APPENDIX V - MEDICAL PRACTICE IN THE TROAD IN 1869

Summary

When last spring I accepted Dr. Schliemann's invitation to assist him in his excavations in the Troad, I was prompted to do so in no small degree by the hope that, in turning my back on the soil of Europe, I should also for some time turn it upon the whole mass of occupations which threatened to crush me. I did not suspect that the very occupation from which I had gradually withdrawn at home, the practice of medicine, would fall to my lot there in burdensome abundance. But scarcely had I been one day at Ilium, or, to speak less dogmatically, at Hissarlik, when some sick labourers were brought to me from among the large numbers employed by Dr. Schliemann, and this sufficed to spread over the whole of the Northern Troad the report that a newly-arrived Effendi was a great physician. The labourers, numbering from 120 to 150, who came every morning to the excavations from all parts of the neighbourhood, as well as the numerous persons who brought victuals and other necessaries, took care, in a country where foreigners are in themselves a very unusual sight, to excite a general curiosity.

I am at a loss to say whether there is a real physician in the Troad. Though I travelled through the country from the Hellespont to the Gulf of Adramyttium, yet I nowhere met with such a man.