In 1851, The Guardian published an excerpt of Frederick Arthur Neale’s book Eight Years in Syria, Palestine and Asia Minor describing “the most curious sight [Neale] ever witnessed”. It involved a horse, hashish and a “hive of worms”, among other things…
Horse Surgery in Syria
The Guardian, September 17, 1851
In Acre, there is a plentiful supply of Turkish veterinary surgeons; and about the most curious sight I ever witnessed was a horse under treatment by these practitioners.
First they threw it on the ground, by tying its four feet or hoofs so closely together, that it became as helpless as an infant; then a tight bandage was placed over the nose and mouth, only leaving sufficient space for the animal to breathe. A Turkish pipe, containing tobacco, bang, hashish, cuscus, and other narcotics, was inserted in one of the nostrils, and a spark being placed upon the bowl, the horse involuntarily inhaled the stupefying smoke; which had the effect, after a very short period, of rendering it unconscious of what was going on.
Then the skill of surgery was brought into play, and the fetlock of the poor brute being laid open, a perfect hive of worms, deposited by a fly, common in some parts of the desert between Damascus and Bagdad, was duly extracted. The wound was closed up with pitch sticking-plaster, and the bands being unloosed, buckets of cold water were thrown over the horse; who quickly revived. The foot was now placed in a sling, and a few days afterwards, so effective had been the operation, the horse was fit to pursue its daily avocations. – Neale’s Eight Years in Syria.
