Curiosities of Medical Experience Part 26

THE NIGHT-MARE.

The Night-mare or Ephialtes, _incubus_, from [Greek: ephallomai], "to leap upon," and _incubo_, "to lie upon," may be considered a sympathetic affection of the brain during our sleep, generally arising from a derangement in the digestive functions. We therefore observe it after a heavy supper, or the use of any article of food of difficult digestion. It is to these circ.u.mstances more than to the "unusual loss of volition,"

which some physiologists consider as its cause, that we are to attribute this unpleasant perturbation of our repose, which impresses the sleeper with the idea of some living being pressing upon the chest, inspiring terror, impeding respiration, and subduing all voluntary action that might endeavour to remove the unwelcome visiter. It has been observed that persons of a melancholy and contemplative disposition are more subject to it than the gay and the vivacious. Sedentary employment and anxiety of mind often bring it on; and it has been noticed in _nostalgia_, or regret of home, in soldiers and sailors. The sense of apprehension remains after the sufferer is awakened, and the fluttering of the heart and quick pulse are observed for some time after, while drops of cold perspiration frequently trickle down his brow. When the night-mare is the result of too much repletion, it is possible that its symptoms denote a pressure of the loaded stomach on the solar plexus.

It is said that the _night-mare_ derives its name from _Mara_, an evil spirit of the Scandinavians, which, according to the Runic theology, seized men in their sleep, and deprived them of the powers of volition.

Our old Anglo-Saxon name for the disease was _Elf-Sidenne_, or elf-squatting; hence the popular term "hag-ridden."

There is a variety of the malady which makes its attack by day, and when waking: it has been called the day-mare, or _ephialtes vigilantium_. This affection, although uncommon, has been noticed by Forestus, Rhodius, Sauvages, and Good. Forestus has known it to return periodically like an intermittent fever.

It is not always that the patient experiences unpleasant sensations in these nocturnal attacks, which were not unfrequently of a curious nature.

The ancients thought that these intruders were sometimes sportive Fauns; hence Pliny calls the affection _ludibria Fauni_. At a subsequent period, superst.i.tion replaced the Fauns by _Incubi_, or evil spirits, who visited the earth to destroy virtuous women; and it was once gravely discussed by the Sorbonne, whether the offspring of such an union should be considered human, or the fair lady's reputation injured by the involuntary act of giving a young incubus to the world. The absurd stories of the pranks of the _Succubi_ and _Incubi_ are well known.

Ephialtes has been known to be epidemic, and has attacked numbers at a time. Caelius Aurelia.n.u.s informs us that Silimachus, a disciple of Hippocrates, observed the phenomenon in Rome, when the disease generally proved fatal. It is more than probable that in these cases the night-mare was merely symptomatic of other complaints. A French physician, Dr.

Laurent, however, has related a very curious instance of a species of night-mare attacking an entire regiment; he thus relates the singular occurrence:

"The first battalion of the regiment Latour d'Auvergne, of which I was the surgeon, was garrisoned at Palmi, in Calabria, when we received a sudden order at midnight to march with all possible speed to Tropea; a flotilla of the enemy having appeared off the coast. It was in the month of June; we had a march of forty miles of the country, and only arrived at our destination at seven o'clock the following evening, having scarcely halted during those thirty-one hours, and suffered considerably from the heat of the sun. On our arrival the men found their rations cooked and their quarters prepared; but, having arrived the last, our regiment had the worst accommodation, and eight hundred men were pent up in a building scarcely capacious enough for half the number. The soldiers were in consequence much crowded, and slept upon the straw without any bedding, and most uncomfortably. The building was an abandoned monastery; and the inhabitants warned us that we should not be able to occupy it quietly, as it was haunted every night. We laughed at their superst.i.tious fears, but were much amazed when, towards midnight, we heard loud cries, and the soldiers rushed tumultuously, and in evident terror, out of their rooms.

Being interrogated as to the causes of this alarm, they all affirmed that the devil was in the abbey; that they had seen him enter in the shape of a large black dog, that had jumped upon their b.r.e.a.s.t.s and disappeared. To convince them of the absurdity of their fears was of no avail; not a single man could be persuaded to return to his quarters, and they wandered about the town until daybreak. On the following morning I questioned the most steady non-commissioned officers and the oldest soldiers; and though under ordinary circ.u.mstances they were strangers to fear, and never gave credit to any tales of supernatural agency, they a.s.sured me that the dog had weighed them down and nearly suffocated them.

We remained that day in Tropea, and had no other quarters to occupy but the same monastery, and the soldiers would only take up their residence on the condition that we should remain with them: the men retired to sleep--we watched; all was quiet until about one in the morning; when they awoke in the same terror, and fled from the building in dismay. We had looked out most attentively, but could not perceive the cause of this commotion. The following day we returned to Palmi; and, although we marched over a great part of Italy, and were frequently equally crowded and uncomfortable, a similar scene never recurred."

Dr. Laurent very judiciously attributes this singular attack to the pernicious local influence of some deleterious gas, and the very crowded state the men slept in. It is also probable that they did not take off their accoutrements, and lay down with their belts on: might they not also have eaten some unwholesome fruit upon the line of march, for it was in the month of June, when various berries grow in abundance along the road-side?

Hippocrates's theory of the night-mare was, that, during our sleep, our volition being suspended, the soul, still awake, watches over all the functions of the body. It is rather odd that the animal that most persons pretend to have thus annoyed them, is a long-haired black dog. Forestus a.s.sures us that it was a similar visiter that tormented him in his youth.

This circ.u.mstance can only be attributed to vulgar superst.i.tion and tradition. Dubosquet has preceded his Treatise on Ephialtes with the engraving of a large monkey who had perplexed a young lady whom he attended; the monkey most probably came on horseback, as his steed is also delineated looking over the sleeping victim.

Various medicines have been recommended to prevent these attacks; amongst others, saffron and peony: and several learned commentators have endeavoured to prove and disprove that they were only specific in the form of an amulet. Zacutus Lusita.n.u.s recommends aloes, and his advice is perhaps as good a one as could be given. The ancients attributed many powerful effects to saffron, and, amongst other properties, it was considered as an effective narcotic, and was said to occasion violent headaches. Curious anecdotes are related of its effects. Amatus Lusita.n.u.s having exhibited this medicine to accelerate a tardy accouchement, the woman was delivered of two yellow daughters; and Hertodt, in his work called Crocology, relates that, having tried it on a b.i.t.c.h, all her pups were of a similar colour. The ancients called saffron the king of plants, the vegetable panacea, and the soul of the lungs. In modern times we do not recognise any peculiar property in this production; and in Spain and Italy it is used as a condiment with perfect impunity. Peony was also deemed a valuable remedy, when gathered as the decreasing moon was pa.s.sing under Aries: the slit root being then tied round the neck of an epileptic person, he was forthwith cured. "Unlimited scepticism," Dugald Stewart observes, "is as much the child of imbecility as implicit credulity." How difficult it is to steer the vessel of our understanding between those shoals!

Medical writers have divided the night-mare, according to its phenomena, into complete, incomplete, mental, and bodily. The complete night-mare, in which the suspension of the functions had been so powerful, has been known to prove fatal. In the incomplete, we fancy ourselves placed in a peculiar situation, opposed by some unexpected obstacle, and all our efforts seem of no avail to extricate ourselves from our difficulties. There is an incubus, called indirect, in which the dreamer is not the individual arrested in his movements; but he is impeded in his progress by the stoppage of his horse, his carriage, his s.h.i.+p, which no power can propel.

In the mental or intellectual night-mare, the flow of our ideas is embarra.s.sed, all the a.s.sociations of our very thoughts appear to be singularly unconnected; we think in an unintelligible language; we write, and cannot decipher our ma.n.u.script: all is a mental chaos, and no thread can lead us out of the perplexing labyrinth. In the corporeal ephialtes, we imagine that some of our organs are displaced, or deranged in their functions. One man fancies that a malevolent spectre is drawing out his intestines or his teeth: a patient of Galen felt the cold sensation of a marble statue having been put into bed with him. These, however, are nothing else than the actual sensations we experience at the time. Thus Conrad Gesner fancied that a serpent had stung him in the left side of the breast; an anthrax soon appeared upon the very spot, and terminated his existence. Arnauld de Villeneuve imagined that his foot had been bitten, and a pimple which broke out on the spot soon degenerated into a fatal cancerous affection. Corporeal night-mare may therefore be simply considered as a symptom of disease, and not as a mysterious forewarning.

The cold stage of fever that often invades us in our sleep is the natural forerunner of the malady. This was the case with Dr. Corona, the physician of Pius VI. who upon two occasions was attacked with typhus fever, ushered in by a distressing dream or incubus. These physical phenomena only strengthen the opinion, that in our sleep we are equally alive to mental impressions and bodily sufferings; and that, correctly speaking, there is no suspension of our intellectual faculties of perception, nor is there any interruption in the susceptibilities of our relative existence. The various doctrines regarding dreams ill.u.s.trate this position.

INCUBATION OF DISEASES.

The term "incubation" in its rigid sense applies to the act of hatching eggs, either naturally or artificially. It has however been adopted by physicians to denote that state of predisposition to disease, in which the germ of the malady lurks, latent and unperceived by the inexperienced observer. Too frequently the individual who is thus menaced is totally unaware of his condition. So far from being depressed in spirits, his hopes are more sanguine, and his future projects more industriously formed than usual. At other times, on the contrary, he labours under a load of despondency which he cannot explain, and his gloom seems to antic.i.p.ate his end. This presentiment has oftentimes been singularly prophetic. Moreau de St. Remy relates the case of one of his most intimate friends, who visited him, saying, "I come to die near you." He was apparently in perfect health, but the prediction too soon proved true.

It is no doubt probable, that in these cases the influence of the mind labouring under these fatal impressions brings about, by its all-powerful sympathetic power on our functions, the expected yet dreaded event.

Incubation is observed in many contagious affections; and in hydrophobia its duration is amazing, this dreadful malady developing itself years after the original accident. In mental diseases, aberrations of the intellectual faculties are noticed long before the patient can be p.r.o.nounced insane; oddities, as they are called, are frequently the precursors of mania.

The ancient Greeks and Egyptians use the term "incubation" in another sense. With them it expressed the religious ceremony of sleeping in the temples of the G.o.ds, to be inspired with the means of relieving their sufferings. Nothing can express this superst.i.tious rite more forcibly than the following letter from Aspasia to Pericles, recorded by one of the scholiasts of aelian.

"Aspasia to Pericles, greeting. Podalirius! Podalirius, to whom Love taught the art of healing, and who in return didst consecrate thine art to Love, I return thee my thanks. Athens will once more see me beauteous! I shall have lost none of my attractions, and Pericles shall find in his Aspasia all that he once held dear! Podalirius, I return thee my thanks; and thou, Pericles, be grateful to my benefactor. I did not wish to write to thee until I was certain that I had been cured. I shall relate to thee my voyage. I punctually followed the instructions of Nocrates, that wise and enlightened physician. I first repaired to Memphis, where I visited, but without success, the temple of Isis. I there beheld the G.o.ddess, and her son Orus, seated on a throne, supported by two lions. The _Sebestus_[23] grew round her shrine! Incense was burnt in the morning, myrrha during the day, and cyplis at eve. I was a.s.sured that young Alexander had come to this temple not long before to indulge in a holy contemplation, and learn by inspiration the means of curing his friend Ptolemy: his supplications were heeded. I also slept in the temple, but found no relief. This misfortune, alas! was attributed to my incredulity.

I took my departure, and repaired to Patras. There I saw in her temple the divine Hygeia; not as she was represented by Aristophanes, when she relieved Plutus, sweet and graceful, clothed in an aerial robe and a short tunic, and holding in her hand a cup of _Musa_, whence a serpent was seen to spring, but she appeared to me in the form of a mysterious pentagon. I first paid a devout visit to the fountain; and while I deposited my offerings at the feet of the G.o.ddess, a mirror was floating on the surface of the waters upon which I gazed by order of the priests, but I was not cured! Thence I went to sleep at Pergania and at Hercyna. But the G.o.ds seemed to slumber when Aspasia slept! On a sudden the name of Podalirius struck mine ear! I was informed that his temple was at Lacera. I instantly sought it; and, on my arrival, bathed in the Althonus. After the bath, I was anointed with the perfumed balsams that our friend Sosinius had given me in the temple of Mercury the day I left Athens. I then put up my prayers to deserve the favour I implored from the G.o.d. At nightfall I sought repose on the skin of a ram close to the statuary pillar. I soon found myself in that state when we are no longer wide awake, but when sleep has not yet lulled our senses to repose. Methought that a celestial light was shed around me. aesculapius appeared to me with his two daughters; and, from the clouds that surrounded him, he promised me my pristine health. I soon after fell into a profound sleep; but towards the break of day I beheld Cypris--Cypris who was always the friend of Podalirius: she came herself! I recognised her, although she had a.s.sumed the form of a gentle dove. Yes, Cypris came to cure me. Podalirius!

aesculapius! Cypris! each day shall you be thanked by Aspasia and by Pericles.

"I must now relate to thee the vision of a Daunian, who slept near me. She suffered from an affection of her breast, and this she dreamed:--She beheld the young G.o.d Harpocrates lying on leaves of lotos, and covered with bandages from the head to the feet. He appeared weak and emaciated; he cried like an infant, supplicating the poor woman to nurse him. Soon after, she dreamt that a lamb came to seek his sustenance from her bosom.

The dream was fulfilled,--it clearly indicated the use of a certain plant; but, until it could be obtained, the Daunian was advised to eat nothing but stewed raisins. Learn that here various names are given to various inspirations. The last dream I have related is called _allegorical_. When a dream prescribes a certain remedy, it is named _theorematic_. Here are many dreams: wise Pericles, thou art perhaps smiling at them; but what is _not_ visionary is my perfect recovery, and my love for thee. Farewell!"

Although this letter of Aspasia is an evident fiction, yet it gives an excellent, though a romantic description of the incubation of the ancients. Aspasia was supposed to be labouring under one of the most vexatious disorders that can affect a pretty woman,--an eruption in the face; hence the G.o.ds sent her a mirror, that her devotion might be increased by her unsightly appearance. It is not improbable that in those days, as in the present era, women of a certain, or rather an uncertain age, were more fervid in their endeavours to render themselves acceptable to Heaven when they ceased to be admired and sought for upon earth.

QUACKERY AND CHARLATANISM.

The origin of the word "quack" is not ascertained. Johnson derives it from the verb "_to quack_, or gabble like a goose." Butler uses this verb as descriptive of the encomiums empirics heap upon their nostrums. Thus in Hudibras:

Believe mechanic Virtuosi Can raise them mountains in Potosi, Seek out for plants with signatures To _quack_ of universal cures.

The word _charlatan_ is equally enveloped in obscurity. Furetiere and Calepin say that it is derived from the Italian word _Ceretano_, from _Caeretum_, a town near Spoleto, whence a band of impostors first sallied forth, marching under the banners of Hippocrates, and roving from town to town, selling drugs and giving medical advice.[24] Menage has it that _charlatan_ springs from _Circulata.n.u.s_, from _Circulator_. Other etymologists trace it to the Italian _Ciarlare_, to chatter; hence _Ciarlatan_.

The Romans called their quacks _Agyrtae_, or _Seplasiarii_, from _Seplasium_, the generic name of aromatic substances. _Seplasium_ was the place where they vended their drugs. Thus Martial:

Quodque ab Adumaeis vectum _seplasia_ vendunt, Et quidquid confert medicis lagaea cataplus.

An empiric was also called _Pla.n.u.s_ and _Circulator_ "_unde Plani unde levatores_."

Some of the stratagems resorted to by needy empirics to get into practice are very ingenious, and many a regular physician has been obliged to have recourse to similar artifices to procure employment. It is related of a Parisian physician, that, on his first arrival in the capital, he was in the habit of sending his servant in a carriage about daybreak to rap at the doors of the princ.i.p.al mansions to inquire for his master, as he was sent for to repair instantly to such and such a prince, who was dying. The drowsy porter naturally replied, with much ill-humour, "that he knew nothing of his master."--"What! did he not pa.s.s the night in this house?"

replied the footman, apparently astonished. "No," gruffly answered the Swiss; "there's n.o.body ill here."--"Then I must have mistaken the house.

Is not this the hotel of the Duke of ----?"--"No. Go to the devil!"

exclaimed the porter, closing the ponderous gates. From this house his valet then proceeded from street to street, alarming the whole neighbourhood with his loud rap. Of course nothing else was spoken of in the porter's lodge, the grocer's shop, and the servants' hall for nine days.

Another quack, upon his arrival in a town, announced himself by sending the bellman round, offering fifty guineas reward for a poodle belonging to Doctor ----, Physician to his Majesty and the Royal Family, Professor of Medicine, and Surgeon General, who had put up at such and such an inn. Of course the physician of a king, who could give fifty guineas for a lost dog, must be a man of pre-eminence in his profession.

Another indigent physician having complained of his ill-fortune to an ingenious friend, received the following advice: The _Cafe de la Regence_ is now in fas.h.i.+on: I play at chess every day at two o'clock, when a considerable crowd is a.s.sembled. Come there at the same hour; do not pretend to know me; call for a cup of coffee, and always pay the waiter his money in a rose-coloured paper: leave the rest to me. The doctor followed his advice; and his eccentric manners were soon observed,--when his friend informed the persons around him, that he was one of the ablest pract.i.tioners in the land; that he had known him for upwards of fifteen years, and that his cures were most marvellous,--his extreme modesty alone having prevented him from giving publicity to his abilities. He further added, I have long wished to become intimate with so great a man; but he is so absorbed in the study of his profession, that he scarcely ever enters into conversation with any one. In a short time, the Rose-colour Doctor was in extensive business.

Many years ago, the jaw-breaking words _Tetrachymagogon_ and _Fellino Guffino Cardimo Cardimac Frames_, were chalked all over London, as two miracle-working doctors. Men with such names must have some superior qualification, and numbers flocked to consult them. Another quack put up as an advertis.e.m.e.nt, that he had just arrived in town, after having made the wonderful discovery of the green and red dragon and the female fern-seed. This was sure to attract notice. An advertis.e.m.e.nt was handed about of a learned physician, "who had studied thirty years by candle-light for the good of his countrymen." He was, moreover, the seventh son of a seventh son, and was possessed of a wonderful cure for hernia, as both his father and his grandfather had been ruptured. This reminds one of the oculist in Mouse Alley, mentioned in the Spectator, who undertook to cure cataracts, in consequence of his having lost an eye in the Imperial service. Dr. Case made a fortune by having the lines, _Within this place, lives Doctor Case_, written in large characters upon his door.

The accidental circ.u.mstances which frequently bring medical men into extensive practice, or that notoriety which may lead to it, are truly curious. It is well known that a most eminent English physician owed all his success to his having been on a particular occasion in a state of intoxication. Disappointed on his first arrival in London, he sought comfort in a neighbouring tavern, where the servant of the house at which he lodged went to fetch him one evening, after a heavy potation, to see a certain countess. The high-sounding t.i.tle of this unexpected patient tended not a little to increase the excitement under which he laboured. He followed a livery footman as steadily as he could, and was ushered in silence into a n.o.ble mansion, where her ladys.h.i.+p's woman anxiously waited to conduct him most discreetly to her mistress's room; her agitation most probably preventing her from perceiving the doctor's state. He was introduced into a splendid bedchamber, and staggered towards the bed in which the lady lay. He went through the routine practice of pulse-feeling, &c., and proceeded to the table to write a prescription, which, in all probability, would have been mechanically correct. But here his powers failed him. In vain he strove to trace the salutary characters, until, wearied in his attempts, he cast down the pen, and, exclaiming "Drunk, by G--!" he made his best way out of the house. Two days afterwards he was not a little surprised by receiving a letter from the lady, enclosing a check for 100_l._, and promising him the patronage of her family and friends, if he would observe the strictest secrecy on the state he found her in. The fact simply was, that the countess had been indulging in brandy and laudanum, which her abigail had procured for her, and was herself in the very condition which the doctor had frankly applied to himself.

Chance, more than science or ability, has frequently brought professional men to the summit of their business. There is an Eastern story of a certain prince who had received from a fairy the faculty of not only a.s.suming whatever appearance he thought proper, but of discerning the wandering spirits of the departed. He had long laboured under a painful chronic disease, that none of the court physicians, ordinary or extraordinary, could relieve; and he resolved to wander about the streets of his capital until he could find some one, regular or irregular, who could alleviate his sufferings. For this purpose he donned the garb and appearance of a dervish. As he was pa.s.sing through one of the princ.i.p.al streets, he was surprised to see it so thronged with ghosts, that, had they been still inhabitants of their former earthly tenements, they must have obstructed the thoroughfare. But what was his amazement and dismay when he saw that they were all grouped with anxious looks round the door of his royal father's physician, haunting, no doubt, the man to whom they attributed their untimely doom. Shocked with the sight, he hurried to another part of the city, where resided another physician of the court, holding the second rank in fas.h.i.+onable estimation. Alas! his gateway was also surrounded with reproachful departed patients. Thunderstruck at such a discovery, and returning thanks to the prophet that he was still in being, despite the practice of these great men, he resolved to submit all the other renowned pract.i.tioners to a similar visit, and he was grieved to find that the scale of ghosts kept pace with the scale of their medical rank. Heartbroken, and despairing of a cure, he was slowly sauntering back to the palace, when, in an obscure street, and on the door of an humble dwelling, he read a doctor's name. One single poor solitary ghost, leaning his despondent cheek upon his fleshless hand, was seated on the doctor's steps. "Alas!" exclaimed the prince, "it is, then, too true that humble merit withers in the shade, while ostentatious ignorance inhabits golden mansions. This poor neglected doctor, who has but one unlucky case to lament, is then the only man in whom I can place confidence." He rapped; the door was opened by the doctor himself, a venerable old man, not rich enough, perhaps, to keep a domestic to answer his infrequent calls. His white locks and flowing beard added to the confidence which his situation had inspired. The elated youth then related at full length all his complicated ailments, and the still more complicated treatment to which he had in vain been submitted. The sapient physician was not illiberal enough to say that the prince's attendants had all been in error, since all mankind may err; but his sarcastic smile, the curl of his lips, and the dubious shake of his h.o.a.ry head, most eloquently told the anxious patient that he considered his former physicians as an ignorant, murderous set of upstarts, only fit to depopulate a community. With a triumphant look he promised a cure, and gave his overjoyed client a much-valued prescription, which he carefully confided to his bosom; after which he expressed his grat.i.tude by pouring upon the doctor's table a purse of golden sequins, which made the old man's blinking eyes s.h.i.+ne as brightly as the coin he beheld in wondrous delight. His joy gave suppleness to his rigid spine, and, after bowing the prince out in the most obsequious manner, he ventured to ask him one humble question: "By what good luck, by what kind planet, had he been recommended to seek his advice?" The prince naturally asked for the reason of so strange a question: to which the worthy doctor replied, with eyes brimful with tears of grat.i.tude, "Oh, sir, because I considered myself the most unfortunate man in Bagdad until this happy moment; for I have been settled in this n.o.ble and wealthy city for these last fifteen years, and have only been able to obtain one single patient."--"Ah!" cried the prince in despair, "then it must be that poor, solitary, unhappy-looking ghost that is now sitting on your steps!"

It has been observed that religious sects have materially contributed to the elevation of physicians in society, and political a.s.sociations have been equally beneficial. The celebrated Mead was the son of a non-conforming minister, who, knowing the influence he possessed over his numerous congregation, brought him up as a physician, in the full confidence of obtaining the splendid result that rewarded the speculation.

His example was followed by several dissenting preachers; among whom we may name Oldfield, Clarke, Nesbitt, Lobb, Munckly, whose sons all rose to extensive and most lucrative practice. At that period, St. Thomas's and Guy's Hospitals were under the government of Dissenters and Whigs; and so soon as any one became a physician to the establishment, his fortune was made. The same advantages attended St. Bartholomew's and Bethlem, both of royal foundation.

Dr. Meyer Schomberg, who was a poor Jew of Cologne, came to London without any profession, when, not knowing what to do to obtain a living, to use his own words, he said, "I am a physician;" and, having thus conferred a degree upon himself, he sedulously cultivated the acquaintance of all his fellow Jews about Duke's-place, got introduced to some of their leading and wealthy mercantile brethren, and a few years after Dr. Schomberg was in the annual receipt of four thousand pounds. It is rather strange, but the Jew was succeeded in his lucrative practice by a Quaker. This was the celebrated Dr. Fothergill. Brought up an apothecary, he took out a Scotch degree, and, attaching himself to Schomberg, calculated on following his example; and, on his patron's decease, he slipped into the practice of both Jew and Gentile.

Amongst many singular instances of good fortune may be mentioned a surgeon of the name of Broughton, to whom our East India Company may consider themselves as most indebted, since he was the person who first pointed out the advantages that might result from trading in Bengal. Broughton happened to travel from Surat to Agra in the year 1636, when he had the luck to cure one of the daughters of the Emperor _Shah-Jehan_. To reward him, this prince allowed him a free trade throughout his dominions.

Broughton immediately repaired to Bengal to purchase goods, which he sent round by sea to Surat. Scarcely had he returned, when he was requested to attend the favourite of a powerful nabob, and he fortunately restored her to health, when, in addition to a pension, his commercial privileges were still more widely extended; the prince promising him at the same time a favourable reception for British traders. Broughton lost no time in communicating this intelligence to the Governor of Surat; and it was by his advice that the company sent out two large s.h.i.+ps to Bengal in 1640.