OCR Text |
Show Ii The Bag-dad Poll. t There is one feature of Bacjdad life fc-which, though apparently small in illy il-ly self, assumes a real Importance to those y who live in that Oriental town. It is L the Bugdad boll. This boil deserves a j $ 'a rnore serious name, for It is generally ft more inconvenient and disagreeable A than a carbuncle, for it often attains i, "unusual proportions and commonly '-I I lasts for eight or nine months. Everv 1 ; Inhabitant of Bagdad is said, sooner or 1 later, to suffer from one of these bolls, 1 European and Arabians alike being 1 susceptible to it; and so universal la It j j ,that old Inhabitants of the region say ) r that they can always tell whether a vj man has lived in Bagdad or not by the I j near which It leaves somewhere on his "J I body. In order to have a definite Idea I - of its nature, the writer called at the j Turkish hospital and interrogated the 1 i -Turkish doctor In charge as to its na- fiture. After very politely exhibiting a ' I i1"nr,bc'r of eaes lie gave me his opinion ntns to Its cause: "C'est I'eau. le climate let le soleil. Monsieur." In the opinion, I SJowever, of Dr. Ramsey, the resident I fnellsh physician of the place, this I fc-Bairdad boll Is an Infection arising 1 ?Jl'm the sting or bite of an insect which he describes as a species of 11 v, t"f?nd he recount-ed his own experience, Ufn wblch he was conscious of the bite UoC this Insect on the very spot on his flpforearm where the boil ultimately de-j de-j fcl",0Pd' avld G. Falrchlld In the WIxtlonal Geographic Magazine. |