George's son with presents, and appointed him the chief of all his physicians,—the first instance among the Arabians, it is said, of the appointment of an Archiater.
Bakhtichou ben Djordis was the author of a collection of short medical treatises, and he also wrote, for the special use of his son Gabriel, a medical "remembrancer." He was as highly esteemed by the Arabs as his father had been before him. The date of his death is not known.
Gabriel, the son of Bakhtichou and a grandson of the famous George Bakhtichou, was the most distinguished member of this remarkable family of physicians. In the year 792 A. D., five years after the consultation mentioned above had taken place, Gabriel was sent by his father to give medical advice to Jafar, the son of the Grand Vizier. The treatment which he recommended proved to be entirely successful, and, pleased with the result, Jafar soon afterward had an opportunity to speak to Haroun Alraschid of Gabriel as the physician best fitted to effect a cure in the case of his own favorite wife, who, in a fit of yawning, had dislocated her shoulder. The Arabian physician had tried friction, different sorts of ointments, and manipulations of every imaginable kind, but all in vain. The dislocation still persisted. When Gabriel arrived on the scene he told the Caliph that he could bring the shoulder back into place provided no offense would be taken at the means which he was about to employ. Alraschid gave the desired promise and Gabriel made a movement as if he were about to lift up the bed-clothes. Instantly the patient, through a natural sense of modesty, stretched out her dislocated arm to keep the bed-covering in place. "There! she is cured!" exclaimed Gabriel, and such indeed was the truth. The sudden movement of the limb had reduced the dislocation.—It only remains for me to add that the sum of 500,000 drachmae[1] was paid to Gabriel by Haroun Alraschid for his successful treatment.
Some surprise having been expressed by the Caliph's
- ↑ The drachma was a silver coin worth about 9-3/4 pence English money. The fee paid to Gabriel for his surgical services amounted, therefore, to a little less than £2000 or $10,000.
