J. Antall szerk.: Medical history in Hungary. Presented to the XXII. International Congress for the History of Medicine / Orvostörténeti Közlemények – Supplementum 4. (Budapest, 1970)
ESSAYS-LECTURES - G. Buzinkay: Sanitary References in Kelemen Mikes's Letters from Turkey (in English)
architecture of baths, and bathing life—is a neglected subject [25], "We left Rodostó for four days"—he begins his account, —"and went four miles to drink acid water . But first I have to tell you for what reason we drank acid water. Not far from here there is a plashy place the length and width of which may be 15 fathoms. At this time of the year those who suffer from some ailment take a bath in the mud. People from as far as forty, fifty miles from here come with their wives and children on carts. Some twenty or thirty carts could be seen around the mud, with a number of women, men and children in them lying about like pigs. You can fancy what they are like when they come out of the mud. For it is nothing but mere hard, black mud into which one must force his way. I don't know how it came about, but according to the inhabitants, this is very useful. Although I haven't seen if it had been of any use to anybody , I myself went into that hideous mud with the others, not because I needed it but that I could say I had been lying about in the mud. And in summer that mud is a much-liked amusement place of buffalos. But the Greek priests, in order to get a couple of polturas, say that the water must be consecrated first, or else it won't be effective. But all this is not enough, for getting up from that hideous mud one must go to the acrid water, according to tradition and by command of Hippocrates, and drink from that as much as one can for three days, if one wants to become pure like chrystal. That is why we went there, following a time-honoured custom of the people of the earth, founding at least two hundred men, women and children there. But since the Greek priests miss no chance of getting a few polturas, this water must also be consecrated, because failing to do so it wouldn't be effective. Though the water pours out from among rocks, still it is not clean, and the many people there stirring it they drink muddy water. So on getting there we also began to drink, and a huge kettle full of water was put on fire, since it must be drunk when warm. And we were many who drank it. But what an acrid water it was, my dear aunt! It goes well with mud, since if the one is hideous, the other is disgusting. First we thought that it was an acrid water similar to the one we had, but when we tasted it we found that not a drop of it can be drunk, for it is all salty water only, and bad-tasting at that. However, bit by bit every one of us managed to drink twelve ejtels [26] of it by the end of the third day. Some of us drank even more, for he who drinks the most will be purged the most. One must drink the water until dinner, and till that time one must walk or run so that it could be more effective. Master Forgács [27], being unable to accomplish either of them, sat on horseback and made his horse gallop, getting himself shaken thus, and when he felt the water was to work, he got off the horse. You may believe we laughed at him a lot. But what I don't know is whether this consecrated acrid water produces any effect on us. Even if it does I won't care for it, for I am healthy. I know that it had not any effect on two sick people, one of them felt worse after taking it, the other was dying. Is there a medicine that cures every kind of illness ? But there are ones that do harm" [28], Despite this opinion he visited this place together with the court every year, and seven years after the first report he still had the same devastating opinion. Several times he had to write about the plague, since the Turkey of the first half of the eighteenth century was so often visited by this epidemic that Rákóczi characterized it with the attribute "incessant" [29], According to Mikes's brief 98
