, guardians, or the civil government. And this must always be taught, in the first instance, by physical force. As soon as the child is old enough to understand what you require of him, and resists, which will commonly happen during the first year, the parent should convince the child by actual experiment, that he has sufficient strength to enforce obedi- ence. Let him in a calm, dispassionate, but determined man- ner, take firm hold of the child and force him into the posi- tion which he required him to take, and hold him there till he ceases struggling and becomes tranquil; this will ordinarily take but a few minutes. The child will have learned by that one lesson, that resistance is vain, and will never again try it with any considerable degree of obstinacy. Let the parent govern his own passions, always enforce obedience with mildness but with inflexible firmness, and he will seldom need to have recourse to the rod or any other species of corporal chastisements. As the child advances in age and under- standing, explain to him the propriety of your requisitions and the necessity of obedience; teach him the moral obliga- tions which rest upon him, and the rewards promised to filial obedience, teach him to repeat the fifth commandment,

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and the various texts of scripture which command obedience and submission to parents and others who are set over us.

When a child has once been thoroughly taught to honor and obey his parents, he will cheerfully render proper re- spect and obedience to his teachers and all under whose care he may be placed; and he is prepared to properly receive and regard instruction in all the branches of education. He is then, and not till then, prepared to enter upon moral education.

I have introduced this subject in this lecture on moral education, without inquiring whether this is its most ap- propriate place, because I had omitted it in former lectures, because it is exceedingly important, and because it has been for some years past lamentably disregarded. Whoever has been an attentive observer of passing events for fifty or sixty years past cannot fail to have observed, that family discipline has been exceedingly relaxed during that time. Children do not treat their parents, their teachers and other superiors with that deference and respect, which they for- merly did. They are allowed to consider themselves "hale fellows well met," with all with whom they may come in contact, however much their superiors, in age, in under- standing, or in rank and station in society. If a question is asked them by a parent, a stranger, or a gentleman of ofiicial dignity, instead of the respectful answer which would have been formerly given, they answer with the gruff mono- syllable yeSy or no^ which even thirty years ago would have banished them from all society making the least claim to good breeding, or even civility. This is but a small thing in itself, but the smallest and lightest substances show most accurately which way the wind blows. It may be said this is now the fashion. True it is the fashion in many families, in many schools, and communities; but in what did that fashion originate, and what are its tendencies? It originated in that laxness of family and school discipline, which tends directly to the overthrow of all government not only in families, but in schools, in States and nations. Whenever children are suffered to treat their parents with disrespect, and disobey their commands, those children will be dis- orderly and unruly scholars; they will most need correction, but their parents will be first to take oflfence if their children

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receive proper correction; and if they cannot prevail to turn out the instructor, will take their children from school. And it needs not the spirit of prophecy to foretell that those children will become disorderly citizens, will disobey the laws of the land, and very probably end their temporal career in prison or on the gallows. I can never see children manifest a spirit of insubordination and disobedience to their parents without anticipating that they will soon exhibit all those hateful traits of character which St. Paul has connected with it, when describing a most depraved community, in the first chapter of the Romans he says, "disobedient to par- ents, (heady, highminded), without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful." Almost all our social vices may be traced to laxness of family discipline. It remains still true as in the days of Solomon, that "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it;" "but a child left to himself" that is without parental restraint, "bringeth his mother to shame." I have mentioned a laxness of family discipline as a pre- vailing evil in these days; but I am happy that there are some honorable exceptions; families in which children have been taught to obey their parents; where the parents have uni- formly governed with kindness, though with strictness; always seeing that their commands are reasonable, and en- deavoring to let the child see that they are moved by par- ental love both in issuing the command and in enforcing obedience; never suffering the slightest disobedience to go unnoticed, though never reproving or punishing in anger or with severity; for in families as in States it is not the severity, but the certainty of punishment, which prevents transgression. Parents who so govern their families will always be loved and honored by their children and de- scendants to the latest generation. I have in my mind a family which has been so trained, in which the aged parents, their children, and grandchildren of mature age, all reside in the same house, eat at the same table, and constitute but one family. The most perfect harmony and affection prevail through the whole. They feel a perfect unity of in- terest. No personal or private inclinations or wishes are suf- fered to interfere with the common good. The aged patriarch when seeing his grandchildren, can say to his son, as the

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patriarch Jacob said to his son Joseph when presenting his two sons: "These thy two sons are mine; as Reuben and Simeon, so Manasseh and Ephraim shall be mine." Such families will be esteemed and loved; and whatever their talents or station in life may be, they will be respected.

But to return from this, which you may consider a di- gression, to the subject proposed for this lecture, moral education,

God has given us, as I have before observed, a moral sense, capable, if properly heeded, of pointing out to us what is right and what is wrong, and which will infallibly reprove us when we have done wrong and approve when we have done right. But this, when first given to us, is like our physical and intellectual faculties, but the germ of what it is in- tended to become. Like our other faculties it requires edu- cation. But how are our moral faculties to be educated that they may be most useful to ourselves and others ? I answer, like our physical and intellectual faculties, by constant and proper exercise and use. We have seen that if we do not exercise the arm it will never become strong and vigorous; and if we do not exercise our mental faculties, each and all of them, those which are neglected become inactive and al- most entirely useless. So our moral sense, or power of dis- criminating between right and wrong, by neglect and long disuse becomes almost entirely dormant and useless.

The objects to be constantly aimed at in moral education are two.

1st. So to train our moral sense that its power of dis- criminating between moral right and wrong may be so acute that it shall instantly decide the moral character of every action, and decide it with infallible accuracy; and

2d. To render its reproofs of moral wrong so pungent that we dare not disobey its dictates.

The attainment of the first of these objects seems closely allied to intellectual education. We must be able in some measure to trace the relation between cause and eff'ect; to see the remote, as well as the immediate, consequences of an action; and as the will of God is the ground of all moral obligation, our moral sense should be enlightened, to know what the will of God is in all circumstances in which we may be called to act. To us, who enjoy the light of revelation,

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this IS exceedingly easy. God has made known His will to us so plain, that "he who runs may read." He has given us His law for the regulation of our moral conduct, which, as we have been taught in our infancy, "is summarily compre- hended in the ten commandments." And again, to bring the whole, our religious and moral duties, into so small a compass that they may be understood by the least culti- vated intellect. He has told us that, the sum of the ten commandments is, to love the Lord our God with all our heart, and with our soul, and with all our strength, and with our mind; and our neighbors as ourselves. And to make our rule of moral duty, or our duties to our fellow creatures (which are commonly called moral duties, in distinction to the duties which we owe more immediately to God, and are called religious duties) still more plain He has given a rule so short and simple that the most unenlightened cannot mistake it, viz.: "As ye would that men should do to you," (that is in exchange of conditions) "do ye also to them like- wise." So that in any possible case of our conduct toward others our moral sense has only to decide what we should wish others to do, if in our place, and that decides our duty.

And to those who do not enjoy the light of revelation God has given this moral sense; and He has manifested in His works, His character and His will sufficiently to enable this moral sense to decide their duty under all circumstances. As Paul says, "These having not the law are a law unto themselves, their conscience also bearing witness, and accus- ing or else excusing one another." Thus all, whether in heathen or Christian lands, have been furnished with suf- ficient means for knowing their duty, and are without excuse if they neglect to improve and cultivate them.

To render our moral sense acute in distinguishing between moral right and wrong it must be constantly exercised. The physician is more acute in distinguishing between dis- eases, and the merchant, and tailor in deciding upon the quality of cloths, than other men; and why.^ Because their discriminating powers have been more constantly exercised on those subjects. So the person who constantly exercises his moral sense in deciding upon every contemplated ac- tion, whose moral character has not been already decided, will find his discriminating powers exceedingly improved.

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WILLIAM NUTTING, M.A.

His perceptions of moral right and wrong will be intuitive and infallible.

But we may know what is right, but do what is wrong; or in the words of the poet, may be compelled to say

" I know the right, and I approve it too, I know the wrong, and yet the wrong pursue."

To save this most dreadful condition of voluntarily and deliberately doing what we know to be wrong, we must at- tend to what I have called the second object to be aimed at in moral education, viz.: "to render the reproofs of con- science so pungent and severe that we dare not disobey its dictates."

To attain this we need only to give heed to its admoni- tions. The reproofs of conscience are sufficiently severe to cause any one to writhe under them, who has not by slow and imperceptible degrees become hardened in guilt. When the child is first made sensible that he has done wrong, he feels very keenly the reproofs of conscience, he is grieved and weeps. If he is kindly but gravely admonished by the par- ents, and properly instructed, he will strive to avoid the re- currence of a similar scene; he will guard against tempta- tion. His conscience will remain tender, and its reproofs so pungent that he would never again willingly incur them. His conscience will continue to be his kind but vigilant and faithful monitor so long as he continues to give heed to its admonitions.

But on the contrary if when a child first feels the reproofs of conscience for a fault committed, his parents or misguided and misguiding friends strive to divert his mind from his remorse; tell him "never mind it," or encourage him to a repetition of the immoral act, that child's conscience will become less and less sensitive, and its reproofs not only less frequent but less severe, until the unhappy transgressor sins without restraint and without remorse. We have seen in- stances where persons have disregarded the reproofs of con- science in what might be called small immoralities, if any sin can with propriety be called small, and proceeded from step to step till they could commit the most flagrant sins without compunction, the very thought of which in the com-

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MORAL EDUCATION

mencement of their career would have caused them to shud- der. They had resisted the reproofs of conscience, and those reproofs have become less and less pungent, till they have almost if not entirely ceased. Their consciences have become, in scripture phraseology, "Seared as with an hot iron," and have ceased to reprove them.

But let not the hardened transgressor flatter himself, though conscience at present is dormant, that she will give him no farther trouble. She is not dead, nor will she always sleep. The time will come, though perhaps not till he is stretched on his dying bed, when she will resume her proper functions; will set all his sins in order, before him, and her reproofs will be like the bite of a scorpion and unless he heeds her admonitions will in the future world become in his bosom "the worm which never dies."

Of all the branches of education, it will be readily ad- mitted that moral education is infinitely the most impor- tant. For though neither of them should be neglected, yet it is far better to neglect both physical and intellectual than moral education. For however imperfect and infirm our physical system may be, and however uncultivated our intellectual faculties, if we have been taught to " keep a conscience void of offence towards God and towards man," we shall have peace within; that peace of which all temporal sufferings cannot deprive us, and we shall be happy in the prospect of a glorious immortality. We have probably most of us seen instances of this kind; and on the other hand we have seen men of firm health and strength, and highly cultivated intellects, but whose morals were depraved; and we have found them void of peace either inward, or outward; at variance with others, at variance with themselves, and at variance with their Maker; for the God of truth has said "There is no peace to the wicked." Let parents then, and all who have the instruction of children and youth, make moral education their principal concern. The other branches of education should by no means be neglected; but children and pupils should be taught to draw moral instruction from every lesson, and from every event of life. Their moral sense should be constantly appealed to, and their moral percep- tions, or their perceptions of right and wrong, rendered clear and distinct. They should be taught on all occasions to

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WILLIAM NUTTING, M.A.

render implicit obedience to the dictates of conscience. In the language of the Scotch poet,

"Its slightest touches, instant pause — Debar a' side pretences, An' resolutely keep its laws Unheeding consequences."

They should be taught in sincerity to say the prayer of the great English poet,

"What conscience warns me not to do Or whispers, must be done, This teach me more than heaven t' pursue, That more than hell, to shun."

They must be taught to obey even the "whispers" of conscience; to shrink at even "its slightest touches."

An old English proverb says, "Take care of the pence, and the pounds will take care of themselves." This is equally applicable to moral education as to domestic economy. Children should be guarded against what they would call small violations of the moral law. No person ever became grossly wicked at once. He begins by small and almost imperceptible deviations from the straight line of moral rectitude; but as he proceeds in the downward course, the angle of deviation becomes greater and greater, till he de- scends perpendicularly Into the pit. The intemperate man began by taking but a social glass, for which his conscience gave him a slight reproof. He disregarded that, and went on slowly at first, adding sin to sin with increasing velocity, till he is precipitated Into the drunkard's grave. Many a child has begun with small acts of disobedience to his parents, and in time advanced to the most daring violation of all laws, human and divine. So the profane person, the thief and the murderer, have advanced from small beginnings, constantly stiffling the voice of conscience, to their present state of sin and infamy.

Well did the ancient philosopher and moralist say to his pupils ^^ohster principiis;^^ resist the first deviations from the most strict moral rectitude. This should be constantly incul-

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cated. '^Facilis descensus AvernV^ The downward road to ruin is rapid.

When a child or youth has taken the first step in it, it is comparatively easy to reclaim him and set him again in the right way; but suffer him to proceed unchecked, and he will soon be irreclaimable. When a stone begins to move down an inclined plane, a child may stop it; but let it proceed and its impetus increases with every revolution till a giant's strength will not be able to check it.

The warning voice of parents and instructors will do much to prevent children and youths from going astray and to re- claim them from their errors, if seasonably, kindly and judiciously applied. Show them the odiousness, as well as sin- fulness, of vice of every description. Show them that every deviation from the strict rule of moral rectitude lowers them in the estimation of all beings whose esteem is worth seeking. Teach the strictness of the moral law; that there are no in- different actions, but every action, even the most trifling, in itself considered, has a positive moral character, either goody or had. Teach them to estimate the remote, as well as the immediate consequences of an action, in order to determine whether it is morally right or wrong. Teach them that the moral law requires us so to act as that every action shall be calculated to produce the greatest degree of happiness to ourselves and others. If therefore a certain contemplated act would add a small degree to our own happiness, but would diminish the happiness of others, or of any other person in a greater degree, we are bound to refrain from it. So if the immediate consequences of our action would be good but its remote consequences would be in a greater degree evil, we are bound to refrain from it. Thus the taking a glass of spirits might under certain circumstances relieve us from some temporary indisposition; yet if it would tend remotely to lead us to habits of intemperance, or if our example would encourage the use of ardent spirits by others, we are bound to forego the gratification or benefit to ourselves, to save the fatal effects of our example upon others. An action may be morally right and a positive good in itself, which would be productive of great evil in its consequences; and if the evil arising from its consequences would over-balance its imme- diate good, it should be avoided. For instance, a benevolent

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WILLIAM NUTTING, M.A.

Northern man removes into a slave State; the slave of a cruel master is for sale. The Northern man is moved solely by benevolent motives to purchase the slave, that he may make him more happy, but he ought before he makes the purchase to consider whether his benevolent act will not on the whole result in an injury to the cause of emancipa- tion, through his example in favor of slavery, more than sufficient to counterbalance the good conferred on the par- ticular slave by the purchase. And so of a great portion of our actions, their moral character cannot be determined without taking into the account their remote consequences.

Children and youth should be solemnly impressed with a sense of their moral accountability, and of that Being to whom they are accountable. Above all they should be taught the omnipresence of that Being. They should be taught to feel constantly what Hagar said, who, when fleeing from her mistress, was reproved by a voice from heaven, "Thou, God, seest me." Nothing can so powerfully restrain us from mis- conduct, as the presence of a superior who has been con- stantly kind to us, and on whom we are absolutely dependent, and whom therefore we love and fear. Would we, volun- tarily, or could we be persuaded, in the presence of such a per- son, to do that which we knew would displease him? How then could we dare, if we realized that the great Being who confers upon us all our blessings, and in whose hand are our destinies for time and eternity, was constantly present and seeing all that we do, how should we dare to do the most trifling act which would be offensive to Him. Who could deliberately, or even thoughtlessly, sin, or violate the moral law, if at the moment he was impressed with the truth, "Thou, God, seest me?" I believe I may safely answer, not one.

Let me relate an incident in real life confirmative of this belief. You may all have read it, but it still is worth repeat- ing. It is this:

The little son of a wicked father went to the Sabbath School, and was there taught something of the character of God, and particularly His omnipresence; that He sees every- thing which we do whether alone or in company, in darkness or in light. One dark evening the wicked father called the little son to go with him to pick a basket of corn in a neigh-

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MORAL EDUCATION

bor's field. The father began to pick the corn, but the son hesitated and asked, "Father, did Mr. Smith tell you that you might pick corn in his field .^" "No, but he will never know it." "Then it is stealing, is it not, father, and we shall be punished.?" "Pshaw! Nobody sees us; make haste and pick the corn." "But then somebody sees us, father; God is looking right at us, and He has said. Thou shah not steal.^^ The father was struck; and after trembling a few moments in silence, he emptied the corn from his basket, and said, "Come, we'll go home and let the corn alone." He was con- victed of his sin and prevented from committing it by this simple solemn appeal; repented and became a good man. And would not any person be stopped in the commission of a contemplated sin by reflecting that the great God, whose command he was violating, was "Looking right at him?"

I will take the liberty to relate another incident of which I was informed last year by a scholar of this school. My in- formation may have been incorrect; but it was this. The bell rope at that time passed down into the passageway, and as the school would be interrupted by irregular ringing, the Preceptor had strictly forbidden any person but the bell- man to ring it. One day four or five lads from 12 to 15 years old were in the passageway, and as no one was in sight, wished to make a little fun by ringing the bell contrary to orders. They determined all of them together to pull the rope, and then, if examined, each to say, he did not do it. They did so, and when they were called in and questioned by the Preceptor, each answered, "I did not do it;" till the last was called upon, and had the moral courage and in- tegrity, and the manhood, to tell the truth and confess his faults. Now would these youths have committed either of these violations of the moral law, if they had been aware that "God was looking right at them.?" They dare not violate the Preceptor's command in his presence and would they have dared violate two commandments of that Being who is in- finitely above the Preceptor, and that right before His face ?

I may have been misinformed relative to the facts I have narrated; but let it be a supposed case, and it answers my present purpose just as well. I wish to direct your attention to it as a supposed case. These supposed lads probably had no ill will against the Preceptor but merely wished to have a

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WILLIAM NUTTING, M.A.

little sport; but did they not violate the moral law In pulling the bell rope? They certainly did; they certainly did; they disobeyed the command of the Preceptor whom it was their duty to obey. And in their answers to the Preceptor's in- quiries were they not guilty of violating God's command to *' Speak the truth every one to his neighbor" for the word lying includes "all intentional deception." Suppose the Pre- ceptor should say to me "I understand that some one of my scholars last night broke into the library and stole from it several valuable books; do you know who it was?" I should answer, "I do sir." He should say, "Who was it?" Suppose I did it myself, but instead of telling the truth I should point my finger at a particular scholar and make the Preceptor believe that scholar was the culprit; what sin should I by so doing have committed? I should have been guilty of lying, and of bearing false witness against my neighbor; and this without speaking a word.

But let me turn your attention again to the young man who told the truth among the supposed bell ringers, and ask your opinion; did he not, or would he not, if such a case should again happen, rise a hundred per cent in your estima- tion above those who were guilty of equivocation to conceal their fault? and did he noX. feel a thousand per cent better than they did? Aside from the sin of it, there is a meanness in resorting to falsehood to conceal a fault to which no honorable mind can ever descend. Let me entreat you never to be guilty of it. If you should ever be guilty of a fault, as we all are liable to, be noble enough to walk up ingenuously and confess it, without waiting to be questioned, and if possible, before you are suspected. This is the only way in which you can regain, or rise in, the estimation of others, and the only way to enjoy inward peace.

The subject of education, and especially of moral educa- tion, is one in which I feel a very deep interest. I wished to say much more to you upon the subject; but neither my time, nor the proper limits of such an address will now permit, — I intended to have pointed out to you the inseparable con- nection which exists between true morality and religion; that without the latter, the former has no safe ground on which to rest. And I intended also to have pointed out, and guarded you against, some of the more prevalent immorali- ties to which you will be liable; but I must forbear.

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Of all the great improvements of the present age none is so important to present or future generations as improve- ment in morals and though I myself have almost reached my three score years and ten and must soon leave this stage of action, yet I have children and grandchildren who must share with you "in weal or woe." I therefore feel that I have a personal interest in your welfare. I realize that you and the generation growing up with you, will soon possess all which we now "fondly call our own." That all our property, all our great improvements, our factories, our railroads, steam- boats and telegraphs; all our charitable institutions, and benevolent societies, and all our schools and colleges, will be under your control, in a very short time. That from you and those of your age will soon be elected all our officers of government, our legislators, our judges, our governors, and presidents; and in short that you, and your contemporaries, will in twenty or thirty years, humanly speaking, control the destinies of the world. Can I then avoid anxiety that you should be qualified for these important stations ? My young friends, my heart's desire is, that you may be so educated that you may "grow in stature and in wisdom, and in favor with God and man." These are the objects of the three branches of education on which I have been addressing you.

[S3]

EXPERIENCES AND OBSERVATIONS OF AN

AMERICAN MEDICAL MISSIONARY IN ASIATIC

TURKEY— 1876

BT DAVID H. NUTTING, M.D.

EXPERIENCES AND OBSERVATIONS OF AN AMERICAN MEDICAL MISSIONARY IN ASIATIC

TURKEY.

BY DAVID H. NUTTING, M.D.

FAR away in the Eastern Hemisphere, midway between the barbarism of Asia, and the civilization of Europe, there is a land, called by its inhabitants the "Osmanli Toprak." It is a land of surpassing interest to Biblical schol- ars, because within its boundaries was the Garden of Eden, the cradle of the human race; Mount Ararat, upon which the Ark rested after the flood; the great cities of Nineveh and Babylon, Damascus and Antioch, Palmyra, Baalbek and Jerusalem; because it was the birth-place of the patriarchs, prophets, apostles, and, above all, of our Lord and Saviour, and the land in which He "went about doing good," and manifesting unto the world, by His life and death, the char- acter and disposition of the Father.

It is a land of great interest to the student of history, be- cause subdued and governed for centuries by some of the most famous of Grecian monarchs and Roman emperors; afterwards conquered by the sword of Mahomet, retaken, in part, by the Crusaders, but falling at last into the hands of the victorious Saracens.

It is a land, also, of wonderful interest to the reader of romance. Who, that has read the "Arabian Nights' Entertainments" in his youth, does not seize with avidity such books as "The Land of the Saracens," by Bayard Taylor, "The Howaji in Syria," by George W. Curtis, "Three Years in the East," by Robinson, or "The Tent and the Harem," by Mrs, Paine?

It is a land of great interest to all Europe, in a political point of view; for "the Eastern question," like the ever varying though beautiful colors, and symmetrical forms, of the kaleidoscope, has been continually coming up in some new phase, in the diplomatic circles of Great Britain and the continent.

It is a land of still greater interest to the Christian philan- thropist, wi^, as he looks upon its thirty-six millions of inhabitants, composed of eleven different races, desires to learn more of their condition, that he may devise means for their farther civilizatibn and enlightenment.

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DAVID H. NUTTING, M.D.

Moreover it is a land concerning which most Americans know but little. Usually American travellers in the East do no more than to visit some of the seaport towns. Some few have made the tour of Egypt and Syria, going far enough inland to visit Jerusalem, Damascus, and Cairo, Even that indefatigable traveller, Bayard Taylor, having started for Nineveh, proceeded only to Aleppo, about a hundred miles from the seashore, and thence, I know not why, began to retrace his steps. During my sojourn of twenty years in the interior of Asiatic Turkey, I saw only seven American travel- lers, and only one of these (Mr. Myers, author of "Re- mains of Lost Empires") has published any account of his observations.

May I not, then, indulge the hope that the simple state- ment of a few facts, which have come to my notice, while employed as a missionary physician, residing chiefly in ancient Assyria, but travelling extensively in Mesopotamia, Armenia, and Koordistan, may not be entirely without interest to such an audience as that before me?

I arrived in Turkey in September, 1854, but did not reach Diarbekir, the city to which I had been designated, until November. It is a large city, containing some 60,000 in- habitants, and is surrounded by a wall, high and massive, built of hewn stone some 1500 years ago by the Roman Emperor, Constantius. It is located on the river Tigris, in ancient Assyria, some 250 miles above Nineveh. It is now the capital of the Pashaluc of Koordistan. Pashas of eyalets^ or provinces, are appointed by the Sultan, receive a salary of 50,000 piasters or $2000 per month, and, with their numerous assistants, attendants, servants, and fine horses, make a great display.

Only about two weeks after my arrival, I was called to the palace to visit the Governor General of the Province, Hamdi Pasha, who was dangerously ill. Having acquired little knowledge of the language and customs of the country, you can imagine with what trepidation I prepared to make my first visit to his excellency.

Without delay, I mounted my horse, and, attended by my interpreter, I accompanied the pasha's private secretary, and treasurer, who came to call me, mounted upon very gay Arab horses, through the narrow streets to the citadel.

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Passing through the high, arched gate-way in the wall of solid masonry which separates the citadel and palace from the city, the guard of soldiers stationed there gave a salute, and we found ourselves in an enclosure of several acres, having a fortified mound on the left, and the palace, with its three courts, on the right. Passing by several shops, occupied chiefly by scribes, and a mosque, we came to the gate of the outer court of the palace. As we rode through we were again saluted by the guard, and a pleasant court-yard opened before us, about 300 feet square. Near the entrance were the offices of the Pasha's assistants (the Kaiher Bey, the Divan Efi"endi, the Seraf, and the Cavass-bashu, or chief of police). On the left side of the court were the stables for the Pasha's horses, and the prison; on the right, rooms for his servants, and the kitchen. While in front, opposite the entrance, were the rooms where the Pasha was accustomed to receive calls, and attend to business; and also a hamam or bath.

Crossing the court, we rode under the old, wide-spreading sycamore tree, standing near a large fountain, where we were met by servants who held our horses, while we dismounting were conducted through the spacious hall of the palace, on either side of which stood a row of servants and attendants, who very respectfully saluted us with the Turkish Umana^ which corresponds to our bow.

We entered the ante-room, exchanged our boots for slip- pers, and then the heavy curtain suspended over the door- way was drawn aside, and we entered the Pasha's divan- hani, or reception room. It was a large, lofty room, oblong in form, projecting from the main building into the court, and having windows on three sides. The walls and ceiling were painted in arabesque. The furniture of the room con- sisted of a divan, or wide sofa, extending across the end of the room opposite the entrance, and nearly down on either side, with large cushions or pillows leaning against the wall and rising to the sills of the windows. The seat and the cushions were covered with red broadcloth, and the windows cur- tained with red damask. I have been thus particular in describing this room, because its form and arrangement is the one most commonly seen in the best houses of Turkey.

As we entered we saw at the farther end of the room, in the seat of honor, which is the right-hand corner, the Pasha's

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DAVID H. NUTTING, M.D.

Kaiher Bey, or vice-gerent. The divan effendi introduced us to him, he arose, we approached, and made a low bow, which he returned, and directed us to be seated on his right, at a little distance. Having seated ourselves upon the divan, the Kaiher Bey saluted us each in turn, according to custom, and we returned the salaam. He then ordered coffee to be brought; and, after conversing pleasantly a few moments, during which time word had been sent into the harem, where the Pasha was, that the American Doctor had come and would visit his excellency, he conducted us to the door of the inner court, upon which he knocked. Soon a black eunuch came, and, without opening the door, inquired who was there. Upon learning, he turned and called out to the in- mates Kimse olmasun — "Let there be no one exposed to view," and soon having opened the door, we entered. This court was somewhat smaller than the other, having a garden full of fruit trees and flowers on the left, and the apartments of the harem on the right, built of alternate layers of light and dark colored stone, lime and basaltic in Saracenic style, two stories in height. Passing a fountain issuing from the mouth of a marble lion, and falling into a large, square tank of hewn stone, we ascended the stairway, passed through the large livan, or veranda, and were conducted into the room where the Pasha was. It was a pleasant room, having win- dows looking out upon the Tigris, and the beautiful gardens in the valley through which it flows. The Pasha was lying upon a double mattress spread upon the Persian carpet, with pillows and comforter covered with Damascus silk. I was invited to sit near him upon the carpet. I had pre- viously learned that the native doctors had all declared his case hopeless. He had been attended for several days by an Armenian doctor. Hakim Stipan, who evidently had mistaken the nature of his disease. I found him in an insensible and very dangerous condition, but told his friends, and attend- ants, that I hoped he would recover, if they faithfully gave him the medicines I prescribed, and followed all my direc- tions. Upon my second visit I found that the attendants had continued to give the medicine prescribed by the Ar- menian doctor. I told them that this would not do. A Der- vish, also, had been called in, and, according to the custom of this religious order of physicians, he had written two sen-

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tences selected from the Koran, placed them in a bowl of water, from which the Pasha was to drink from time to time. Of course, I did not object to this, as I had no appre- hension that the homeopathic doses of the sulphate of iron, nut-galls, and gum arable, contained in the ink, would prove deleterious. For several days I continued to make my visits morning and evening, without seeing any good results from my prescriptions. It at last occurred to me that, perhaps, the Pasha, not having the use of his reason, did not really swallow my medicines. Upon strict inquiry of his son and attendants, I learned that he seemed disinclined to take the medicine, and they dared not use any force. I told them I had no hope of his recovery, unless he was compelled to take the medicine. They replied — '"'Biz na yapalum — what can we do.'* We put the medicine into his mouth, but he, dis- liking its taste, spits it out." I replied — "I will show you;" and, taking a dose in a spoon, I seized his highness by the nose, turned the contents of the spoon into his mouth, and, before they could fairly utter their remonstrances, the medi- cine had gone down, while I quietly remarked, "When the Pasha recovers, he will thank me for this."

The next day he was decidedly better, and, continuing to improve, soon recovered his reason. When his son, and attendants, told him how they had despaired of his life, and that they believed I had been the means of his recovery, he seemed exceedingly grateful to me, and at once ordered a very- fine cream-colored horse to be sent to me, as a token of his gratitude. Two or three weeks later, when he had fully re- covered, he sent me a bag, containing 2000 piastres in silver (^80) ; and, as long as he remained the Pasha Fali of Diar- bekir, he continued to show his thankfulness, and apprecia- tion of my services.

One sunny day in April following, he had a tent pitched on the bluff overlooking the river and gardens, just without the city walls, and went out with his numerous attendants to spend the day, enjoying the beautiful scenery and delight- fully fresh and exhilarating air of spring. Returning from a village on the opposite side of the river, where I had been to visit some patients, I chanced to pass not far from the Pasha's tent. As soon as he saw me he sent a cavass and invited me to come and make him a call. I did so, but as I had no in-

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DAVID H. NUTTING, M.D.

terpreter with me, I could only converse a little in broken Turkish. He seemed very glad to see me, and after sherbets and coffee had been served, according to custom, he prepared to return to the Palace. A beautiful horse, gayly caparisoned, had been brought for the Pasha to ride; but instead of mounting him, he told the grooms to lead the horse, while he took my arm, as much to my astonishment as to that of the crowd assembled, and walked arm in arm with me to the palace court, the people on either hand making profoundly respectful salaams, as we passed along. It was a singular, if not ludicrous sight. The Pasha, an extremely corpulent man, clad with a robe of scarlet, lined with ermine — and I, a spare man, dressed in the closely-fitting, plain, black clothes of Frankistanl

Soon after my arrival in Diarbekir, I opened a dispensary, and prescribed for all who came gratuitously. It was soon crowded, often as many as one hundred coming in one day. It was my custom to examine each separately, and give a written prescription; and I found it necessary to tell each newcomer that the paper was not to be swallowed, but to be given to my assistant, who would give the medicine which I had written upon it. I soon found that my patients required extraordinary qualifications on the part of the physician. After I had felt the pulse in one wrist, they would invariably present the other, believing it necessary that the doctor feel the pulse in both. Then they expected that I would immediately be able to tell them everything in regard to their state — not merely the nature of the disease, but also whether they slept well, what they had eaten the day previous, whether they had good digestion, and when they would recover. Nothing so enhances, in their eyes, the value of a doctor as his being able to tell everything after feeling the pulse, without asking any questions.

Many of the native physicians bribe the servants of their patients to give them, privately, information concerning their diet, evacuations, and habits; and then they after- wards impose on them by making them believe that their sole source of information was the state of the pulse.

Frequently patients would hold out their hands for me to feel the pulse, and, when not perceiving any indications of general disorder, I would ask "What is your trouble, or

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/

for what did you come?" — the answer would be — "My sight is failing in one eye," or "I am deaf," or "I have a tumor which I wish you to extirpate," or "I was sick last year, and I wish you to give me some medicine to prevent my being sick this season."

When I had made a prescription, the patient would almost invariably ask — "What will the effect of the medicine be?" Unless a medicine produce some visible eifect, such as vomit- ing, or purging, it is regarded as inert and useless. Among the native physicians tartar emetic, and epsom salts, are held in great repute, and are used in almost every case of disease.

Often persons would come to me, thinking that they fully understood the nature of their own maladies, and request me to give them a dose of some cathartic, emetic, dia- phoretic, or diuretic medicine; but of course I would not comply with the request, unless, after due examination, I concluded it might be useful.

The people have almost no knowledge of anatomy, phy- siology, or hygiene. Often when I inquired of a patient what his trouble was, he would reply — "My heart turns round," by which he meant that he had nausea. Again from another patient I would receive this reply — "My heart aches." But when asked to point to the seat of his pain, he would place his hand upon his stomach. Another would say — "I have been frightened — and I wish you to give me medicine to counteract the evil consequences." When I asked another what his trouble was, he would reply, "Wind," by which he meant rheumatism. The common belief is that most diseases are caused by an excess or deficiency of wind in the various organs, and cavities of the body; thus, head- ache is caused by wind in the head, dyspepsia by wind in the chest, and dropsy by wind in the abdomen. When, examining a dropsical patient, I have told the friends and lookers-on that the swelling was caused by an accumulation of water, they have been very incredulous, until I intro- duced a trochar, and then when they saw quart after quart of water running away, they have been astonished above measure. I once went to an Armenian village and per- formed a surgical operation, and the poor people concluded I must be a saint, and would have worshipped me if I had allowed it. [ ^3 1

DAVID H. NUTTING, M.D.

Mohammedans regard Lochman, an Arabian, who lived in the seventeenth century, as Prince of Physicians in Tur- key, and relate in glowing colors numerous wonderful cures performed by him. Hoffman's Anodyne is called by them "Lochman roohoo."

But there were physicians of much note in Turkey long before. In 640 the Saracens captured Alexandria and intro- duced from thence some knowledge of European science, translating Greek authors. Near the end of the eighth century a medical college was founded in Bagdad, and was fostered by the famed Caliph Haroun al Raschid.

One of the principal means used by the inhabitants gen- erally, for the prevention as well as the cure of disease is the Turkish Bath, or Hamam. Especially in some chronic dis- eases of the skin, in rheumatism, in jaundice, and in dropsy, the bath is considered to have great remedial value. All classes of people make it a rule to go to the bath once a week. Some of the rich Turks have private baths in connection with their houses. But the majority of the people have no conveniences for bathing at home, and therefore these public baths are considered a great blessing. The expense of taking a bath varies from five to twenty-five cents, according to the amount of attention required, so that it is in the power of the poorest of the people to make use of it.

In the city of Diarbekir there are about a dozen very capacious baths, built of hewn stone. The main part of the building is octagonal in shape, and surmounted by a large dome. Each bath is attended, and used, by males in the forenoon, and by females in the afternoon. On Fridays they are all reserved for the exclusive use of Moslems. From my own experience, I can testify that, under certain circumstances, the Turkish bath is a great luxury; especially upon the completion of a long journey by caravan or post.

I had heard much of Turkish Baths, and soon after my arrival in Diarbekir, I found an opportunity to visit the largest bath in the city, called the ''Devi Hamam^'* or camel bath, in company with a few friends.

We were first ushered into the large, square, ante-room, in the center of which a fountain was playing, and around which sat several Turks, smoking their chibooks, and sipping their coffee. As we entered we were met by the hamamjee,

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or bath-men, half naked, who conducted us to divans, or couches, built up of stone, about three feet high, in alcoves, on the sides of the room, upon which mattresses were spread. Here, having undressed, we tied a silken towel or wrapper around our loins, and, on wooden sandals, called cobcobs, provided for the purpose, we proceeded to the main room, which was octagonal in shape, about seventy-five feet in diameter, paved with marble, and dimly lighted by small windows of colored glass in the dome.

The sensation which we experienced when we first entered was oppressive in the extreme. It was heated to a tempera- ture of over one hundred degrees, and filled with an atmos- phere of steam. It seemed as if I was deprived of the power of breathing and I was almost inclined to retreat. We were conducted to alcoves, or recesses, in each of which was a marble basin, into which hot or cold water could be intro- duced at pleasure; and here we were to sit or recline on the heated flag-stones for half an hour or more.

Soon we were relieved of unpleasant sensations by a very copious perspiration; and we amused ourselves by looking at the ghost-like figures of some Turks, on the opposite side of the spacious apartment, undergoing the various operations of rubbing, scrubbing, lathering, shampooing, and shaving.

After a while our turn came. The operator commenced by scrubbing the whole surface of the body with a kind of mitten on his right hand made of goat's hair. The delicate skin, not used to such a process, peeled ofl" in rolls. We were then taken to the other side of the room, which was still hotter, and, having taken seats by one of the marble basins in which the hamamjee, with sweet-scented soap, formed a lather, we were soon covered therewith from head to foot. This was rapidly followed by copious ablutions of hot and then cool water, which left a delicious feeling of cleanliness.

Then the operator brought large, clean, Turkish towels, wrapped one around the head like a turban, another around the waist, and threw the third over the shoulders, and we were conducted to the ante-room, where we laid ourselves down upon the mattresses, were covered with thick com- forters, and remained half an hour to cool off" gradually. In the meantime coffee and sherbets, chibooks and nargellas were served to those who wished. Having dressed, the

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DAVID H. NUTTING, M.D.

hamamjee received his fee, and the attendants their presents, and we took our departure, feeling decidedly refreshed, and having in an unusual degree the ruddy hue of health upon our countenances.

When I went to Diarbekir, I found there about a dozen physicians, all, but one, natives of the region, and that one was a Greek, named Demosthenes, from one of the Ionian islands. His only qualification for the profession was ac- quired by an apprenticeship in an apothecary's shop in Stamboul. He had a tolerable knowledge of medicines, and that was all. His practice was perfectly empirical. He had an exhaustless amount of brass and self-conceit. He was an adept in the art of "humbugging" the people. Knowing that fear was generally regarded as an immediate cause of disease, he filled a large number of small bottles with some colored fluid, and labeled them — " Korkoo ilarge," or medicine for fear — and for a short time sold large quanti- ties of them in that and neighboring cities.

Of the native doctors, the most popular was Hakim Stipan, which being translated is Dr. Stephen. He was an Armenian, whose knowledge of medicine had been acquired while ser- vant of a Frank doctor for about one year, and from a book in his language, on diseases and remedies, published by an Armenian physician in Constantinople, some fifty years ago. The next in rank was another Armenian called "Khar- pootly Hakim," or the Dr. from Kharpoot. He was a large, pompous man, walked with a cane according to Frank cus- tom, and looked very wise. While in Kharpoot, his native city, I learned that he was formerly a tinman; but becoming possessed of a copy of the book before alluded to, he deter- mined to become doctor and so he came to Diarbekir and commenced to practise. The third was called "The Blind Doctor's disciple." While leading the blind doctor, his mas- ter, about on his visits to the sick, he was supposed to have acquired a sufficient knowledge of medicine. The fourth was "Tartar Ogloo," or the son of a Tartar. His opportunities for acquiring a medical education were not, I judge, superior to those of the others. Some sixteen years ago, the govern- ment appointed a commission of doctors, who had been edu- cated in the Sultan's Medical School (which is designed only to qualify physicians and surgeons for the army) to go

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through the land, from city to city, examine the practi- tioners, and give a license to practice to such as might be found qualified. They came to Diarbekir, and while exam- ing this "Tartar Ogloo," they inquired where the heart was located, and he pointed to his stomach. They inquired why the blood in some of the blood-vessels was of a light and in others of a dark red color. He replied — "The light comes from the heart, the dark from the liver." The fifth was Dr. Ginger Ogloo. He qualified himself for practice in a shop called an "Atar tuken," in which spices, native drugs, and medicines are sold. I was once called to see Hadji Mehemet Nain Eff"endi, one of the richest Moslems in the city, and a member of the Pasha's megilis, or council, and found that this Hakim Ginger Ogloo had been prescribing for him. I found he had acute inflammation of the stomach, caused, no doubt, by his excessive use of raki, a spirit made from raisins, about equal to whiskey in strength. How had this doctor treated this case.^ Why, knowing that oil of pepper- mint, ginger, cinnamon, and such like medicines, were good for pain in the stomach, he prescribed them, and day by day the patient was becoming worse. To his great surprise, I ordered him to take ice, in small pieces ad libitum, to abstain entirely from raki, and to use only those articles of food which I directed. He recovered. Dr. Ginger Ogloo, perceiv- ing that ice worked a wonderful cure in this case, thought he would prescribe it for a patient of his who had pneumonia, and the patient died.

Time would fail me if I should proceed to describe the other doctors of Diarbekir. Suffice it to say that they were all worse than these I have mentioned. After I had been there four years. Dr. Bonelli, an Italian from Sicily, came to Diarbekir, as army physician and surgeon. He was edu- cated in Vienna, and was a man of considerable talent, though of little moral worth. His practice was chiefly con- fined to the two regiments of the Turkish army stationed there. He has since become a bigoted Moslem and had his boys circumcised.

I have visited some seventeen other cities in Turkey, stopping in two of them a year, and in six others from one to six months each, and I am convinced that the practitioners of medicine in Diarbekir are a fair sample of the doctors

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DAVID H. NUTTING, M.D.

in all parts of the empire, except Constantinople, and per- haps Smyrna, Aleppo, and Beyroot. The practice of sur- gery and dentistry is confined to the barbers, who are, as you might suppose, equally ignorant.

It seems a great pity that the state of hygiene and medical science and practice should be so low in a country where the inhabitants esteem the medical art so highly, and rank a skilful physician almost as a saint. The total ignorance and incompetence of the native practitioners have not altogether escaped the observation of their countrymen; for it is very noticeable that a foreign physician, especially if English or American, is supposed, by the Turks in general, to be pos- sessed of far superior knowledge, and consequently is greatly sought after. He is at once called ^^ Hakim Bashu,^^ chief doctor; and the appelation '' Hakim^^ is a passport in any part of the country, as I can testify from my own experience in travelling more than 25,000 miles, on horseback, in the interior.

I have uniformly been treated with great respect and con- sideration by all classes of the people, who looked upon me as a public benefactor. During my residence of twenty years, I suppose I prescribed for more than 100,000 patients, of different races and sects, as Turks, Arabs, Koords, Kuzzul bash, Turkomans, Yezidees, Circassians, Armenians, Syr- ians, Chaldeans, and Greeks; and of all ranks from the poor villager, to the serasker, or commander in chief of the Sul- tan's army.

The present commander of the Turkish army at Erzroom, in Eastern Turkey (ancient Armenia), Ishmael Koord Pasha, was once under my care as a patient, and upon his recovery gave me an Arab mare.

It is true that in my travels, I have been three times at- tacked by robbers, but, in each case, through the kind care of Providence, I have been preserved from all harm.

One day, in the summer of 1856, which I spent in the town of Hinee, at the foot of the Taurus Mountains some fifty miles north of Diarbekir, in company with Dr. H. and Mr. W., who were making us a visit of two or three days, I rode to the village of Nerib, about twelve miles distant to per- form the operation of tapping for dropsy. It was a village occupied by outlaws, and rebels against government. It

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was situated in a little valley up among the mountains. Hav- ing successfully completed the operation (of tapping for dropsy) with an instrument extemporized for the occasion (my surgical case being in D.) the patient, as well as his friends and neighbors, expressed great astonishment and gratitude. They insisted upon our eating some freshly baked bread, with a few clusters of delicious grapes, just from their vineyards.

On our return to Hinee, as we were assured there was nothing to be feared in the way, we took no guard. Having proceeded about half way, we came to a narrow pass in the range of hills which separates the plain of Nerib from the plain of Hinee. Here we passed two footmen, armed with guns and swords, who said they were going to Nerib. But soon after we met them, we looked back and saw that they had turned and were running after us. We hurried on as fast as the stony path would permit us to do safely, and these men still ran after us, more than a mile, though they did not gain upon us. Just then, Dr. H. and Mr. W., who were sev- eral rods before me, in turning round the point of a little hill, suddenly discovered several more armed men a few rods before them; and, not liking their appearance, and suspect- ing they might be confederates of our pursuers, they turned out of the path through the fields to escape them. As I did not see them in time, I thought it best to go right on by them, without giving them reason to think I feared they were in- tending to harm me, knowing that Koordish robbers often refrain from attacking those who manifest no fear of them, especially if Franks. So I did; but, as I came within eight rods of them, I heard those behind crying out to them in Koordish; and just after one of the men put his hand upon the handle of his sword, and at the instant I was passing him he drew it and struck at me. As I saw him draw his sword, I suddenly spurred my horse, and he leaped from him in such a way that the point of the sword just passed by my arm. As my horse galloped off, I looked back and saw them hold- ing their guns as if undecided whether to fire at me or not. I hurried on thanking God for the preservation of my life in so imminent danger, and reached home before the others, who had been in the greatest anxiety concerning me. A few days after we were informed that when these men returned

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DAVID H. NUTTING, M.D.

to their village (Nerib) and told their neighbors how they met three Franks, and attempted to rob them, the villagers were greatly enraged, and said — "Let your houses be pulled down, O wicked men! The doctor kindly came over to our village, and gratuitously performed the operation upon our poor neighbor, and shall he be treated thus by you!" And, rushing to the houses of those men, they left not one stone upon another, and drove them from their village in disgrace.

My professional avocations brought me often in contact with the women of Turkey, both among Mohammedans and nominal Christians. The latter I have generally found to be superior in general intelligence, conversation, and demeanor, to the former; and this I attribute to the fact that the Bible has had some^ though but little, influence over them; while the former have been under the influence of the Koran, and been kept secluded generally in the harem. Although I have visited more than a thousand Turkish harems (for In sickness they will admit the doctor), I have found it very difficult, owing to their customs, to form any very satis- factory estimate of the condition and character of the in- mates. However I have acquired general impressions which are probably to some extent just.

In the spring of 1862 (I think) Namlk Pasha, and retinue, arrived in Diarbekir on his way to Constantinople from Bagdad, where he had been ruling for about two years. He was a special favorite of the Sultan, and in consequence the government of the pashaluc of Bagdad, the largest and most important province in the Ottoman Empire, had been given to him. Bagdad, you may remember, was founded about the year 749, upon the division of the Saracenic Empire, and became the seat of government of the Kalifs, of the race of Abbas; and so continued for 500 years. It was here that the hero of the Arabian Tales, Haroun al Raschid, ascended the throne in 786, and elevated the Saracenic character to its highest point in the scale of social elegance. Namlk Pasha enjoyed his reign in that beautiful city very well for a while, but his master, the Sultan, concluded that his presence was needed in Constantinople, as president of the grand mejlis, or supreme council of state, if I recollect aright, and he was recalled.

His journey from Bagdad to Diarbekir, more than five

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hundred miles, with his harem, consisting (I think) of his two wives and their children, several female slaves, both black and white, several maid-servants and nurses, and two black eunuchs; with his Kaiher Bey, his Divan Effendi, his Seraf, his Kedhoodar, and their families; together with his cooks, his grooms, his pipe-bearers, his Cavasses, his muleteers, and other attendants, numbering fifty or more; must have been a tedious and expensive affair, as so large a caravan as they composed could make only about twenty-five miles a day. He concluded to stop in Diarbekir awhile to rest, before com- mencing the last half of his journey to the seashore. He there- fore accepted the proffered use of Omer Pasha's Kiosk, or summer house, in the village of Alipoonga, about a mile from Diarbekir; and, during the month of his stay, I was called to visit his harem frequently. I fancy that a brief account of one of these visits may not be uninteresting.

The Pasha of Diarbekir, who had great confidence in me, had recommended my services to his highness. He, there- fore, sent his seraf, and begged that I would do him the favor to ride out and see his son, who was dangerously ill. I mounted my horse, and accompanied the seraf to the Kiosk, We rode into the large court of the selamluc, the seraf called two of the grooms to hold our horses, we dismounted, as- cended the stair-way, which, as usual, was outside of the building, passed along a projecting walk, and entered the large veranda. Here I stopped a minute while the seraf went in and announced my arrival. He soon came back say- ing that the Pasha was busy just then, and desired me to be seated in the room of his private secretary. I was, there- fore, conducted into that room, and was surprised to find that his secretary was my old friend, Suliman Effendi, formerly the divan Effendi of Hamdi Pasha. He seemed very glad to see me, and we had a pleasant chat. Meanwhile he had ordered coffee to be served. Then I was conducted into the presence of his highness, who received me very court- eously and desired me to sit upon the divan near him. He also ordered sweet-meats and coffee to be brought. He ex- tolled the skill and honesty of English and American phy- sicians, and said he had often heard his secretary speak of me; and, as his darling son, the light of his eyes, was very ill, as well as some others in his harem, he had sent for me, and

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DAVID H. NUTTING, M.D.

hoped that with my aid they all would be speedily cured. I made my temana, and replied that I would cheerfully do all I could for their recovery. He called one of the eunuchs, and told him to announce to his boy's mother that he would soon come into the harem with the doctor. Soon we proceeded to the door of the harem, and, having knocked, the door was opened by a eunuch, after he had called out in a loud voice — "Hakim geldi, Kimse olmasun" — "The doctor has come, let no one be seen." Notwithstanding, as we entered the court, I saw several female servants running in various directions to get out of sight. We were conducted up-stairs through a livan, or verandah, overlooking the garden (in which was a beautiful fountain playing into a rectangular basin of marble) and into a small but nicely furnished and pleasant room, where the Pasha's son, a child about three years old, was lying upon a divan, while his mother sat at his feet, covered with the silk sheet, which is generally worn by rich Moslem women, when in the street. So I could only see her eyes, and a small part of her face. She conversed very intelligently, and like a gentle-woman, and seemed to love her little boy very much, as did the Pasha. I subsequently learned that she was half sister of the late Sultan Abdul Aziz, her mother being a Circassian. After ascertaining the nature of the boy's illness, I went with the Pasha into an adjoining room and there examined another patient. She was sitting upon a bed spread upon the carpet, and supported by a maid-servant, both covered with the sheet and veil. On my desiring to feel her pulse, one small, white hand, and then another, made its appearance from under the sheet. But when I asked to see her tongue, she hesitated. The Pasha told her that it was necessary for her to comply with my request, and, then, reluctantly she raised the veil. This was apparently an eifort which shocked the prejudices of my fair patient, for in a moment she drew the veil down over her face, and turned away. She answered my questions, however, with simplicity and clearness.

I then left the apartment, and followed the Pasha back to the Selamluc. There, having answered his questions in regard to the nature of their diseases, and the prospect of their recovery, I compounded some powders from my pocket-case, and gave directions in regard to their administration, and

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also instructions in regard to the food suitable for each patient; and, having refused a chibook, but taken another cup of coffee, I took my leave, the Pasha sending an attend- ant to escort me to my house.

On my visits to harems, I have always found the inmates very reserved, especially if young. They always took time, previous to my admission, to put on the sheet, which they wear in the street, and which completely enshrouds them from head to foot, and generally underneath that a thick veil over the face. (I have sometimes had to examine the pulse through the medium of a piece of gauze.) When I in- sisted upon seeing the tongue of the patient there was always much cautious manoeuvring to avoid exposure of much of the face. Sometimes the patient has even thrust her tongue through a rent in the veil, made for the purpose!

Although the anxiety of the Turk for the recovery of any inmate of his harem, who may be dangerously ill, generally overcomes his strong aversion to the admission of a physician within its (to him) sacred precincts, yet the doctor cannot but be regarded as an intruder to some extent, and any in- discretion on his part might lead to fearful consequences.

Sometimes, after several visits to a harem composed chiefly of elderly women, their shyness has gradually worn off, and they have ventured to make such inquiries as these — "How do you like living in our country?" "Is it as pleasant in America as it is here?" "Are the ladies there permitted to go abroad unattended by a eunuch?" "Are they permitted to go to the Bath every week?" "Do their husbands ever beat them?" "Can they love men who wear hats?" "How did you persuade your wife to come so far from her home?'*

From careful inquiry I am inclined to believe that only about one man in twenty among the Turks has more than one wife. Only the rich can afford to keep up large establish- ments; and often among them I have found many who had only one from choice, having observed that a plurality of wives almost always leads to jealousies and contentions. In a harem containing several wives, it is usual to assign to each separate suites of apartments.

The feeling that women are sacred, and should be secluded as far as possible from contact with the other sex, is very strong, not only in Moslems, but in the Armenians, Syrians,

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DAVID H. NUTTING, M.D.

and other nominally Christian sects; although the practice of the latter, with regard to the seclusion of women, is not so strict as among the former. When I have called at the houses of the Armenians and Syrians, I have always found the women with the sheet, or a veil, thrown over them; and at feasts they always keep themselves either in a separate room, or at one end of a very long apartment, while the men are at the opposite extremity. In their churches a lattice work railing, six feet high, separates them from the men. Turkish women are not allowed to go to the mosques at the hours when the men are performing their devotions.

I once inquired of a very intelligent, thoughtful Turk, why it was that they always required their females to cover their faces with a thick veil when in the street, or in the presence of other men. He replied — "Does not the ninth commandment say — *Thou shalt not covet thy neigh- bor's wife?' If then I allow the beautiful face of my wife to be exposed to the gaze of men, shall I not cause them to sin?"

Says Rev. Dr. Thompson, for more than twenty-five years a missionary in Turkey, — " The reasons (and such there are) for thus confining the women very much to their homes, and of closely veiling them when abroad, are found in the character of Oriental people from remote ages ; and the veils can never be safely abolished, nor these domestic regula- tions relaxed, until a pure and enlightened Christianity has prepared the way. If I had the power to remove them at once, I would not. They are an important compensation for true modesty in both sexes — the result of a great moral necessity."

For some time past my attention has been turned to the importance of educating and sending forth female medical missionaries. The more I look back upon my experience in Turkey, — the more I reflect upon the customs of society, and the state of the females of that land — the more am I persuaded, that, in no other way, can so much be done for their elevation and enlightenment as by sending out among them well educated, devotedly pious, female physicians.

My reasons for this belief are briefly these:

I. A female missionary physician could relieve a vast amount of physical sufl"ering and disease among the women of that land, which a male physician could not. I have said

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that I have probably visited more than looo Turkish harems* I should also say, that, in the majority of cases, it has been not to prescribe for females, but males, — and in these cases all the females would be carefully secluded in an apart- ment by themselves. Oftentimes, rather than break through the sacred barrier which surrounds the harem, women are allowed to suffer and die, unattended by a physician. Be- sides, when a physician is called, it is exceedingly difficult, often, to elicit sufficient information to enable him to treat the case properly. I have frequently been taken into a harem, allowed to feel the pulse of the patient, and then been hurried out with no opportunity to ask any questions. If a good physician finds it embarrassing, in this country, to obtain all needed information in regard to the state of a female patient, how much more so is it in Turkey, especially when the doctor has not entire command of the language of the people! But in case of a female physician, there would be no trouble of this kind.

2. A female missionary physician could do vastly more than any other to elevate and enlighten the women of Tur- key. The very fact of her possessing so much knowledge, skill, and benevolence, would alone tend, greatly, not only to elevate the ideas of the people of the Orient as to the worth and importance of woman in society, but also to create in them a desire for education and the influences of Christianity.

Said the lamented Rev. Dr. Dwight, after more than twenty years of devoted labor as missionary in Constanti- nople: "I feel quite sure that female missionary physicians, of the right stamp, would be most Important auxiliaries to the missionary work In this part of the world."

From what I have already said (Ladies and Gentlemen), it will appear obvious to you that in Turkey there is a wide field for the labors of missionary physicians. For about thirty years, the American Board has had, In connection with its several missions In Turkey and Persia, about a half dozen medical missionaries. At present several more are earnestly called for, but men of the right stamp do not offer themselves, although the profession seems to be filled to overflowing, in this country.

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INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL IN MESOPOTAMIA,

ARMENIA AND KOORDISTAN

1854-1876

BY DAVID H. NUTTING, M.D.

INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL IN MESOPOTAMIA, ARMENIA AND KOORDISTAN,

1854-1876

BY DAVID H. NUTTING, M.D.

Ladies and Gentlemen:

IN the prosecution of my labors, as a missionary phy- sician, I often had occasion to make journeys from sta- tion to station. In fact, I was a circuit doctor, having charge of nearly all the missionary families located between the Persian Gulf on the south, and the Black Sea on the north; the Euphrates on the west and the borders of Persia on the east. I once made a journey of six hundred miles to attend a single patient. During my residence of twenty years, I made more than one hundred and twenty-five jour- neys in the eastern and central parts of Asiatic Turkey; and from a record of these various journeys, it appears that the distance travelled was more than twenty-five thousand miles — all on horseback.

I did not travel for the sake of seeing new places and new sights, but because it came in the line of my duty. I have often passed within short distances of noted ruins without turning aside to see them. I spent months within half a day's ride of the famous ruins of Tigranocerta, and yet never visited them. I spent more than a year within thirty miles of the ruins of the city of Haran, in which stands the famous temple of the Sun, towards which the Roman Emperor, Caracalla, was making a pilgrimage when he was assas- sinated, and near which is Rebekah's well, before I could find time to visit it. Still when without wasting any time, and without increased expense, I could visit interesting locali- ties, I was, of course, glad to do so, for I enjoy the beautiful, magnificent and wonderful in nature and art, exceedingly.

It would be strange, if, in making so numerous and so long journeys, I had not enjoyed many interesting sights, and met with some noteworthy adventures. When I have had opportunities to enjoy fine views of Oriental scenery, I have often wished I could photograph them, and send to friends in America, so that they might enjoy them too — but, alas! I could not. Neither can I graphically describe scenes and adventures — as I wish I could. Notwithstand-

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ing, I shall attempt to give you some idea of the mode of travelling, the difficulties and annoyances met with, as well as the enjoyments and advantages derived therefrom; and also some little information in regard to the scenery and the condition, manners and customs of the people, in that part of the world. If the region was one often frequented, and often described, by travellers, I should have less desire and less courage to note down any of my experiences and ob- servations; but as this is not the case, I can feel that I am not following in a well-known path, and that what I may write will have at least some degree of novelty.

There are few carriage roads in Asiatic Turkey, although the late Sultan, Abdul Aziz, a few years ago ordered one to be built from Constantinople to Bagdad, some 1200 miles, with branches to principal cities. The good old fashion of riding on horseback is still the prevalent one. Donkeys, mules, and camels are also used as they were in Bible times. On account of the fear of robbers, it is customary for people about to journey from one city to another, in the interior, to wait until they have found companions enough to form a caravan of from twenty to one hundred persons. These, mostly mounted on donkeys, mules, horses, or camels, with many extra animals upon which their baggage is loaded, all assemble at that gate of the city which is naturally their point of departure, at an appointed day and hour; and thence, after farewells have been said to friends about to be left, and all the numerous last things attended to, the long cavalcade is set in motion; the '^caravan hashu^^ or chief director of the caravan, taking the lead, and all the rest following single file. On account of the loaded animals which you are obliged to have with you, the rate of speed is usually only three miles an hour.

I wish I could hold up before you a photographic picture of an ordinary Turkish caravan. It embraces a motley group. Here you have Turks, Koords, Arabs, Jews, Yezidees, Ar- menians, Syrians, and possibly a European and his family, all in different costumes, according to their race and rank, mounted on animals of all colors, and varying in size from the camel down to the diminutive donkey. Some of them have on a costume similar to that of the Zuaves^ some have long flowing robes, of light, bright colors if Turks, but of

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dark plain colors if Armenians, Syrians, or Jews. All have on girdles, some of Persian shawl, some of Damascus silk, and others of cheaper material. All, also, have on the /^z, or red cap, a few without, but most with turbans around them, of various materials and colors. Many of the company are armed with guns, pistols, swords, or spears. Almost all are provided with chi-hooks (long pipes) or nargelis (an apparatus by which the smoke of the Persian tenheki is drawn through water, with a long tube) ; and some have the little Turkish coffee pot, and cups, in the large saddle bags upon which they ride. Some of them have, thrown over their saddles, a thick comforter and a Persian rug, upon which to sleep at night, while others have nothing but an ahha^ or large thick cloak, in which to wrap themselves.

The caravan usually starts at daylight, and goes some eight or ten hours in one stage, and then halts for the nighl . During three-fourths of the year, it is usual to encamp in the open air, some of the company, generally, having tents, but most of them sleeping with nothing above them but that most glorious of all canopies — the star-spangled sky; — and this can be done very comfortably for a large part of the year, as there is no rain and no dew from May till October. During the winter, or rainy season, it is necessary to stop in caravanseries, or Khans, In large cities and towns these Khans are spacious buildings, and make quite a fine appear- ance externally. The best of them are built of hewn stone, two stories in height. They are built around a hollow- square, this open court or square being from lOO to 150 feet on each side, and having a fountain of running water in the center. The rooms extend around on all sides of the court, and have in front of them, both above and below, a con- tinuous portico, or veranda. The rooms are about I2x 20 feet, and contain no furniture but a hassier, or thick mat, made of rushes, covering the mud floor, upon which the traveller is expected to spread his own rug and comforter, and sleep, if he can, with a hundred fleas making desperate attempts to devour him. If requested, the oda bashu, or keeper of the rooms, will bring the traveller coffee, bread, mutton cabobs, and perhaps lettuce, cucumbers, melons, grapes, or other fruit, if in season. Cabobs are usually made of meat cut into pieces about an inch square, and broiled

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on an iron spit, caused to revolve over hot coals. If pre- ferred he will bring cheese or butter, with the bread. But the butter is not usually called for more than once by foreign travellers (i.e. by Englishmen or Americans) — for, having been churned in goat-skins, with the hair turned inside, the butter too much resembles, in one respect, the mortar used in plastering, to be very palatable!

From July to November grapes are very abundant, ex- cellent, and cheap; and, being perfectly ripe, tender, and sweet, they can be eaten with the greatest freedom. They are not only harmless, but positively healthful and nourishing, as I can testify from having made a journey of six hundred miles on horseback, eating nothing all the way but grapes, and coarse wheat bread, three times a day, and arriving at the end of the journey in greatly improved health and strength.

If travellers have occasion to spend a night in a small village, they may succeed in getting the use of a room, by themselves, and they may have to sleep in one end of a large stable. The village houses are mostly built of rough stone, laid up and plastered with mud mixed with chopped straw, or with sun-dried bricks, probably such as the Israelites made in Egypt, plastered in same manner. These rooms often have no window, all the light which they have coming through the hole above the fire-place, designed to let the smoke out. Sometimes they have windows a foot square, but with no glass.

Having made many journeys in Central Turkey, at all seasons, and in all modes, I am fully convinced that travel- ling in the dry season, and camping out, is the most desirable and comfortable way. It is usual to select, for a stopping place, a grassy flat, near a well, spring, or stream of water. Soon after dismounting your tent is put up, you spread your carpet upon the grass, and upon it your bedding (unless you have a camp-bedstead) — having the tent all open on the side opposite the sun; and, after enjoying the pleasant landscape, you recline perhaps and take refreshing rest for an hour or two. Meanwhile your servant has opened your canteen or chest which contains your provisions, cooking and eating utensils, taken some charcoal from the bag, which you had provided, made a fire in the mongol, or brasier, pre-

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pared tea, toasted bread, and boiled some eggs, or a chicken perhaps, of which you partake with remarkable relish.

After you have eaten, you perceive that the muleteers, and other natives belonging to the caravan, are sitting in groups around the fanjoras, or copper boilers, in which their pilaf is being cooked, smoking their chibooks, and enter- taining each other with stories of their wonderful adven- tures.

Soon after dark, you close your tent, retire for the night, and have sweet sleep till near daybreak, unless disturbed by wolves or robbers. You need not be alarmed if you are awakened by the firing of guns, or by a stray donkey snap- ping one of your tent cords, and then setting up such a bray- ing as can only be appreciated by Oriental travellers. Some nights, for variety, you may be annoyed for hours by the dismal howling and barking of a pack of jackals.

In April, 1858, while journeying with my family and associates, from Mosul to Mardin, one night, when encamped on the desert, I was suddenly awakened by an unusual noise. Jumping up and looking through an opening in the tent, I perceived what I supposed to be a large dog trying to seize by the throat my horse, which was fettered and fast- ened to a picket near by, and was rearing and striking to keep the animal off. I called out to one of the men, who, throwing stones, drove him away. Soon we heard a great outcry, and the firing of guns, at another encampment of travellers near by. We soon learned that the animal was a wolf, and that, after having attacked and bitten several men, he had been pursued and killed. In the morning the wolf was brought to our tent, and I found it to be the lar- gest one I ever had seen. We felt very thankful that it did not rush into our tent and seize our darling child. In cross- ing the plains we often see packs of wolves, and herds of gazelles, and occasionally wild boars. The same year as I was going from Argona to Oorfa, one afternoon as we were riding along, we saw some gazelles about to cross our path. My muleteer seized his rifle and, just as they came within about twenty rods of us, he fired, and down dropped one of the fleet creatures; and at our next camping ground, it was dressed and cooked, furnishing an agreeable variety in our plain fare.

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Sometimes, when travelling in the spring, we come to rivers much swollen by recent rains and the melting of snow in the mountains, and find it a somewhat exciting and dangerous feat to cross them.

In May, 1859, journeying from Diarbekir eastward to Bitlis, with my family, after a two days' ride, we came to the Botman river, a large branch of the Tigris. It was about ten o'clock in the morning when we reached the river, and we did not all get over till night. A caravan of forty animals, loaded with merchandise, had arrived just before us; and, as they had commenced crossing, we had to wait till they were all over, before we could go. There was only one small kellec, or raft of goat-skins, with which to cross, and, as that could take only six loads each time, and going and returning occupied an hour, on account of the width and the rapidity of the river, it was a tedious operation. After the loads were all over, the animals were all driven into the stream, and compelled to swim across, and some were carried by the current a mile down before they reached the opposite bank, while one was drowned.

The next day we reached the Redwan river, which, though not so wide, is deeper and more dangerous. Here, as I could not induce one of the raftsmen to swim my two horses over, apart from the crowd of caravan animals, as I did the previous day, my dispensary assistant, Bedros, and one of my muleteers, mounted them and rode them into the river, intending to make them swim over. The banks were very steep, and soon they lost footing, and began to rear, and plunge, and snort, in a very exciting manner. Bedros could not keep his seat, and I feared both horse and rider would go down together. I knew Bedros was a good swimmer, and so I called out to him to let the horse go and save himself — and so he did. (Afterwards I employed a man, acquainted with the river, to take my horse over, at a point a half mile farther up, without serious accident.)

The following December, journeying with only one attend- ant, I attempted to ford the Botman river, there about forty rods wide, and three to four feet deep. Before we got over, my Russian hoorges (large saddle bags), containing my cloth- ing, books, and medicines, and over which was spread my bedding, covered with a small Persian rug, were raised by

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the water from the pack-saddle of the baggage mule, and carried down stream. My rubber boots, also, filled with water (as I could not raise my feet high enough to prevent it), and this did not add to my comfort during the seven hours we had to ride before reaching our next stopping place, Bismil.

I have crossed "the great river Euphrates," so often men- tioned in the Bible, many times, in four different places, but always in gemiler or "ships," as the natives call them. They are large flat-bottomed boats, rudely constructed, into which men, women, and children, with animals of all kinds, are packed, and conducted over by men with long poles and oars. Sometimes they are unable to bring the ships very near to the shore; and, in that case, we have to clasp arms affectionately around the neck of some swarthy Arab, and be carried ashore on his back.

But perhaps you may ask — are there no bridges in that part of Turkey.^ There are quite a number. At Bagdad, Mosul, and Jesirch, the Tigris is crossed on bridges of boats. At Diarbekir, over the same river, there is a fine stone bridge, of ten arches, probably built by the Romans some fifteen hundred years ago, but as solid and strong as ever. Near Sivas in Armenia I crossed in 1856 another fine old stone bridge over the Kuzzle Urmak, of fourteen arches, if I remember aright. Near Tigranocerta there is another old Roman bridge, spanning the Botman river with one immense arch. Major Garden, an English traveller who visited and sketched it, told me that he considered it a wonderful specimen of antique engineering. Between Diar- bekir and Mosul I saw the ruins of two fine stone bridges over the Tigris, a part of the arches and butments still standing, one at Hassan-Keffr, and the other at Jesiveh. Between Erzroom and Moosh, I crossed the Murad Chat, the eastern or principal branch of the upper Euphrates, on an old stone bridge of some fourteen arches, two of which had fallen, leaving the intervening pier standing, but inclining down stream, at an angle of thirty degrees from perpendicu* lar. The Turks had placed timbers, extending from the bridge on either side to the top of this leaning pier, and upon these we were obliged to cross.

I remember, well, crossing a still more dilapidated stone

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bridge over the Bitlis river near Garzan. It was in May, when the river, always swift and noisy, was much swollen by the melting of snow in the mountains among which it passes, so that it would have been impossible to ford it, and there was no kellec to take us over. When we arrived at the bridge, we found that two of the six arches composing it had fallen. A considerable part of the fifth pier was stand- ing, and the trunks of two trees, about a foot in diameter, and twenty feet long, unhewn, had been placed so as to con- nect the main part of the bridge with this pier. To attempt to cross on these seemed a very hazardous operation, but there was no alternative, and the muleteers assured us that they had often crossed in safety. Mrs. N. and I dismounted, and waited to see the baggage mules over before we at- tempted to cross. Some of the animals crossed without great difficulty, one muleteer leading by the halter, and another steadying by the tail. But there was a young mule, having upon his pack-saddle two boxes of medicines, who seemed determined not to cross. When he had gone half way over, the sound and the sight of the rapid, roaring stream, twenty feet below, frightened him, so that he re- treated precipitately, and came near falling into the river. But at last, other expedients having failed, he was blind- folded, and with great difficulty conducted over. Our horses were next led, and we followed, as best we could. But this was not all. We had only reached the pier — how were we to get from that to the bank, distant thirty feet or more.^^ Why, the arch and butment, beyond, had fallen against this in such a manner that a sort of steep, rough stair-way had been formed down into the river, which on that side was shallow, and so we clambered down, from stone to stone and waded out.

Many years ago, as I was informed, a little above the town of Birijic, there was a fine old Roman bridge over the Euphrates, built of stone. Some Turks, for a consideration, obtained from the government the exclusive right to work the ferry at Birijic, which is on the great route of travel between Aleppo and Oorfa, and other cities beyond. In order to compel caravans to cross at the ferry, they caused the bridge to be blown up, and it has never been rebuilt. Another stone bridge over the Gurk-soo, a branch of the

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Euphrates, between Adiaman and Besni, was destroyed by the inhabitants of a village near by, to prevent the annoy- ance caused by so many travellers stopping in their village over night, and quartering themselves upon them, as was formerly the custom.

On the great post route between Constantinople and Bag- dad, near Baccur-Maden, there is another stone bridge, over the western branch of the Tigris, which I have often noticed in passing, the central arch of which was carried away some twenty years ago; and, although it might be rebuilt at an expense of one thousand dollars, it has not been — and in consequence caravans, and posts, are often detained several days at a time in the rainy season, when the river rises rapidly, being in a ravine between the mountains.

While in Turkey I think I saw only two new bridges, of any considerable magnitude, and these were on the road from Oorfa to Severek. They were not constructed at the expense of the government, but by the widow of a rich Turkish merchant of Oorfa, with whose son I was well ac- quainted, having treated him several weeks for partial paralysis. This widow, having been informed that men were often drowned, while attempting to ford the Chem-Chai, a river twelve miles northwest from Oorfa, resolved that in- stead of expending a large sum of money in making a pil- grimage to Mecca, as all good Moslems are expected to do once in their lives, she would use the money in building a good stone bridge over this river — which she rightly judged would be at least an equally meritorious act. It is really a very beautiful bridge, 150 feet long, built of nicely hewn, white lime-stone. On one side there are two recesses, wherein travellers may stop and offer up prayers for the person who caused the bridge to be built.

Crossing the Taurus Mountains, This chain of moun- tains extends, as you know, from west to east, through the central part of Asiatic Turkey, forming the water-shed be- tween the waters flowing into the Black Sea, and those flowing into the Persian Gulf and Mediterranean Sea. I have had occasion to cross this range of mountains probably fifty times, and in four or five diff"erent passes. The average time occupied in crossing is eight hours. The mountains are, so far as I have seen, generally rocky and barren, and vary

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In height from 5000 to 13,000 feet. The roads over these mountains are mere bridle paths, marked out by no skillful engineer, and wrought chiefly by the hoofs of the energetic and sure-footed mules, which for centuries have been con- stantly traversing them. The ascents and descents are often so steep that it is with difficulty that saddles can be kept in position. In many places the narrow path runs along the steep side of the mountain; and the rider, as he looks from his dizzy height down the almost perpendicular declivity, thinks how a single mis-step of his animal might precip- itate him hundreds of feet into the ravine below.

I first crossed the Taurus in May, 1856, accompanied by three other missionaries, and our families. In crossing, two of the ladies met with serious accidents. While descending the first range of mountains, Mrs. N.'s spirited horse, look- ing back to see the animals following him, stepped too near the outer edge of the path, and it gave way, plunging horse and rider down the bank a dozen feet. Not long after, in crossing a branch of the river Tigris, near Maden, which was much swollen by recent rains, Mrs. L.'s horse lost his footing in the rocky bed of the stream, and threw her into the rapid and powerful current. Fortunately her faithful servant, Yacob, saw her fall, and, rushing in, rescued her from a watery grave. But she had to ride in her wet garments three hours before we arrived at our place of encampment.

In October of the following year, as I was crossing again, having been belated through the carelessness of my mule- teer, I found myself on the mountains, a dozen miles from the khan, where I was to stop, and daylight all gone. How- ever, we contrived to keep on our way for an hour, by star- light. Then, all at once we perceived that the sky was gathering blackness, and soon a thunder storm commenced, and we were in total darkness. I dared not proceed, as there were dangerous places in the way; and the horse I rode was nearly blind. So we sat still, waiting for the storm to pass and the sky to clear up. In the meantime, some thieves, who were in the vicinity, endeavored to decoy our baggage animal; but, perceiving it in time we made an outcry, and they fled; and we reached our stopping place in safety be- fore ten o'clock.

I once found it necessary to cross the Taurus in mid-

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winter, when the snow was deep on the mountains. Since the last storm a caravan had passed, and we found a narrow path. As long as the horses stepped in the path, all went well, but if an animal chanced to step outside of the path down he plunged into deep snow, and it was with great difficulty that we could put him upon the track again. I had only one man with me. We were thus frequently de- layed by the falling of one of our horses, so that at sun- down we were miles from any human habitation, and the highest mountains yet to be crossed. I began to fear that we might be obliged to spend the long, cold night in the snowdrifts, as some travellers whom we met prophesied we should, unless we turned and went with them to the near- est khan. But we kept on. Before we reached the moun- tain top, we passed a perpendicular precipice, down which, that very day, a horse, making a mis-step, had fallen some fifty feet, and been killed. The sight of this, and the severe cold, induced us to dismount, and walk most of the time until late in the evening, when we reached the town of Baccur-Maden, where the Padishahs copper mines are, and where we were kindly entertained at the house of the Oostar- bashu, or superintendent of the mining (whose son had been treated by me for deafness).

In September, 1864, wishing to go from Mardin to Oorfa, I determined, that, instead of taking the usual circuitous route by way of Diarbekir, I would cross the desert directly, a route never before travelled by any American; and thus, not only save two days' travel, but have an opportunity of visiting Veran Shehr, a ruined city, of which I had often heard from natives. The Pasha of Diarbekir had determined to repopulate that city, which, together with hundreds of villages around, for a thousand years, had been deserted, from fear of Arabs; and, as the first step, had sent work- men there to build barracks for a regiment of Turkish cav- alry. His Kaiher Bey, and Mehemet Jemmayil Eifendi, one of his mejlis, or council (with both of whom I was well acquainted) had come to superintend the work. I had for an escort a horseman from the Kaimakam of Mardin, and the company of some twenty muleteers, who were taking flour there for the two hundred workmen. Three days' ride over the beautiful, once well populated, and productive, but

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now deserted plain, brought us to the magnificent ruins. Here I spent nearly three days, very hospitably entertained by my friend and former neighbor, Jemmayil Effendi, since Pasha in a Province east of Bagdad, sharing with him his tent and board, enjoying greatly my explorations in and about this walled city — a description of which I must omit. A long day's ride from this ruined city brought me to Mezar, the residence of Ai-ooh Bey, He is the chief of a tribe numbering 20,000 tents. I had been furnished with a letter of introduction to him; and, as I approached his encamp- ment, I sent my horseman on with it to his tent, and I fol- lowed slowly with my servant. When we came near, several of his attendants came running out, to meet me; and upon reaching the chiefs tent, one held my horse by the bit, an- other took the stirrup on my right hand, while two others helped me off on the left. I was then conducted into the tent, which was about 100 feet long by 30 wide, made of goats- hair cloth, woven in strips each an arshan (27 inches) wide, and sewed together like a carpet, and supported on 25 tent poles, placed in five rows across the tent, five in each row, the middle ones being about 12 feet high, the next on either side 10, and the other two outside ones eight feet. There I met the great chief, Ajoob Bey^ who received me with great cordiality, and requested me to be seated on a mattress covered with silk, spread upon a rich Persian carpet, on which were placed great pillows stuffed with wool to lean upon. My boots were immediately pulled off by one of his servants, and water brought for me to wash with by another. Soon coffee was served. In the course of an hour, a kid had been killed, dressed, and cooked; wheat had been ground, and baked in thin sheets, making very palatable bread; and the food was placed before me, on a copper platter, four feet in diameter, which rested upon a stool about a foot high. The chief, and a few friends of his, sat down to eat with me; and, rolling up their sleeves, with neither knives nor forks, in truly primitive style, they did complete justice to the re- past. Indeed they ate so fast, that my servant, fearing I should not get my share, whispered to one of the waiters to bring me some on a separate dish! After dinner, water was again brought for washing hands, and then coffee was again served. Pipes were also given to those who wished. And then

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the chief had as many questions to ask me about America, as I had to ask him about his tribe, his horses, his camels, his sheep and his goats. He showed me some of his fine blooded horses, and told me of the feats of endurance and speed they had performed. I found that like his old name- sake, the patriarch Job, of whom he strongly reminded me, he was very rich. He owned five hundred camels, and thousands of sheep and goats.

You may ask — of what use are these flocks and herds ? Every summer they sell great numbers of them, to be taken to the larger cities; and they also sell great quantities of wool, which finds its way to the seaports, and thence to Europe, and America even, besides what they consume for their own use. They also use goats' milk, and make there- from much butter and cheese. All of their grain they pur- chase in neighboring cities. Their camels they use for the transportation of their tents and household goods from place to place, as they frequently change their location, going southward in the autumn, and northward in the spring. Many are also used for the transportation of merchandise from Bagdad, and other interior cities, across the desert to the seaport towns on the Mediterranean, and thence bring back merchandise imported from Europe. I have often seen caravans, numbering 500 to 6000 camels. They are rightly called — "ships of the desert." (They have a breed of camels differing from the ordinary camel, used for heavy loads, as much as the race-horse differs from the dray-horse. These are called the delool or hedjiu, and are used exclusively for riding. They have an easy pace, which they can keep up hour after hour — often making 70 to 100 miles in a day for several days in succession. In praise of a good delool, I have heard the Arabs say — "His pace is so easy that you may drink a cup of coffee while you ride.")

This chief was evidently greatly respected and admired by the people of his tribe. He was a finely formed and noble looking man. He was born and brought up in tents, and seemed greatly to enjoy that mode of life, and doubtless would not have exchanged his position, as chief of that tribe, for the throne of a monarch. To me there is something peculiarly fascinating in this tent life upon the desert. More than a million of Arabs live in this way upon the great

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plains of Mesopotamia, which during the dry season re- semble a desert, but during the rainy season, a very rich meadow.

Probably one-half of the Koords, who number about a million, also live in similar tents. When I was there the Pasha of Koordistan undertook to compel these Koords to settle in villages, instead of leading a nomadic life. By force he took away about 20,000 tents, and I saw them when being sold in the "Espey Bazar" of Diarbekir. But he was un- successful. They were discontented and unhappy, and finally returned to their tent life again. The Koords are good horsemen, expert in use of rifle^ bold and adventurous, in- clined to brigandage, but still generally hospitable to strangers.

The Arabs who inhabit Mesopotamia are chiefly of the Anezeh, the Shammar, the Tai, and the Jeboor tribes. The Anezeh are the most numerous, and say that they can bring into the field 100,000 warriors. They are the descendants of Ishmael, concerning whom it was prophesied (Gen. 16: 12) that he would be "a wild man;" his hand against every man, and every man's hand against him; and that he should "dwell in the presence of all his brethren." The Arabs, with local and temporary exceptions, have always been an independent people, and successfully resisted, in every age, the armies that endeavored to subdue them. Alexander the Great, even, failed to conquer them. Now, though nominally subject to the Turkish government, they are in reality as free and independent as ever, exacting rather than paying tribute. About every year, while I was there, in time of grain harvest, a large band, consisting of several thousand armed men, mounted on swift horses and camels, approached Diarbekir, Mardin, Severek, and Oorfa, and de- manded from the Pashas a large sum of money. In case this was not forthcoming, they threatened to devastate the region, carrying off all the grain, flocks and herds, of the surrounding villages. Many times I have known of caravans, and the posts, having been attacked and plundered by small parties of the Anezeh. When on our first journey to Diar- bekir, not far from Oorfa, we came near being captured by such a party, consisting of about one hundred horsemen, armed with swords and spears.

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But still there is much that is interesting and attractive about these Arabs. They are very frank, and hospitable, as well as free and independent. In the middle ages, while Europe was pervaded with darkness and ignorance, they cultivated science and literature to a great extent. Much of our as- tronomical, mathematical, chemical, and medical science originated in Arabia. During the past few centuries however, they have greatly neglected education, and degenerated in many respects.

In the evening the chief took me into another apartment of his tent, the harem, and there I prescribed for his mother who was ill. In the morning he provided me with two horse- men as escort, and sent me on with his best wishes, saying

— " Selamet ile — AUaha usmarladuc " — *' Go in peace; I commend you to God."

Nine hours' ride brought me to Kabur-Khaidur^where Mah- mood Aga's encampment was, to whom also I had a letter of introduction. He was absent, but his son received me cordially, and gave me the use of a European, walled tent, made of white duck, lined with fine chintz, about sixteen feet in di- ameter — a present, I was told, from a certain Pasha, who probably received a very fine Arabian steed therefor!

I enjoyed an exceedingly refreshing rest that night in Mahmood Agha's guest tent, and, awakening at daybreak, began to prepare for the last day of my journey across the desert, for I was within a dozen hours' ride of the city of Oorfa. After drinking a cup of coflFee made from the freshly browned and pounded berry brought from "Yemen," and eating a plate of "seudleu," a very palatable dish, made of rice boiled in milk, eaten cold with honey, usually, I bade my host farewell, mounted and rode away. His servant who had waited upon us accompanied us to the outskirts of the encampment, and then having received the customary "baksheesh" or present, he said — "bin beriket olsoon"

— "a thousand blessings let there be" — "Selamet ile" — "go in peace" — " Yoloonooz khair ola," "may your way be prosperous." To which we replied — "Memnoon olduk, size de khair ola," "we have been made thankful; to you also let there be prosperity."

It was a beautiful morning, and as we rode on, the two Arab horsemen who accompanied me, feeling the exhilara-

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^^^^4>HJ^nDA^ip H. NUTTING, M.D.

tion caused by the fresh morning air of the desert, and the sense of freedom, excited by looking upon its vast expanse, were very cheerful and sportive. They seemed to enjoy displaying their fine horses, as well as their horsemanship. They each carried a spear, some fifteen feet long, near the head of which was a large tuft of ostrich feathers, and these they handled with great dexterity. Now they would scour the plain in pursuit of gazelles; and now, each imagining the other an enemy, they would rush up, shaking their spears as they approached, seemingly about to thrust each other through; but just as they were within striking dis- tance, they would suddenly check their horses, almost throw- ing them upon their haunches, and then passing by would cut another circle, to meet again in the same manner. After awhile they proposed a trial of speed, and as they started off, my horse, though ill the previous day, seeming deter- mined not to be left behind, raced after them — and much to their surprise soon took the lead. At noon, we stopped for an hour under a large mulberry tree, by the Julap river to rest and eat a lunch, and at four o'clock the city of Oorfa came into view.

As we approached from the east, it appeared to the best advantage. It was a splendid panorama. In the fore- ground, the beautiful irrigated gardens, filled with mul- berry, pomegranate, apricot, plum and fig trees — beyond, the great wall, with its towers and battlements, five miles in circuit, — on the left side of the city, the castle with its separate fortifications, — on the right, the palace of the Pasha, — in the center, the great mosque, with its massive and high octagonal minaret, — on either side, the bazars, khans, baths, and the domes and minarets of other mosques, — on the farther and upper side of the city, at the left, the great Armenian church, and on the right, the large, and to me, most interesting Protestant Church — all this composed an Oriental view of which I never tired. And here, in this interesting city, generally supposed to be the birth-place of the Patriarch Abraham, for several centuries the chief seat of Oriental learning, where the first translation of the New Testament was made into Syriac, and for twenty- eight years past a most interesting mission station, I must leave you with thanks for your kind attention.

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UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA UBEARY BEBKELEY

THIS BOOK IS Dui^ ^^^l^^^"" """^ STAMPED BELOW

DEC 3 1917 4}tin6lM

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