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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
[5]
2512«4
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
[12]
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
['3]
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
['5]
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,
[i6]
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
[17]
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
[18]
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,
['9]
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
[20]
PHYSICAL EDUCATION
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.
[21]
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.
[22]
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
[25]
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
[26]
INTELLECTUAL EDUCATION
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
[^7]
WILLIAM NUTTING, M.A.
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
[28]
INTELLECTUAL EDUCATION
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-
[30]
INTELLECTUAL EDUCATION
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-
[31]
WILLIAM NUTTING, M.A.
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-
[3a]
INTELLECTUAL EDUCATION
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
[33 ]
WILLIAM NUTTING, M.A.
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
[34]
INTELLECTUAL EDUCATION
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
[35]
WILLIAM NUTTING, M.A.
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*
[36]
MORAL EDUCATION
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
[39]
WILLIAM NUTTING, M.A.
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
[40]
MORAL EDUCATION
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,
[41]
WILLIAM NUTTING, M.A.
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
[4a]
MORAL EDUCATION
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
[43]
WILLIAM NUTTING, M.A.
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,
[44]
MORAL EDUCATION
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.
[45]
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-
[46]
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
[47]
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-
[48]
MORAL EDUCATION
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
[49]
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-
[50]
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
[51]
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.
[52]
MORAL EDUCATION
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.
[57]
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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EXPERIENCES IN ASIATIC TURKEY
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
[59]
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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EXPERIENCES IN ASIATIC TURKEY
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-
[61]
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
[62]
EXPERIENCES IN ASIATIC TURKEY
/
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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EXPERIENCES IN ASIATIC TURKEY
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
[65]
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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EXPERIENCES IN ASIATIC TURKEY
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
[67]
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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EXPERIENCES IN ASIATIC TURKEY
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
[69]
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
[70]
EXPERIENCES IN ASIATIC TURKEY
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
[71]
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
[72]
EXPERIENCES IN ASIATIC TURKEY
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,
[73]
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
[74]
EXPERIENCES IN ASIATIC TURKEY
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.
[75]
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-
L79]
DAVID H. NUTTING, M.D.
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
[80]
INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL
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
[81]
DAVID H. NUTTING, M.D.
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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INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL
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.
[83]
DAVID H. NUTTING, M.D.
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
[84]
INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL
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
[85]
DAVID H. NUTTING, M.D.
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
[86]
INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL
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
[87]
DAVID H. NUTTING, M.D.
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-
[88]
INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL
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
[89]
DAVID H. NUTTING, M.D.
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
[90]
INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL
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
[91]
DAVID H. NUTTING, M.D.
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.
[92]
INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL T- '.::\<S'<\^^
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-
[93]
^^^^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.
[94]
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA UBEARY
BEBKELEY
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